Human Rights Abuses in the Philippines:
Shades of El Salvador, Vietnam
Is there a U.S. hand in
the current wave of human rights violations in the country? The answer is
yes, and this is not just based on the country’s history of state fascism,
but also the experience of other countries like El Salvador and Vietnam.
BY ECUMENICAL INSTITUTE
FOR LABOR EDUCATION AND RESEARCH (EILER)
Posted by Bulatlat
Every Philippine
government has resorted to employing death squads every time the people’s
movement makes great strides. In the 1950s, while peasant uprisings were
on the upswing, there were the “skull squadrons” of Colonel Valeriano that
terrorized the people of Central Luzon. Then there were the “Monkees,”
“Military Lost Command,” the hit squads of the Military Intelligence Group
(MIG), National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) and others during
the Marcos dictatorship. Human rights groups estimate that the Marcos
dictatorship was accountable for 1,166 killings from 1972 to 1983 alone.[i]
This is surely apart from those summarily executed and massacred by the
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) during military operations and the
numerous cases of desaparecidos (disappeared).
During the Aquino
administration (1986-1992), death squads like the paramilitary Citizens
Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) and vigilante groups like the Alsa
Masa (Uprising of the Masses) and Nakasaka (United People for Peace) were
organized. The Aquino administration’s endorsement of their activities
reflects its adherence to a “total war policy” against the progressive
movement.
The U.S. is behind
the use of death squads in the Philippines as a counterinsurgency measure.
Colonel Edward Lansdale, an operative of the Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA), masterminded the 1950s counter-insurgency program of the Philippine
government. Lansdale brought his
expertise gained from his experience in the Philippines to Indo-China to help
implement the brutal counterinsurgency program called Operation Phoenix in
Vietnam.
The role of the U.S.
in the vicious counterinsurgency program Oplan Lambat-Bitag
(Operation-Plan Net Trap) of the Aquino administration is no secret
either. The features of the program show that the U.S. tried to replicate
its “EL Salvador Solution” to defeat the progressive movement after the
ouster of the late President Ferdinand Marcos. This includes installing
Corazon Aquino as a pliant instrument to shield the state’s fascism like
it did in installing the pseudo-democrat Jose Napoleon Duarte as President
of El Salvador to camouflage the atrocious activities of the fascist
d’Abuisson death squad gangs that terrorized the people of El Salvador in
the 1980s.[ii]
A U.S. newspaper
reported that the U.S. government’s involvement in Oplan Lambat Bitag
included psychological warfare (psywar) operations and the formation of
vigilante groups and other death squads. It pointed to the United States
Information Agency’s (USIA) activities in psywar operations like
distributing anti-communist films and written materials.[iii]
However, perhaps the most direct and concrete evidence linking the U.S. to
the death squads was U.S. President Ronald Reagan’s March 1986 approval of
increased CIA involvement in Philippine counterinsurgency operations.
Following the visit of Vietnam War veteran Major General John Singlaub,
the Aquino administration appointed Jaime Ferrer as Secretary of the
Department of Interior and Local Government. Secretary Ferrer justified
and encouraged the formation and activities of the death squads and he
became their virtual godfather. Aquino also appointed General Rafael Ileto
as Secretary of National Defense to oversee the implementation of “total
war.”
Former U.S. Attorney
General Ramsey Clark investigated the activities of the death squads in
1987 and wrote in June that year that “the victims of vigilante violence
were overwhelmingly poor farmers, slum dwellers and others who are pushing
for significant land reform, wage increase and protection of workers
rights, as well as those who oppose U.S. military bases in the
Philippines.”[iv]
The persistent
campaigns of the progressive organizations and civil libertarians to
expose the fascism of the Aquino regime, the people’s militant assertion
of their democratic rights and the active support of the friends of
peoples oppressed by imperialism abroad like Ramsey Clark, exposed the
brutality of “total war.” This forced the U.S. and the local ruling elite
to retreat temporarily and reduce the activities of the death squads.
However, beginning
from the last quarter of 2004, attacks against members of cause-oriented
groups intensified anew under the present Arroyo administration. This
coincided with the achievement of extraordinary growth in strength made by
the revolutionary movement after years of gradual advance. Kidnapping and
murder of known activists, workers, peasants, youth and students, human
rights lawyers, members of progressive party-list organizations like Bayan
Muna (People First), AnakPawis (Toiling Masses) and Gabriela, journalists
and even religious people, occurred almost daily. The brutality of this
resurrected terrorism is unparalleled in the country’s history.
