This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 39, November 6-12, 2005
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)
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 © 2005 Bulatlat
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Posted by Bulatlat