ANALYSIS
Killings A State Policy
It
should be amply evident by now that the killing of Church people, lawyers,
members of people's organizations, and leaders and members of progressive
party-list groups is part of a state policy to eliminate dissenters,
left-wing personalities involved in the electoral process, and political
activists.
By the Center
for People Empowerment in Governance (CENPEG)
Posted by Bulatlat
It should be amply evident by now that the
killing of Church people, lawyers, members of people's organizations, and
leaders and members of progressive party-list groups is part of a state
policy to eliminate dissenters, left-wing personalities involved in the
electoral process, and political activists.
Although implemented prior to the May 2004
elections to prevent leftist party list groups from winning additional
seats in Congress, an added impetus to this state policy is the
involvement of progressive groups in the campaign for the resignation of
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The conclusion that it is the government
that's responsible for the killings is based on several reasons. That
these killings have been systematically carried out, were well-planned,
and committed by well-armed assassins is only one of them.
The Arroyo government, through the Armed
Forces of the Philippines, escalated in 2004 its campaign of demonizing
left-wing party-list groups. In a systematic campaign aimed at
legitimizing the harassment and even murder of political activists, the
AFP also labeled journalists' and Church groups as well as legal people's
organizations "fronts" of the Communist Party. In AFP official
publications and internal communications, these groups, their leaders and
their members were identified for "neutralization" as part of the alleged
"legal machinery" of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
As part of this campaign, but more
immediately to prevent their winning additional seats in Congress, at the
height of the campaign for the May 2004 elections the National Security
Adviser echoed the AFP claims, and even alleged that party- list groups
like Bayan Muna were funding NPA operations.
This campaign must be seen in the context
of the orchestrated effort to curtail civil liberties, press freedom and
individual rights through a host of initiatives that since 2001 have
included:
·
The creation by Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo of a national ID system through an executive order and
without congressional approval;
·
The introduction, mostly
by majority congressmen, of bills in Congress that would impose prior
censorship on Philippine media;
·
The "no permit no rally"
policy and its twin, the "Calibrated Preemptive Response (CPR)" approach
to the dispersal of demonstration in place of the "maximum tolerance"
policy mandated by law; and
·
The anti-terrorism bills
pending in Congress that would allow wire taps, secret raids on
residences, and the interception of private communications, and which
imposes death sentences and huge fines on "terrorist" offenses that now
include harboring suspected terrorists, and hampering the operations of
public utilities.
But Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's steadfast
silence even in the face of five political killings that occurred within a
48-hour period last week speaks at least as loudly as the steps the regime
has been taking. The killings are neither random nor the result of one
general's fascist brutality, but a deliberate, systematic, and
orchestrated policy.
Mrs. Arroyo's has broken her silence over
the killings only twice—once by blaming "the insurgency" for the loss of
tourism opportunities for local communities; and, last week, by ordering
an investigation into the killing of the Hacienda Luisita union president,
in an obvious attempt to link the Aquino family to it.
Mrs. Arroyo's political ploys
notwithstanding, the killings can only be part of a wider effort not only
to terrorize legal progressive organizations and dissenters in general,
but also to eliminate them physically.
Much has been said of an alleged state
policy that allows dissenters to participate in the electoral and
parliamentary process. Until two years ago, the standard AFP line was
that there was no need for any group to take up arms because they can now
"join the mainstream" and fight for their programs, no matter how
progressive, in the legal sphere.
The killings demonstrate that a policy
exactly the opposite of the stated one is in place. They belie the
regime's claim that even leftists can participate in the parliamentary
process, or even in petitioning the government for the redress of
grievances. In the process they validate the thesis of the armed left
wing groups that only by taking up the gun can change be achieved in this
country. Posted by Bulatlat
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