Int’l Tribunal Verdict: Political Killings Stem From Opposition To Arroyo’s Economic Policies

I doubt that Gloria Arroyo is in control of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. She has no political will to fire-out General Eduardo Ermita and his military clique, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, Interim Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales, Defense chief Hermogenes Ebdane and AFP chief General Hermogenes Esperon. The Cabinet Oversight Committee on Internal Security (COC-IS) is responsible for the discredited counterinsurgency Oplan Bantay Laya II. The militarization of Metro Manila’s slum areas is part of Oplan Bantay Laya II to neutralize left wing elements and its supporters. It appears the Philippines bogus President Gloria Arroyo is dragging the US military to fight her all-out war against the communist. Oplan Bantay Laya II is patterned after Vietnam War, CIA inspired-Operation Phoenix.



Int’l Tribunal Verdict: Political Killings Stem From Opposition To Arroyo’s Economic Policies

Written by Antonio Tujan Jr.

Thursday, 29 March 2007

Political killings persist precisely because the government attempts to stop people’s opposition to policies and systems that violate their economic rights. By Antonio Tujan Jr. IBON Features Vol XIII No 7 IBON Features-- The recent verdict of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) found Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo guilty of violating Filipinos’ political and civil rights, as well as their economic rights and right to self-determination. It is important to emphasize the relationship of these violations because it will explain why political killings persist in the country. Under the Arroyo government, domestic production and agriculture remained in depression while joblessness and poverty worsened as it aggressively implements neoliberal reforms. What the verdict of the 7-member jury indicates is this: the current rash of political killings stems from the regime’s attempts to silence opposition to her policies and the resulting economic crisis. For instance, according to the PPT proceedings, in its struggle against extreme poverty, Filipino farmers have organized themselves to claim their rights through the democratic process. But their resistance is met with state repression by increasing military presence in the countryside. Statistics show that almost 60% of the victims of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances are farmer leaders and that these killings are not isolated but planned and systematic. Not surprisingly, the main target of extrajudicial killings (and disappearances, massacres, tortures, etc.) is the legal left. For years, it has steadily represented the people's voice in the national and international arenas in calling for an end to policies and systems that violate economic, social, and cultural rights of Filipinos. Rights groups have recorded more than 800 victims of political killings under the Arroyo administration since 2001. The legal left has been the target in the regime’s campaign to suppress opposition, using the communist bogey and the US-led war on terror as context. Targeting progressive party-lists, people’s organizations, and civil society groups also sends a signal to anti-Arroyo forces without providing the push that would strengthen and incite the opposition further. But as history has shown, amid intense poverty, hunger, unemployment, and landlessness, the efforts of the administration to suppress people’s movements do not decisively weaken opposition ranks but only fuel further social unrest. IBON Features

Gloria Arroyo's RP Economic Wonder?

Gloria Arroyo is day dreaming in her Enchanted Kingdom.The recent hostage drama in Manila reflects the true state of the nation. Malacanang Palace wants s to paint a rosy picture of the Philippines. Gloria Arroyo has zero credibility. Nobody is buying her twisted economic gains.

RP outpaced in growth by Vietnam, Bangladesh during GMA watch

By Alejandro Lichauco

ANALYSIS

03/29/2007

In September last year, the World Bank issued a warning note calling attention that the Philippines “lags behind Asia anew.” (See story WB warns RP lags behind Asia anew, in business section of Tribune, Sept. 13, 2006). The story quotes a “top official” of the World Bank who “expressed amazement at how Vietnam, which once lagged behind the Philippines, had shown remarkable success” in reducing its poverty rate by half in the space of a decade.

Two years earlier, in 2004, a major broadsheet headlined that the IMF pointed to Bangladesh growing faster than the Philippines. (See Bangladesh to grow faster than RP-IMF, Today, April 23, 2004).

About a decade ago, mention Bangladesh and Vietnam and you conjure up images of poverty-stricken people. Today, that, apparently, isn’t so anymore. At the very least, you don’t hear of hunger in those two countries. In the Philippines, rising hunger is now official acknowledged fact. The poverty problem here has mutated into a problem of outright hunger — alarming enough to have prodded Malacañang into announcing that it was allocating P1 billion to finance an anti-hunger program.

The IMF and the World Bank aren’t alone in issuing these embarrassingly dire assessment of the Philippine situation during the watch of GMA. As far back as 2002, a United Nations agency, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, noted the Philippines was the “laggard in Southeast Asia.” (See story UN sees RP as laggard in Southeast Asia, Malaya, April 27, 2002.)

Apparently, the comparative performance of the Philippines hasn’t improved since the UN assessment was made five years ago.

Truth is, the hunger situation here is much worse than what even the poll surveys show. In 2003, the Food and Nutrition Research Institute of the Department of Science and Technology issued a report saying eight out of 10 households in the Philippines are hungry.

There is no question that in spite of the stunning progress made by neighbors in the region, considerable poverty remains. But, except for the Philippines, hunger isn’t part of the economic vocabulary. Here, in contrast, under GMA’s watch, hunger has suddenly become officially acknowledged fact.

That’s something which GMA’s fans, both in and outside government, will have to explain. How come everyone, and that includes Malacañang, is now talking about hunger? One can understand all that talk about poverty. That has been the perennial problem since pre-war times. But never hunger, that is, until now.

