This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 7, March 20-26, 2005
News
Analysis
War on Terror as Reign of Terror
In Central Luzon north of
Manila, there’s hardly a week without a throng of mourners joining a funeral to
bury someone. That someone is a farm worker, a peasant leader, even a priest or
a city councilor. Most of those to be buried are affiliated with progressive
party-list groups. All were felled by an assassin’s bullet.
By
Bobby Tuazon In Central Luzon north of Manila,
there’s hardly a week without a throng of mourners ambling their way in a
funeral to bury someone. That someone is a farm worker, a peasant leader,
even a priest or a city councilor. Most of those to be buried are
affiliated with progressive party-list groups. All were felled by an
assassin’s bullet. All killings were executed professionally. In varying
degrees, similar scenes are taking place in other provinces – in La Union,
Leyte, Quezon and elsewhere. Since January this year, at least 13 have been
buried in Central Luzon region alone; others were abducted without a trace.
Similar cases have happened elsewhere. Romeo T. Capulong, a well-known human
rights lawyer and UN judge ad litem, nearly met the same fate in Nueva
Ecija: his would-be assassins sped away on board a van after sensing that the
lawyer’s house was guarded by sympathetic barangay tanods (village
security unit). In just two weeks, three of the victims were
gunned down one after the other: Young Tarlac Councilor Abelardo Ladera, Fr.
William Tadena and peasant leader Victor “Tang Ben” Concepcion. All three had
supported the strike of the farm workers at Hacienda Luisita, 120 kms north of
Manila. Though sickly at 67, Concepcion was serving as secretary general of the
peasant group Aguman da reng Maglalautang Capampangan and coordinator of the
Anakpawis political party when he was assassinated in Angeles City. The dead and those who have disappeared are no
ordinary souls – they earned the ire of the powers-that-be for fighting a cause.
That cause is either asking for what is rightfully theirs – decent wages and a
small lot to farm, as in Hacienda Luisita; or protesting human rights violations
and the militarization of many rural towns; or organizing communities for the
next electoral struggle. All were unarmed, were loved by their mass of
constituents and belonged to legitimate and increasingly popular organizations.
They were outspoken against other issues – like the onerous VAT that the
government wants enforced for debt-servicing or the continuing war games between
government and U.S. forces that infringe on the country’s sovereignty. Politically-motivated In short, their killings were
politically-motivated. This is no martial law - but it could be worse than
martial law itself. Is it low-intensity conflict (LIC) Part 2 or is it the
“Indonesian solution”? In a country that has seen no real difference
between the martial law period in the 1970s-1980s and today in terms of
continuing rights violations, the recent killings, disappearances and other
human rights cases appear to be premeditated by a campaign to stifle dissent and
dismantle the legal apparatus of the progressive movement in the Philippines. Under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the
killing and abduction of progressive leaders and activists who are affiliated
with the people’s democratic movement (now totaling, conservatively, at least
300) all over the country began to escalate after Bayan Muna (people first)
topped the May 2001 party-list elections. The spate of killings where the
victims included human rights advocates, lawyers and local officials began in
Oriental Mindoro, an island province west of Manila. Shortly thereafter, a newsletter of the Armed
Forces of the Philippines (AFP) named several people’s organizations and
party-list groups – the same groups that helped bring Macapagal-Arroyo to the
presidency in the successful oust-Estrada movement – as “terrorist” groups that
should be “neutralized.” “Neutralize” in the military parlance is to be silenced
or, in the fascist mindset, to mark for “liquidation.” War on terror Macapagal-Arroyo’s “war on terror” – launched
following U.S. President George W. Bush’s declaring the Philippines as the
“second front” in his global and indefinite “war on terror” – began to target
not only the bandit Abu Sayyaf group but also militant leaders and activists. In
her national security policy, militant people’s organizations were lumped with
the New People’s Army (NPA) as the country’s top “national security threat” even
as the NPA itself, through the recommendation of defense and military officials,
was included in the foreign terrorist organization lists of the U.S. state
department and other foreign governments. Activists cannot forget the time when the
President called labor leader and now representative Crispin Beltran as a
“communist” simply because he disagreed with her anti-people policies and was
supporting a transport strike. With this tag, Beltran became a fair target of
military assassination. The renewed counter-insurgency policy – now
