CULTURE

‘Treason’ 101?
Review of Paglaban sa Kataksilan: 1017, a video documentary produced under recommendation of the National Security Council

By government’s own account, the 15-minute video documentary Paglaban sa Kataksilan: 1017 (Fighting Treason: 1017) was produced and is being shown to supposedly explain the need for issuing Proclamation No. 1017, which placed the country under a state of national emergency. But it merely repeats without explaining clearly or showing evidences to prove the claims of the administration. It is reminiscent of the kind of propaganda dished out right after the declaration of Martial Law.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat

By government’s own account, the 15-minute video documentary Paglaban sa Kataksilan: 1017 (Fighting Treason: 1017) was produced and is being shown to explain the supposed need for issuing Proclamation No. 1017, which placed the country under a state of national emergency. “It was one way of showing to the people that (the declaration of a state of emergency) was really demanded by the event,” Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said of the video documentary, the production of which was recommended by the National Security Council (NSC).

The video has been showing at government TV stations for the past few days. A copy of the video may be downloaded at http://www.gov.ph.

A flashback of events immediately preceding and following the issuance of Proclamation No. 1017 is necessary in examining Paglaban sa Kataksilan: 1017.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Feb. 24 Proclamation No. 1017, amid rallies commemorating the 20^th anniversary of the popular uprising now known as EDSA I, which brought down the Marcos dictatorship. Citing an alleged conspiracy between the “extreme left,” represented by the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF), and the “extreme right, represented by ‘military adventurists’,” the proclamation invokes Sec. 18, Art. 7 of the Constitution, which enables the President to call on the armed forces to “prevent or suppress lawless violence, invasion or rebellion,” as well as Sec. 17, Art. 12, which states that: “In times of national emergency, when the public interest so requires, the State may, during the emergency and under reasonable terms prescribed by it, temporarily take over or direct the operation of any privately-owned public utility or business affected with public interest.”

Macapagal-Arroyo issued the proclamation a few hours after Philippine Army Chief Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon announced on television that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) had thwarted a coup attempt by a group of officers allegedly led by Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and Col. Ariel Querubin, both members of the original Young Officers Union (YOU), which also figured in a coup attempt in 1989 against then President Corazon Aquino.

The issuance of Proclamation No. 1017 was used as justification for breaking-up rallies commemorating the EDSA I anniversary as well as subsequent protest actions, the rounding-up of personalities prominent as critics of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration, and police monitoring of media agencies.

Among those arrested while the proclamation was formally in effect were Reps. Crispin Beltran and Joel Virador, retired police generals Ramon Montaño and Rex Piad. Reps. Satur Ocampo, Teddy Casiño, Rafael Mariano, and Liza Maza have had to avail of protective custody at the House of Representatives after eluding arrest Feb. 25 in a press conference of the minority bloc in Congress. They were recently joined by Virador who was brought to the House of Representatives from Davao City where he was arrested.

Professors Randy David and Ronald Llamas, columnist and lawyer Argee Guevarra, and labor leaders Dennis Maga and Marcial Dabela were arrested after police broke up rallies where they negotiated in behalf of their colleagues.

The printing press of The Daily Tribune was raided, while police were deployed at the offices of a number of media agencies including ABS-CBN and Radyo Veritas.

A few days after the issuance of Proclamation No. 1017, Gen. Arturo Lomibao announced that the Philippine National Police (PNP), which he heads, was developing editorial guidelines for coverage of political events. He said the guidelines would continue to be formulated and implemented even if Proclamation No. 1017 should be lifted.

Meanwhile, on March 2, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the “crackdown” (his exact term) on government opponents would continue even after the lifting of Proclamation No. 1017.

Macapagal-Arroyo announced the lifting of the proclamation a day after. But dispersals of protest activities – including what was supposed to be a prayer march of the White Ribbon Movement (WRM)-Manila last March 3, hours after the lifting of the proclamation, and a March 8 rally by the party-list group Akbayan, whose representative Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel was forcibly arrested together with one of its leaders, Joshua Mata – have continued.