Officially acknowledged hunger is the one shattering admission that there is something fundamentally wrong about the economics and the economic performance of this six-year-old government. Hunger was hardly, if ever, mentioned in previous regimes. But it is now, and talked about officially.

And so with hunger talk spreading around, where this isn’t so in neighboring countries, the IMF, the WB and the UN certainly have reason to pronounce that the Philippines has been, or is just about to be, overtaken by countries such as Vietnam and Bangladesh. And that did not happen in previous administrations.

What then could be the explanation? Why should the Philippines, to use the words of the UN, be the “laggard in Southeast Asia?”

The answer has something to do with industrialization.

This writer has a copy of the 2004 issue of the ADB’s Key Indicators and the comparative figures on the industrial growth rates of the Philippines, Bangladesh and Vietnam that tell it all.

Growth Rates of Industrial Sector in percent

2000 2001 2002 2003 Vietnam 10.1 10.4 9.5 10.3 Bangladesh 6.2 7.4 6.5 7.3 Philippines 4.9 0.9 3.7 3.0

Source: ADB Key Indicators 2004, Table 12

How then explain the figures — for the Philippines?

You see, GMA the economist as well as the economists who surround her — mostly if not exclusively from the UP and Ateneo School of Economics — don’t believe in industrialization, period.

The economists of Vietnam and Bangladesh, in contrast and judging by the performance of their industrial sectors, obviously do.

That’s the difference.

Perhaps that’s what GO’s senatorial slate should point out. That is, if it believes in industrialization. The question is, does the opposition? If it does, why doesn’t it present a legislative program focused on industrialization? Daily Tribune 03/29/2007

Related Links:

Behind GMA's Economic Hype, Filipinos' Lives Continue to Worsen
Arroyo’s Six-Year Record Shows Highest Debt, Lowest Cost In Social Services

UN special rapporteur Alston bares AFP’s ‘Order of Battle’ vs Reds, fronts

Warns GMA of loss of international support if killings are not stopped

Alston bares AFP’s ‘Order of Battle’ vs Reds, fronts

By Michaela P. del Callar

Daily Tribune 03/29/2007

Contrary to a Malacañang aide’s claim that the report by a United Nation’s officer on his findings will not have any negative impact on the Arroyo government, UN special rapporteur Philip Alston has issued a warning to the Arroyo regime that it faces the dire consequence of eroding international support if the regime fails to stop the political murders.

Alston also bared a damning Philippine document linking the country’s military and police to the rash of political killings.

In a preliminary note presented before the 4th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday evening (Manila time), Alston said an “order of battle” approach is currently adopted and practiced by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP).

“A copy of a leaked document of this type from 2006 was provided to me and I am aware of no reason to doubt its authenticity,” Alston said as he had asked the Philippine government to provide him a copy of the paper.

In military terms, an order of battle, he explained, is defined as an organizational tool used by the military intelligence to list and analyze its enemy units.

He said the document, co-signed by senior military and police officials, calls upon “all members of the intelligence community in the (relevant) region…to adopt and be guided by this update to enhance a more comprehensive and concerted effort against the CPP-NPA/NDF (Communist Part of the Philippines-New People’s Army/National Democratic Front).”

Alston said the document, some 110 pages in length lists hundreds of groups and individuals who have been classified on the basis of intelligence as members of organizations which the military deems “illegitimate.”

“Newspapers carry almost daily reports of senior military officials urging that such groups be neutralized and calling upon the populace to recognize that to support their candidates in the upcoming elections would be to support the enemy,” the UN official said.

“This practice was openly and adamantly defended by nearly every member of the military (with) whom I spoke,” Alston added.

He said when the significant number of individuals is listed in the military order of battle, “it raises serious questions about the appropriateness of this practice.”

“It may be, as I was told, a ‘political war,’ but when such political war is conducted by soldiers rather than civilians, politics too quickly comes to involve guns as well as words,” Alston said.

He also believes that the government’s counter-insurgency encourages or facilitates the extra-judicial killings of activists and other “enemies” in certain circumstances.

Alston, meanwhile, warned that consequences of a failure to end the killings in the Philippines will be “dire” and that international support for the Arroyo government will be undermined.

He said efforts to resolve the various insurgencies will be set back significantly and incentives to opposition groups to head for the hills rather than seek to engage in democratic politics will be enhanced.

“A multifaceted and convincing governmental response is thus urgent,” Alston said.

Alston conceded that there were killings committed by the communists and condemned them as reprehensible, but stressed that these killings, which were admitted by the rebels, happened decades ago and that “there is absolutely no evidence that the recent surge in killings of leftist activists is due to a communist purge.

“On the contrary, strong and consistent evidence leads to the conclusion that a significant number of these killings are due to the actions of the military,” he said.

Alston however said the recommendations he had come up with will hardly make a difference “unless there is a fundamental change of heart on the part of the military or the emergence of civilian resolve to compel the military to change its ways. Then, and only then, will it be possible to make real progress in ending the killings,” he stressed.

Alston also observed that there is “passivity,” in the Philippine Senate and the Department of Justice on the way they tackle human rights concerns.

He stressed that the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, chaired by Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile, insisted that there was no role for Congress since no new legislation was required.

