Analysis

Political Killings as State Policy
The Logic of Killers

One only needs to analyze the statements of Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon to realize that extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances are all part of state policy.

BY BENJIE OLIVEROS
Bulatlat

The issue of political killings continues to hound the Arroyo administration. And rightfully so, because gauging from the reactions of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Department of Justice (DoJ), the horrible crimes of extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances seem to be far from being solved.

UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions Philip Alston underestimated the gravity of the problem when he compared the AFP to an alcoholic who is in a state of denial.  Without assistance in rehabilitation, an alcoholic feels helpless because he is addicted to drinking. Extrajudicial executions, on the other hand, are consciously and systematically being done as part of the Arroyo administration’s counterinsurgency program called Oplan Bantay Laya (Operation Guard Freedom). The only thing common in them is the denial that the problem exists.    

One only needs to analyze the statements of Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, and AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon to realize that extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances are all part of state policy.

Justice Sec. Raul Gonzalez is in a league of his own although he is quick to defend the government. He says something terribly stupid like calling Alston a “muchacho” and still looks as if he is the god of logic. All those jokes about lawyers pale in comparison to what he does and says.    

But going back to the government’s line: first, the government denies that the AFP is involved in political killings and points to a supposed “internal purge” by the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) as the culprit. Why the CPP-NPA is trying to kill hundreds of its members and still hopes to win the revolution is something only Malacañang and the AFP can imagine.

 Second, government argues that Alston and the international community should understand that the government has been battling an insurgency. By doing so, it appears to be justifying political killings by the fact that it is waging a war against insurgents! Because if political killings are not part of the government’s counterinsurgency program, what is it that the international community needs to understand? 

Third, government accuses the victims of being “communists” and the organizations they belong to as “front organizations.” The AFP even showed a video of Jose Maria Sison allegedly enumerating the organizations which have been subjected to attacks as part of the “legal democratic movement.”  It’s as if the government is saying that the victims deserve to die because they are communists anyway.  Brutally stupid as it may sound, this is the logic of U.S. counterinsurgency and counterterrorist strategy: that by being “terrorists” the insurgent forfeits his or her life.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, on the other hand, condemns political killings but praises Palparan and defends 99.99 percent of the AFP. But the small fraction of the AFP cannot plan and commit political killings without the knowledge and order of the commanding officers especially at the scale it is being done.  And after all the investigations that have been done, including that of Alston and the government’s Commission on Human Rights, she still calls for further investigation.  It has been said in management books that if a manager wants to avoid making a decision, he or she forms a committee.  In the context of politics, an official who does not want to address a problem ends up calling for more investigation.

Solving political killings

Extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances must stop.  It has no place in a civilized world and degrades our humanity. It violates the most basic of rights.  Not even an insurgency, a civil war or an international conflict can justify the commission of such horrible crimes. Even combatants in a war who are rendered as hors de combat or who has lost the ability to fight are protected under international humanitarian law and cannot be killed arbitrarily. Civilians, even if they believe in the same principles as a revolutionary movement but have not taken up arms, cannot be killed or forcibly abducted.

The spate of extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances already constitutes crimes against humanity. 

To put a stop to the political killings and forced disappearances, the Arroyo administration cannot simply ignore two important recommendations of Alston: to review its counterinsurgency program and to create space for the Left to participate in the party-list system.  If the President is sincere in solving political killings, she should call for a review and reorientation of Oplan Bantay Laya, threaten military officers with court martial for treason or dishonorable dismissal for refusing to obey the order of their commander-in-chief if political killings persist in their areas of responsibility, and immediately prosecute those deemed responsible.  It should also stop all harassments directed against progressive party-list groups and prosecute all those responsible for committing such acts.

The proposed special courts and the strengthening of the justice department’s witness protection program will only be effective if the Arroyo administration shows its seriousness in prosecuting the perpetrators.  If the justice secretary keeps on shooting from the hip, if the Philippine National Police (PNP) continues to cover-up for the AFP, and Macapagal-Arroyo keeps on defending the AFP even as investigations show their culpability for the spate of political killings, then the courts will be useless and witnesses would still not trust the government.

If the U.S., which recently added its voice in the growing concern of the international community over the spate of political killings in the country, is serious in addressing the problem, it can suspend all military and economic aid to the government until the issue is seriously addressed.  It can also suspend all joint military exercises and training. 

The U.S. armed forces supposedly has an existing policy of not training foreign armies notorious for human rights violations after its School of the Americas, its training facility for armies in Central and South America, was exposed to be a training ground for death squads and torturers. Then again, this policy has never been followed.  

The U.S. can also use its military advisers in the Joint U.S. Military Assistance Group (JUSMAG) and the Security Engagement Board to pressure their AFP counterparts to put a stop to political killings and review its counterinsurgency program which, after all, is based on U.S. counterinsurgency strategies. 

That is, if the Arroyo and Bush administrations are really serious in putting a stop to political killings and forced disappearances. Are they? Bulatlat

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