Contrary to what the
Arroyo regime claims, the pattern of these killings and kidnappings shows
that these are related incidents undertaken by “vigilante groups.” The
facts show that this is a centralized
campaign funded and organized at highest levels of the state’s leadership.
The attacks are nationwide in scope and there is tight coordination
and clear focus. Arroyo appointed human rights violators of the AFP to
areas where the brutal killings are concentrated. The killings immediately
intensified right after the said appointments and she remained silent on
such brutalities even amidst international condemnation.
Indicators also show
that selected members of the AFP constitute the personnel of these death
squads. First, the worst killings and
kidnappings are in places pointed out by the AFP’s national leadership as
priority areas for counterinsurgency. Second, the AFP is pouring its
personnel and logistics in these areas. Third, it is also in these areas
where the AFP is concentrating its campaigns and operations like in
Mindoro and Southern Tagalog from 2001 to 2004, and in Central Luzon
starting from the last quarter of 2004. Fourth, intensified intelligence
operations, intimidation and anti-communist black propaganda complemented
the killings.
The renewed attacks
came after the newly-established spy agency Counter Terrorism Center – led
by former U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines John Negroponte – declared
that the Philippines is one of the priority targets of the center’s
activities. It also followed U.S. President George Bush’s declaration of
the national democratic movement including the legal democratic
organizations with national democratic principles and aspirations as
terrorists organizations; and that these are targets of the U.S.’ “global
war against terrorism.”
The overall pattern
of this renewed fascist campaign is similar to Operation Phoenix authored
and implemented by the CIA to defeat the national democratic forces during
the last years of the Vietnam War.
The aims are similar
– to dismantle systematically the “political infrastructure” of the
national democratic movement by liquidating and kidnapping those perceived
to be sympathizers, supporters, unarmed leaders and members of the
movement. During its height, Operation Phoenix targeted the liquidation of
1,800 activists per month.[v]
William E. Colby[vi]
on 19 July 1971, before a Senate Subcommittee testified that the CIA’s
Operation Phoenix resulted in the killing of 21,587 Vietnamese citizens
between January 1968 and May 1971.[vii]
Likewise, the
structure, pre-determined areas of operations and the secret nature of the
hit squads are similar to those of the regional, provincial and district
Intelligence Operations Coordinating Centers (IOCCs) secretly organized by
the CIA within the ranks of the regional, provincial and district level
units of the Army of South Vietnam (ARVN) tasked to execute the
liquidations and kidnappings.
Another similarity is
intensified intelligence operations; the CIA put premium on intelligence
operations as indispensable elements of the campaign. The agency
established the Combined Intelligence Center to construct a “political
order of battle”[viii]
and also established clearing houses within the IOCCs to review, collate
and disseminate intelligence information to the hit squads. President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s forcing Philippine Congress to pass a law
requiring a national ID system is without doubt aimed at intelligence
gathering targeting those they suspect to be part of the progressive
movement.
The regime hopes that
this renewed fascism can silence the increasing people’s resistance. The
U.S., on the other hand, hopes that this can derail the advance of the
national democratic movement. Then again, the people are already fed up
with Arroyo’s brutal rule, her subservience to U.S. dictates, the
involvement of her family with widespread corruption and the exposure of
her theft of the 2004 elections. The escalation of daily rallies against
her regime signifies that the people are ready to oust her from power. The
termination of U.S. control of the Philippines is sure to follow in the
end.
Endnotes
========================================
i]
Washington Post, 12 April 1984.
ii]
Installing pseudo-democrats, christened as “third force,” became
the trend in U.S. foreign policy following the rapid spread of
anti-imperialist movements throughout the world, especially in countries
where the U.S. established dictatorships.
[iii]
National Reporter, Fall 1987, pp. 24-31
iv]
The Nation, 19 September 1987, pp. 259-60
[v]
Ralph Mcgehee, “CIABASE Files on Death Squads”
vi]
William Colby was the CIA’s station chief in Saigon and director of the
agency’s East Asia Affairs during the Vietnam War. He was later on
promoted to become the director of the agency.
vii]
Ibid.
viii]
Pertains to their estimate on the movement’s organizational structure,
including the disposition, number and corresponding ranks of the
movement’s personnel.
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