“He (referring to Enrile) had not and did not intend to hold hearings into the widespread problem of extra-judicial killings because it was a matter for the executive, rather than Congress,” Alston said.

The UN officer pointed out that the Senate committee on Human rights rejects the idea of taking a proactive stance on human rights abuses and extra-judicial killings, seeing no reason to exercise its oversight function and investigate whether the executive is properly implementing the law on human rights.

He also criticized President Arroyo as he scored a memorandum circular issued by Malacañang requiring military and police officials to secure the President’s permission before testifying in any congressional hearing.

“The executive branch has stymied the legislature’s efforts to oversee the execution of laws.” He added that that Executive Order 464 and later known as Memorandum Circular 108, which prohibits government officials from testifying in Congress, stymied the legislature’s efforts to oversee the execution of laws.

Alston said the Secretary of Justice, and his colleagues, “were perplexed at the proposition that prosecutors, whose role is absolutely central in the Philippines justice system, had some broader responsibility to take steps to uphold respect for human rights.”

He added: “Instead, their role was seen as a passive one. If a file presented to them was insufficient, their role was simply to return it and hope that the police would do better next time. It was not for them to observe or respond to clearly shoddy dossiers designed to ensure that the police could be said to have done their job while at the same time no prosecution would follow.”

He also finds “highly problematic” the government position that prosecutors must show “total impartiality” and that they cannot be directed to adapt their methods of work to ensure that everything possible is done to promote respect for human rights.

Alston also criticized the Office of the Ombudsman for having done almost nothing amid complaints submitted to it from 2002 to 2006 alleging extra-judicial executions attributed to state agents.

“The Ombudsman’s office, despite the existence of a separate unit designed to investigate precisely the type of killings that have been alleged, has done almost nothing in recent years in this regard. The Government itself acknowledges that, of 44 complaints submitted from 2002 to 2006 alleging extra-judicial executions attributed to State agents, the Ombudsman’s office concluded that it was unable to act on even a single case. While such a result in relation to five or even 10 cases might be justifiable, when it reaches the level of 44 cases the conclusion must be that the office is failing in its responsibilities.”

Aware that the Alston report to the UN would be a black eye on the agency, the Justice Department grudgingly ordered the creation of task forces made up of regional state prosecutors to handle all cases of extra-judicial killings.

Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño said the task forces would be directly supervised by Assistant Chief State Prosecutors Richard Anthony Fadullon and Miguel Gudio.

“I will be sending out memorandum orders to regional state prosecutors to organize their task forces,” Zuno said, admitting that the task forces are necessary considering that the number of extrajudicial killings has reached an alarming stage.

The task forces, he said, will focus on areas where reports of extra-judicial killings are rampant such as Samar-Leyte and Bicol.

The UN Special Rapporteur was described by Justice chief Raul Gonzalez as a “hireling” who not only prejudged the findings but said he was brainwashed by the leftists.

Alston found key government institutions under the Arroyo regime to be extremely indifferent to human rights abuses and extra-judicial killings.

He did not spare Malacañang from his criticisms, saying that the Palace, evidently referring to President Arroyo, also shirked its duty to uphold human rights in the country.

The reports stated that there is “a passivity, bordering on an abdication of responsibility, which affects the way in which key institutions and actors approach their responsibilities in relation to such human rights concerns.”

Months earlier, in Manila, Alston described the Arroyo administration and its police and military as being in a state of “almost total denial.”

The AFP chief of staff, Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., along with the defense chief, Gen. Hermogenes Ebdane, Jr., hit back at Alston, saying it was he who was in a state of denial, claiming that Alston had refused to even bother with the evidence they had presented, showing that the abuses were committed by the leftists.

Malacañang yesterday claimed it was not panicking over the Alston report, with Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said saying that Alston did not single out the Philippine government on the cases of political killings but also made mentioned of the liability of the CCP-NPA. He obviously had not as yet read the report.

“Based on the information from the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Alston report is balanced and fair. It made mention of the efforts done by the Philippine government to address the problem of extra-judicial killings. We feel that it’s a pretty fair report,” Ermita said.

Malacañang also urged the CPP-NPA on its 38th year anniversary today to lay down its arms and surrender to the government.

Ermita said the CPP-NPA must end its objective to topple the government and instead return to peace negotiations. Benjamin B. Pulta and Sherwin C. Olaes

PERMANENT PEOPLES' TRIBUNAL : Gloria Arroyo regime is guilty of crimes against humanity

Philippines bogus President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is best remembered the worst violator of the Constitution. She is also best remembered for her ability to spin, deny and deflect issues on her inept corrupt government to the opposition. Mrs. Gloria Arroyo and General Eduardo Ermita’s military clique have joins the ranks of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in terms of extra-judicial killings/political killings, disappearances, torture, false witnesses and testimonies and deliberate abuses of civil liberties. The Arroyo regime is guilty as charged-crimes against humanity.


Arroyo regime worse than Marcos era’

BY LOUI GALICIA
ABS-CBN Europe News Bureau

The six-member jury on the Permanent People’s Tribunal found the administration of President Arroyo to be worse than the Marcos government it had tried in 1980.

The jury found the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo government, the George W. Bush government and their accomplices guilty of gross violations of human rights, economic and social rights and transgression of the national sovereignty of the Filipino people.

Jury President Francois Houtart said that the jury found very similar situations during the time of Marcos and the present government.