renamed as “anti-terror” campaign – adopted by Macapagal-Arroyo and AFP
intensified the use of psywar tactics to demonize the legitimate people’s
organizations particularly the party-list groups as “terrorist” or “terrorist
fronts.” At the same time, the AFP called for the organizing of more
paramilitary units even as, coincidentally, the arming and deployment of
anti-communist fanatics and vigilantes – often including members of factions who
had bolted from the NPA – was also begun. Meantime, U.S. military aid was
increased and U.S.-directed military training began to focus on
counter-insurgency strategy and tactics. Most recently, the joint war exercises
began to be held in known NPA turfs such as in Central and Southern Luzon. No coincidence It was no coincidence that as this national
security policy was – and continues to be – in effect, scores of extra-judicial
killings and abductions involving mass leaders and activists took place. But
this demonization and vicious campaign directed against government’s most
effective critics and adversary proved to be not the only component of
government’s security policy. The brutal solution to political dissent and the
revolutionary movement also required legitimization a la Marcos PDs through the
enactment of an anti-terrorism bill (ATB) and the revival of the bill for a
national ID system. Essentially the ATB seeks to eliminate the boundary between
simple political dissent and “terrorism” and equate the assertion of one’s bill
of rights with abetting - or as an act of - terrorism. Now the AFP hierarchy
wants a media gag on the coverage of “terrorist,” i.e. critical issues, included
in the proposed ATB. While the use of violence has become rampant,
the government is luring the underground Left through the National Democratic
Front of the Philippines (NDFP) to go back to the peace negotiations. But the
objective of the government and defense-military officials is to pressure the
NDFP to capitulate. To do this, government is escalating the use of violence
against the Left’s alleged front organizations while dangling the terrorist
label: The underground Left including NDFP senior political consultant Jose
Maria Sison will be scrapped from the list if they capitulate. The spate of killings reportedly perpetrated
by the military and other state forces has not gone unnoticed in Congress, the
Commission on Human Rights, the justice department as well as in a number of
international bodies and rights watchdogs such as the Amnesty International most
of whom agree that government forces are leading human rights violators. But a
general policy of denial, indifference and arrogance pervades at the highest
levels of government and, in fact, Macapagal-Arroyo herself is endorsing the
reign of terror against legitimate dissent by rewarding the alleged perpetrators
from the AFP with promotions and constant pledges of salary increases and other
perks. AFP generals often twist facts and underestimate the intelligence of
ordinary Filipinos by blaming the NPA for the crimes ostensibly to generate
popular outrage and take more recruits into its ranks. Logistics and record The systematic killing of mass leaders and
activists can be sustained on a nationwide scale only by an institution that has
both the logistics and the carte blanche or blanket authority to commit such
atrocities with impunity without being held accountable. It is the AFP, based on
human rights reports here and abroad, that has the record of atrocities which
appear to be backed by a security policy and which began with Marcos rule and
was continued by the dictator’s successors’ “total war” policy and “war on
terror.” As Judge Capulong would put it, one does not need concrete evidence to
prove that state terrorism is taking place all over the country – the “pattern
and practice” of endless killings and abductions already attests to it. In Central Luzon, the Luisita land and labor
issues and government’s own interest to build a multi-million highway linking
the region’s so-called industrial and trade zones harmonized with the military’s
anti-terror campaign. This confluence of interests has erupted in mass killings
– 12 have so far been murdered there including the seven farm workers who were
massacred by security forces on Nov. 16 last year. The Cojuangco-Aquino family
which owns the Hacienda Luisita is closely allied to the incumbent President. But if government believes that its
provocative actions and the application of what by indications is increasingly
an “Indonesian solution”* will force the Left to finally give up its cause then
it should perhaps think again. Repression during the Marcos dictatorship enraged
the people more. As the guerrillas said then, Marcos became the biggest
recruiter for the NPA. Bulatlat (* “Indonesian solution”
refers to the CIA-backed summary execution of some 500,000 suspected communists
in Indonesia in 1965, with the chief architect, General Soeharto, taking power
thereafter. The Soeharto dictatorship, supported by the
U.S. government, lasted until 1998.) © 2004 Bulatlat
■
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