Militants Press Senate to Ratify ICC Treaty 

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s refusal to endorse the International Criminal Court treaty for Senate ratification appears as an admission she is afraid her own armed forces would be brought to trial for alleged human rights violations and that she is under U.S. pressure to reject the agreement outrightly, militant groups said over the weekend. 

BY GERRY ALBERT-CORPUZ
Bulatlat.com

Militant groups supporting an international agreement that would lead to the setting up of the International Criminal Court (ICC) warned Malacañang over the weekend about the consequences of having the pact dumped before it reaches the Senate for ratification.

In separate statements, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas ( KMP-Peasant Movement of the Philippines), the International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS-Philippines), Pamalakaya and student group Nnara-Youth said Malacañang (the presidential office) should endorse the international agreement for Senate' s ratification and a flat refusal, the groups said, would invite a deluge of mass actions and wholesale condemnation both in the Philippines and abroad.

Danilo Ramos, KMP secretary general and International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS-Philippines) chair, scored President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for her non-committal attitude over the international agreement
that would establish the ICC.

"President Macapagal-Arroyo is afraid of ICC because it would punish her military for their own share of crimes against humanity," Ramos said.

Rita Baua, another ILPS-Philippine leader, said the rejection of the international pact will put the regime and the AFP in global spotlight. "It would trigger a deluge of mass actions and criticisms that would put the Macapagal-Arroyo administration in totally embarrassing position," she said.

Baua accused the U.S. government and the "hawks” in the Macapagal-Arroyo clique as principal actors behind the Palace sentiment against the agreement that would lead to the creation of an international tribunal that would hear charges dealing with war crimes.

Not pressured by U.S.?

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye has denied that Macapagal-Arroyo administration’s stand against the establishment of ICC is in compliance with the U.S. Bush administration’s refusal to ratify the treaty.

Bunye told Agence France Presse last week that the Palace' knee jerk reaction to ICC was not in anyway attributed to U.S. threats to withdraw military aid to countries which will ratify the international agreement. Reports said the $60 million military aid committed to the Macapagal-Arroyo government has been reduced by half.

 Macapagal-Arroyo’ss press secretary said the military and police establishmentsare concerned about the implications and consequences the ICC would bringto their forces since they could be charged before the tribunal for actions related to a domestic campaign against Muslim separatist and communist insurgencies.

Bunye said the security forces already have to deal with "so many harassment suits" in connection with the government's fight with local rebels although he admitted that certain state-members of the powerful
European Union have asked the Philippines to sign the treaty.

Senate told: Ratify the treaty

Pamalakaya and Nnara-Youth said the Philippine Senate is politically obliged to ratify the treaty whether the Palace likes it or not.

"The international community of nations are set to ratify the historic agreement for the cause of justice and human rights. The Senate will be committing a major blunder if it adheres to Malacañang's tall order to have the ICC dropped or rejected", said Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap.

Hicap said senators should demand the president to submit the agreement for Senate concurrence immediately. "The hostile reaction of Malacañang and the AFP was an admission of guilt, that government troops in their conduct of military operations have committed gross errors and violations of basic human rights and international humanitarian laws," he said.

The fisherfolk leader said the Macapagal-Arroyo administration's "ultimate rejection" of the treaty was an undeclared confirmation that majority of state troops and government police are full-time mercenaries, lawbreakers
of domestic and international humanitarian laws and accomplished violators of people's rights.

Nnara-Youth secretary general Carl Anthony Ala said "only criminals, terrorists, mercenaries and puppet troops are afraid of ICC that's why the Macapagal-Arroyo administration and its military have "reserved their biggest ambiguity" over the idea of having the ICC to prosecute and try criminals and lawbreakers of international laws guiding the conduct of civil war.

Ala also said the Macapagal-Arroyo government was just following "marching orders" from Washington to drop the treaty and refuse membership with the ICC in the light of the Balikatan exercises and America's increasing military
intervention and possible armed aggression in the tradition of Vietnam war in the 1960's.

Militant groups said that the United States has been on a murderous frenzy over the past 50 years killing over 15 million people worldwide in the name of American hegemony. It said from 1951 to 1975, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has committed over 900 cases of covert terrorist operations against states and government officials critical, opposed or unfriendly to American interests. Bulatlat.com

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