“During Marcos, the whole world knew that there was a dictatorship and it is expected that there will be violations of human rights. Today democracy, that is perhaps the reason why it is less known in the rest of the world that today’s situation is similar to martial law, thirty years ago,” Houtart said.

Houtart said the tribunal will hold the Arroyo administration liable if “anything happens to the witnesses that testified.”

PPT Secretary General Gianni Tognoni, speaking on behalf of the jurors, told ABS-CBN’s Balitang Europe that the verdict was unanimous due to the overwhelming evidence presented. Tognoni added the jury did not have a moment of doubt as to the guilt of Mrs. Arroyo and Bush during the deliberations.

The jurors also denounced as “unacceptable” the inclusion of the Philippine government under the Arroyo administration in the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). The inclusion of the Philippines, the jurors said, undermines the credibility of the United Nations particularly in human rights, and is “an intolerable offense” to the victims.

Houtart said that although the verdict may be legally non-binding, it is nevertheless “morally binding.”

The judgement will be transmitted to the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, the European Parliament and various foreign governments.

Tognoni said that the transmittal to these bodies will be a major step toward focusing world attention on the human rights crisis in the Philippines.

World opinion will add more pressure to the US-supported Arroyo administration to stop the killings, he added.

Japanese juror Oda Makoto, a well-known novelist and social activist, apologized to the Filipinos for not knowing what has been happening in the Philippines since he sat on the jury that tried the Marcos government in 1980.

Malaysian juror Irene Fernandez, a lawyer, social development expert and head of Tenaganita, wished that liberation will come soon for the Filipinos.

Sen. Ana Marie “Jamby” Madrigal told Balitang Europe that Mrs. Arroyo deserves the verdict.

“I hope Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will be made accountable for crimes against humanity by the international community,” Madrigal told Balitang Europe.

Jose Maria Sison, the founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines, compared Mrs. Arroyo to a devil dwarf.

“You know, a devil dwarf does mischief, all that’s bad. Marcos being a dictator is a giant, while Gloria, no matter how big her voice, is a pip squeak,” Sison told Balitang Europe

Around 200 people gathered at the Pax Christikerk in the Hague, The Netherlands for the announcement of the verdict and for show of solidarity.

PHILIPPINES: Economic gains do not justify strength of democracy

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission

PHILIPPINES: Economic gains do not justify strength of democracy

Not only is democracy being subverted in the Philippines, but its meaning is also misunderstood. While the country may have made economic gains in recent times, to declare them as proof of a “strong democracy” belies democracy’s true meaning, for the strength of democracy is measured, not by economic gains, but by the strength of the country’s rule of law and its justice system. To omit the worsening attacks against the Filipino people that they are experiencing daily in defence of their basic rights--whether they are prominent figures, influential parties or just ordinary citizens--misconstrues the meaning of genuine democracy.

It is difficult for an ordinary Filipino to believe that a democratic system is, indeed, functioning in the Philippines. There cannot be genuine democracy when almost daily activists are targeted for extrajudicial executions, people are forcibly disappeared and tortured without legal redress and leftists or rightists are often subjected to attacks. The violence directed at prominent and influential personalities in recent times is a symptom of a rotten and decaying system of justice. For instance, illegal arrest and detention, the filing of fabricated charges, torture and disappearances, among other human rights problems, are a fact of life in the Philippines. The inability of the country’s political and judicial systems to adequately respond to this violence subverts democracy.

When perpetrators--in particular the police and military--are not punished and victims of human rights violations and their families are denied the possibility of redress and justice, distrust and scepticism among them intensifies. Deepening distrust of the justice system should be considered a challenge to restoring democracy and the rule of law in the Philippines. Instead, the victims and their family members are often isolated by unjustly denying them the possibility of redress and frequently accusing them of being accomplices of, as well as influenced by, the “enemies of the state” and “destabilisers.” Consequently, the Philippines is a country where democracy has not fully developed. Why it is failing is where the discussion should begin. Read full statement AHRC

Malacañang snub of rights tribunal inquiry scored

US Congressional Action on Extrajudicial Killings Unlikely

US Senate panel raps dispatch of RP generals to hearing

The United States should suspend military aid to the Philippines until inept Arroyo regime stop political killings. Militants blame the military-police dead squads for the killings. Gloria Arroyo needs military support for her political survival.


US Senate panel raps dispatch of RP generals to hearing

By RODNEY J. JALECO
ABS-CBN North America News Bureau


WASHINGTON D.C. - The head of a US Senate panel looking into the rash of political executions in the Philippines, chided the Manila government for sending top police and military officials to present their side.

“I don’t understand why you have to send military and police to a hearing that a couple of senators are holding to look at allegations of human rights abuses,” an apparently upset Senator Barbara Boxer said in this afternoon’s hearing of the Senate subcommittee on East Asia and Pacific Affairs. Boxer chairs the subcommittee.

“We made it very clear and to their credit they responded. They said they will not send any military, they won’t send any police, and they said they won’t send any intelligence agents,” she added.

The Senate panel was looking into, among others, accusations that Philippine security forces were behind many of the extra-judicial killings. The human rights NGO Karapatan said 836 people have been killed in political assassinations since President Arroyo took power in 2001 – over 200 of them last year alone.

“That’s a pretty basic point, that we don’t try to intimidate witnesses,” Boxer stressed.