It is the issuance of Proclamation No. 1017, which led to these, that Paglaban sa Kataksilan: 1017 aims to justify. In trying to justify the proclamation, Paglaban sa Kataksilan: 1017 makes much of the alleged Left-Right conspiracy to topple the Macapagal-Arroyo administration.

The documentary presents the Feb. 24 commemorative rallies – held by groups from various political shades like Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance), Gloria Stepdown Movement (GSM), WRM, Kilusang Makabansang Ekonomiya (KME or Nationalist Economy Movement), Laban ng Masa (The Masses’ Fight), People’s Movement Against Poverty (PMAP), Union of the Masses for Democracy and Justice (UMDJ), Kilusan para sa Makatarungang Lipunan at Gobyerno (KMLG or Movement for a Just Society and Government), and the Black and White Movement – as part of the coup attempt.

It is now public knowledge that a group of soldiers supposed to be led by Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and Col. Ariel Querubin had intended to join the Feb. 24 rallies and declare withdrawal of support from the Macapagal-Arroyo government. This, so the documentary tries to show, proves the Left-Right conspiracy in a coup plot that was used as basis for issuing Proclamation No. 1017.

The problem with this line is the way the term coup d’ etat is used in the documentary.

Art. 134-A of the Revised Penal Code states thus: “The crime of coup d'etat is a swift attack accompanied by violence, intimidation, threat, strategy or stealth, directed against duly constituted authorities of the Republic of the Philippines, or any military camp or installation, communications network, public utilities or other facilities needed for the exercise and continued possession of power, singly or simultaneously carried out anywhere in the Philippines by any person or persons, belonging to the military or police or holding any public office of employment with or without civilian support or participation for the purpose of seizing or diminishing state power.” Pacifico Agabin, dean of the Lyceum of the Philippines College of Law, said in a recent forum that mere declaration of withdrawal of support by a group of soldiers does not constitute a crime of coup d’ etat.

Another weakness of the documentary is that while it claims to base its supposed revelations on documents seized from 1Lt. Lawrence San Juan – a member of the Magdalo group of rebel soldiers who escaped from prison but was recently recaptured – it does not show these documents.

In an interview that forms part of the documentary, Philippine Army chief Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon claims that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) had obtained from San Juan documents produced from a meeting between the CPP-NPA-NDF and the Magdalo group. The documents, he says, reveal a joint plan of action that goes as far as May 2006 – involving massive protest actions by civilian groups, incapacitation of government officials, and armed takeovers of government offices and vital installations.

Nowhere in the documentary is the viewer allowed even a glimpse into these documents.

The video also paints the campaign against the Macapagal-Arroyo government as solely a conspiracy of the “extreme Left and Right.” But the video shows footages of different groups rallying against the Arroyo administration and even mentions the Hyatt 10 and United Opposition, which were never identified with what it calls as the “extreme Left or Right.”    

Moreover, the video oversimplifies the reasons that fuel the campaign to remove Macapagal-Arroyo from Malacañang. Not once in the documentary is there mention of the issues being raised against Macapagal-Arroyo, namely electoral fraud, the imposition of policies described as “anti-national and anti-people,” corruption, and human rights violations. Nor was there any attempt to answer these accusations. The campaign for Macapagal-Arroyo’s removal from office is depicted as merely a power-grab plot by leftists and rightists in cahoots with each other.

Paglaban sa Kataksilan: 1017 is, by government’s own admission, an effort to justify the issuance of Proclamation No. 1017 which is technically still in effect. Unfortunately for its producers, the video merely repeats without explaining clearly or showing evidences to prove the claims of the administration. It also failed miserably to elaborate on the reasons behind the rounding-up of oppositionists and the muzzling of media. The video is reminiscent of the kind of propaganda dished out right after the declaration of Martial Law. Bulatlat

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