This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. VII, No. 5, March 4-10, 2007
Analysis
Political
Killings as State Policy
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 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 © 2007 Bulatlat
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The Logic of Killers
Bulatlat