President Arroyo earlier dispatched PNP Deputy Dir. Gen. Avelino Razon Jr., head of Task Force Usig – the body formed to help stop extra-judicial killings; Criminal Investigation & Detection Group (CIDG) Dir. Edgardo Doromal; Col. Gaudencio Pangilinan, deputy chief of the AFP’s Intelligence Service (ISAFP); and Col. Benedicto Jose, head of the AFP Human Rights Office.

But Razon told ABS-CBN News later that it was never their intention to join the Senate hearings. “We went here to help and be the resource persons of the Ambassador (Willy Gaa),” Razon emphasized.

“Mali yun, hindi kami invited ng US Senate, particularly Senator Barbara Boxer to testify. We are here to assist the Philippine Embassy,” he added.

ABS-CBN News learned that only Razon and Doromal have so far made it to Washington; Pangilinan’s arrival was delayed because a Philippine Airlines jet he took to San Francisco was delayed by a mechanical problem and Jose was still working to get a visa to travel to the US.

Eric John, Deputy Asst. Secretary of State for East Asian & Paific Affairs, said that while the Arroyo administration had initiated moves to stem the violence, it needed to move faster and more resolutely.

“I don’t think you could call it enough,” John said in response to questioning by Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).

“I think she’s marched out in the right direction the last couple of months,” John said, referring to Arroyo initiatives against extra-judicial killings, but added that “until these numbers go down dramatically enough, we won’t know if that’s going to be enough.”

He said the State Department is ready to support moves within the Philippines to sustain the pressure on the Arroyo administration to follow-through on the campaign to stem human rights violations, especially extra-judicial killings.

But Eugene Martin, Executive Director of the Philippine Facilitation Project, U.S. Institute of Peace, painted a bleak picture at least for the short term.

He said the coming May polls in the Philippines will likely bring more violence – and a statement attributed to National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, Martin said, was especially worrisome. Gonzales had stated that leftist candidates, particularly in the party list groups, would not be allowed to win seats in Congress.

Martin, a former deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Manila, labeled Gonzales’ statement as a “potential hunting license to military and local officials who agree with him.”

T. Kumar, Advocacy Director for Asia & the Pacific of Amnesty International, said President Arroyo’s coddling of former army Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan sent the wrong signals to victims of human rights violations and extra- judicial killings.

The hearing at the Dirksen Building, which is part of the Capitol Hill complex, drew a large crowd and the room was filled way before the start of the hearing this afternoon.

Boxer urged the State Department to review how aid is given to the Philippines. She cited a congressional think-tank report that said the Philippines enjoyed the “most dramatic” increase in US military assistance in the East Asia and Pacific region.

She declared that, “We must make sure that American taxpayers’ money is not spent to perpetuating” human rights abuses in the Philippines.

Boshop Eliezer Pascua, Sec-Gen of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, submitted a three-point proposal to the Boxer panel. He called for an immediate stop to the killings, including the scrapping of an alleged hitlist of military targets; bringing perpetrators to justice; and for the Arroyo administration to adhere to international human rights conventions.

Some 25 churchmen, including lay leaders working in Church-sponsored community projects have been killed in the last six years – the majority of them belonging to the UCCP.

Related Links:
US aid to Philippines questioned over killings
Rep. Satur Ocampo joins US probe into extrajudicial killings through YouTube
Delegates urge U.S. to help stop murders in Philippines

PHILIPPINES: Rotten criminal justice system victimizes every Filipino

HK-based center/consultant to UN: GMA political will key to protection of Filipinos’ rights

RP criminal justice system ‘rotten’

By Michaela P. del Callar

Daily Tribune 04/02/2007

The “rotten criminal justice system” in the Philippines has caused the country’s failure to deliver justice to Filipinos and contributed to local widespread human rights violations.

This assessment is contained in a report of the Hong Kong-based Asian Legal Resource Center (ALRC), an independent regional non-government organization holding general consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (Ecosoc) of the United Nations of which the Philippines is a member and elected as vice president.

The 192-page report, made available recently, urges the government of President Arroyo to exercise political will for the protection of human rights in the Philippines.

It cites how the police and courts fail to investigate and solve various human rights violations because of the lack of sincerity of probers, despite well-established institutions in the country.

At the same time, ALRC calls for the government to reform the criminal justice system and fulfil the promises it made to the Filipinos in the laws.

“Institutions alone are not enough, political will is

needed for human rights protection, that is what the Philippines lacks,” Prof. Michael Davis from the Chinese University of Hong Kong says.

Commenting on the report, Basil Fernando, executive director of a Hong Kong-based regional rights group, says he believes that the Philippines has one of the best Constitutions “but the criminal justice system is subverted.”

“Not only activists are targeted, common people also suffer. The entire people of the Philippines are targeted under this rotten system. Even in a case of common murder, it is unlikely that any investigation or prosecution is carried out,” Fernando adds.

The report contains 110 cases of killing, torture, disappearance, abduction, illegal arrest and intimidation, which the Asian Human Rights Commission, a sister organization of ALRC, has documented since 2004.

Among the cases, 81 of them related to killing, but none of them has been solved.

According to ALRC, “command irresponsibility,” the non-existent witness protection program, the bias of state officers toward victims and their families and the irregularities in investigation and prosecution are major obstacles to resolving extra-judicial killings.”

As part of its recommendations, ALRC calls for the setting up of an independent commission to review the criminal justice system, implementation of the witness and victim protection scheme and strengthening of investigation agencies handling complaints against the military and police.

“The military should be held responsible what they do, the (Philippine) government has responsibility under international human rights law to do so,” Davis says.

United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston has held the military responsible for most of the killings in a preliminary report to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva last week but the Philippine government has rejected his findings.

Last Friday, Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo belittled Alston’s report, echoing the military line that the Arroyo administration has documents and witnesses to prove that local communist guerrillas are responsible for the extra-judicial executions.

“The government has documented instances (of killings) — the witnesses, including purges and specific charges (against) some people,” Romulo said.

He even claimed that the Philippines has received strong support and praises from the international community, particularly the European Union, for its adherence to human rights practices.

In a preliminary note presented before the 4th session of the UNHRC, Alston said an “order of battle” approach against communist insurgents is currently adopted and practiced by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP).

“A copy of a leaked document of this type from 2006 was provided to me and I am aware of no reason to doubt its authenticity,” he stressed as he asked the Philippine government to provide him a copy of the paper.

In military terms, an order of battle, Alston explained, is defined as an organizational tool used by military intelligence to list and analyze its enemy unit.

He said the document, co-signed by senior military and police officials, calls upon “all members of the intelligence community in the (relevant) region... to adopt and be guided by this update to enhance a more comprehensive and concerted effort against the CPP-NPA/NDF (Communists Party of the Philippines- New People’s Army/ National Democratic Front).”

Alston added the document, some 110 pages, lists hundreds of groups and individuals who have been classified on the basis of intelligence as members of organizations that the military deems “illegitimate.”

Poor folk in the country’s Northern Luzon region have apparently been classified as such.

In Nueva Vizcaya province, residents of a remote mountain town are said to be cowering in fear from alleged threats and harassments being committed the past weeks by elements of the Philippine Army.

Provincial officials yesterday said residents in Alfonso Castañeda had reported that Army elements from the 48th Infantry Battalion (IB) of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division (ID) are practically lording it over the town and sowing fear and intimidation among the people, stressing that those who refuse to cooperate with them are accused of being communist sympathizers.

The provincial officials led by Gov. Luisa Lloren Cuaresma denounced the reported abuses of elements of the 48th IB in Alfonso Castañeda, saying they would report the atrocities to Mrs. Arroyo.

“I am sure the President would not countenance such atrocities,” Cuaresma, a member of Partido Abante Nueva Vizcaya, said.

According to Alfonso Castañeda Mayor Alfredo Castillo Jr., the residents have begun abandoning their homes for fear of threats and intimidations from the Army.

Castillo himself is in hiding due to alleged threats on his life by some Army elements in the area.

“My constituents keep on sending text messages to us about Army abuses on them. They are being harassed or branded as communist sympathizers if they refuse to give in to their demands, including attending meetings with them,” he said.

The mayor also accused certain Army officials of direct politicking by urging the residents not to vote for or reelect some supposedly corrupt incumbent local officials.

This accusation was apparently bolstered by a recent public meeting of the 48th IB’s special operation team on counter-insurgency wherein an Army officer engaged in name-calling, singling out Castillo and other local officials as thieves.

The residents said the local police seemed helpless, with the Army practically dealing even with petty crimes.

But the Army officials assigned in the area vehemently denied the alleged harassments, even asking the crowd during a public meeting on communism by the special action team whether the reported harassments were true.

Col. Joselito Kakilala, commanding officer of the 48th IB, based in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija, said the Army was not engaging in direct politicking and harassments.

According to Kakilala, his men were merely engaged in an anti-insurgency drive to ensure the defeat of the Maoist New People’s Army by 2010.

Army higher-ups, when apprised of the residents’ accusations, said they are ready to investigate the reported atrocities of the Army personnel conducting the anti-insurgency campaign in Alfonso Castañeda,

The town can be reached by a four-hour land trip via San Jose City and the towns of Rizal and Pantabangan in Nueva Ecija.

According to Lt. Gen.Bonifacio Gomez, commanding general of the 7th ID based in Fort Magsaysay, Palayan City, also in Nueva Ecija, he would ensure that there would be no whitewash of any investigations of the abuses allegedly committed by his men from the 48th IB.

“We will initiate an independent investigation in addition to that to be conducted through the chain of command to verify the findings. Aside from this, my men and the local officials had already talked about the problem,” Gomez said.

Ted Boehnert

RP Under Gloria Arroyo Regime Is The Most Corrupt Asian Economy

What went wrong with Arroyo's anti-corruption drive?

ETHANOL: Biofuels Boom Raises Tough Questions

Who are the direct beneficiaries in Philippines' biofuel industries?

CENTER OF GRAVITY
By Rony V. Diaz
The false promise of ethanol

THE Biofuels Act that President Arroyo signed into law requires all oil companies to blend at least 5-percent ethanol with regular unleaded gasoline or be fined in amounts ranging from P50,000 to P100,000 a day.

The oil companies are not howling in pain which only means that their bottom lines will not be affected—possibly even enhanced.

To produce enough 5-percent ethanol, 15 plants will have to be set up. At the same time 120,000 hectares will have to be planted to sugar­cane, corn, cassava and sorghum for feedstock.

It’s not possible to do all this in 5 months so the oil companies would be allowed to import blended gasoline with tax incentives that are hard to refuse.

Once the distilleries are ready, they will enjoy a cap of 1 percent for 10 years on taxes imposed on all types of inputs, machinery, equipment, planting and breeding materials that are to be used in biofuel production, as certified by the Department of Agriculture. Biofuels will not also pay the value-added tax. The law directs the Development Bank of the Philippines and the Land Bank of the Philippines to put biofuel producers at the head of the queue.

Why the rush?

Two reasons are given. First, to reduce our dependence on imported crude and at the same time save dollars. Second, to protect the environment.

Neither reason makes sense. At 5 percent, the country “saves” 2 weeks of crude imports. Even at 20 percent—the technical limit of flexible fuel automobiles made in the Philippines—we save about a month’s worth of imported crude. Even at $70 a barrel, this is hardly worth the direct costs of new plants and the raft of subsidies that will be dispensed and the indirect costs of displaced food production—not to speak of the possible need to import food.

Ethanol is not exactly environment friendly. It’s an oxygenate and therefore emits nitrous oxides that cause smog. To make ethanol bunker fuel, coal, or natural gas are needed. To transport it either by ship or by truck diesel fuel is needed. All this adds to the CO2 that’s already in the atmosphere.

The net energy gain from ethanol is miniscule. A standard barrel (42 gallons) of ethanol is equivalent to 28 gallons of gasoline in terms of energy content. Ethanol is only 80,000 British thermal units (BTU) as against 119,000 BTU for regular gasoline. This means that you use more ethanol to drive the same distance as with gasoline. To produce a gallon of ethanol with its 80,000 BTU of energy, 36,000 BTU of natural gas or coal are needed.

Alexander E. Farrell in an article in Science in January 2006 said that the greenhouse benefit from ethanol is at best “ambiguous.” A gallon of gasoline when burned releases about 20 lbs of CO2, counting emissions from both the car and the refinery. Ethanol releases about the same amount.

Are these the biofuel proponent’s idea of clean and renewable energy?

This argument against ethanol made from food crops does not apply to ethanol from cellulose. The stalk of a corn plant or the leaves of sugarcane are composed of cellulose. So are most grasses, shrubs and organic agricultural waste. If ethanol can be made from cellulose, then it need not compete with food production.

But there is a catch. To separate the sugar from the lignin in cellulose, an enzyme that nobody has been able to make in quantity is needed. Scientists are at work on it but from the lab to the pump is still a long way off.

Whether crop-based or cellulosic, ethanol requires special handling. Ethanol is easily contaminated by water and cannot be shipped or piped in the same way as petroleum or gasoline. It’s also more corrosive than gasoline. National distribution will be a huge technical problem.

Our ethanol policy is badly thought out. It’s based not on science and economic logic but on fuzzy thinking.

Before it’s too late, let’s step back and think out this policy coolly and rationally.

We’re all for alternative fuels but they should be affordable, sustainable and above all not destructive of the environment. Manila Times


Related Links:
Bioethanol Philippines
The Philippines: Is Ethanol Really Feasible?
Green Car Congress

COMELEC'S CHEATING MACHINERY IN PLACE

The credibility of the electoral body, the Comelec to conduct fair and honest May 2007 elections remains a one centavo question. The Comelec's cheating infrastructure is still in place. There are circumstantial evidences for the repeat of 2004 electoral fraud. Philippines bogus President Gloria Arroyo has tapped former Comelec commissioner Virgilio Garcillano to run the administration’s election operations in Mindanao after failing to find a suitable replacement. The military is actively involved in partisan politics by harassing and intimidating party-list candidates and their supporters in Metro Manila's slums districts. Defense chief Ebdane and AFP chief Esperanto are directly involved in 2004 fraud. Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos has not conducted an official investigation in the alleged massive electoral fraud in the last presidential election. The recent burning of Comelec HQ office in Manila may deliberately set to hide vital evidences in alleged public bidding anomalies. It destroyed millions of pesos worth of computer units intended for the botched poll automation as well as records related to the disputed 2004 presidential and senatorial elections. A clean election is still a pipe dream.

Comelec is burning

Former Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman Harriet Demetriou reports that Comelec employees told her the master list of registered voters for the whole country was burned during the suspicious fire which gutted the old Comelec building last Sunday.

With no master list as basis, Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. can now make a new list containing the five million additional voters he had announced previously.

This is contrary to his recent statement that no records were burned that will affect the 2007 elections. A fabricated new list of voters for provinces and congressional districts will assure the victory of Malacañang’s congressional and local candidates.

Chairman Abalos should now have the decency to resign. To say the least, too many mysterious happenings have occurred during his incumbency. It is not only the Comelec building that has been destroyed. The credibility of the Comelec and Chairman Abalos has been razed to the ground. Hello, hello chairman. Amb. Ernesto Maceda

Claims NPO can’t finish task on time
Comelec hints at outside print jobs for ERs, CoC

By Marie A. Surbano
Daily Inquirer 03/11/2007
The country appears to be headed for a repeat of the 2004 polls that were marked with fraud, with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday broadly hinting that the printing of election returns (ERs), certificates of canvass (CoC), and statements of votes (SoV) and even the ballots themselves will be jobbed out to outside printers, using the time element as the poll body’s justification.
A senior official of the Comelec yesterday hinted at plans of the Comelec to have other printers to do the job tasked to the National Printing Office as he expressed serious doubts that the NPO would be able to complete the printing of ballots and other election paraphernalia on time.
Comelec Executive Director Jose Pio Joson admitted that to print 45 million ballots alone, the NPO will be needing at least three to four months to complete the ballot print job order on time.
“We are short of time, and the time we stated (three to four months) does not even include the time to be spent for transporting the ballots and other materials, along with circumstances that we cannot determine right now,” Joson pointed out.
Joson explained that the NPO, just for the printing the ballots, would need 45 days, if it is to print one million ballots per day plus an
additional two weeks to print the election returns (ERs), the statement of votes (SoV), voters registration documents, and the certificate of canvass (CoC).
“NPO is printing all these election paraphernalia together so there is apprehension (on the part of the Comelec) that if one is delayed, everything will be delayed,” he stressed.
It was only last Monday when the NPO started printing the ballots.
It will be recalled that in 2004, the Comelec under its chairman, Benjamin Abalos Sr., was reported to have jobbed out the printing of ERs and COC without even alerting the concerned party repre-sentatives.
This assignment to private printers, sources then said, opened the door for the excess printing of SoVs, ERs and CoC, along with the proliferation of fake election documents that were all used for the massive cheating operations that occurred in 2004.
It was also charged by some NPO employees that in 2004, the then NPO chief waived the printing job to outside printers.
They accused the now NPO officer in charge of having committed election printing irregularities.
It will also be recalled that in 2004, the opposition charged that four rolls of security paper to be used for printing went missing. This was denied by the Comelec chief and the Namfrel, even if they refused to have an investigation conducted.
For the elections, Comelec has allocated more than P800 million for the printing of ballots, ERs, SoV, CoC as well as the purchase of other election materials such as ink, pens, and others.
Joson said that by the middle of April or next month, the printing of ballots, ERs, SoV, COC, should have been completed because the first shipment of the accountable forms should be out by March 12 or 15 for the overseas absentee voting (OAV).
“Absentee voters are voting as early as April 15 so we need to send these (accountable) forms by March 12 to 15 in order for these forms to reach their destination on time,” Joson added.
Moreover, the official noted that within the first week of May or two weeks before election, all forms should have been transported to the regions and have been distributed to the city and municipal treasurers because five days before the scheduled May 14 polls these are to be checked and verified to ensure that all the needed materials are accounted for properly.
“Five days before election these materials should be in the hands of the treasurers so they could verify if these are missing in order for us at the Comelec to come up with a quick solution, otherwise we will really have problems,” Joson said.
Aside from the OAV, the priority areas of the Comelec where ballots and other election materials are being shipped early are the far flung areas of Mindanao.
As of this time, the Commission still has no exact figure of the total number of registered voters nationwide but it has estimated the voting population to reach to 45 million.
Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Francis “Chiz” Escudero, who is running under the Genuine Opposition ticket and is one of the GO candidates ranking high in surveys, Saturday expressed incredulity over the 45 million registered voters the Comelec has has announced.
In a press statement sent to media outlets, the senatorial candidate pointed out that the country’s population stands at 87 million.
He wondered whether it is possible that more than half of the population are voters.
The youthful senatorial candidate said the Philippines, like all developing countries with high population growths, is a country of young people. That means, he said, that there are more children, who are not of voting age, than there are adults.
“If we are to accept the number of registered voters as true, we must assume that even pupils in the elementary grades and students in high school are included in the count,” he said.
According to Escudero other people may doubt the moral integrity of the commissioners, but no one can question their intelligence. On that premise, he added, the only conclusion that can be drawn from the huge number is that the list of voters is padded.
Escudero raised the possibility that Comelec may have allowed multiple registration or, worse, the registration of non-existent voters. If it has unwittingly done so, he said, the obvious remedy is to purge the list.
He observed that at any one time there are 10 million Filipinos who live and work overseas.
“The rule requires that names of voters who fail to exercise the right of suffrage in four consecutive elections must be removed from the list,” he said. “Those who have taken foreign citizenship fall under this category, unless they opt to retain their Filipino citizenship under the dual citizenship law.
“He added that “those who are in jail, especially those whose conviction has become final, along with the dead, should not be counted among the voters.
“Of course, migrant workers who are away only temporarily should be retained in the list. But the teachers, who man the polling places, should make sure that nobody votes in the name of an absent or dead voter,” he said.
In 2004, the Comelec was already alerted to the fact by the opposition candidates that the increase of voters in Cebu jumped to 50 percent, which they said was a mathematical possibility, as only a usual percentage of 3 to 5 would the normal increase rate within a three year time frame.
In the polls of 2004, it was also discovered, through the documents under protest that in many instances, especially in Mindanao, the vote count was much more than the number of registered voters listed in the document.
Comelec also was found to have disenfranchised millions of voters during the presidential elections, as the voters registration lists in bailiwicks of the opposition, were said to have been deliberately mixed up, in a bid to prevent the opposition voters from casting their vote.
The 2004 polls were marked by massive fraud, with the military and police generals identified with Mrs. Arroyo even participating actively in the cheating operations, as evidenced by the now infamous Hello Garci tapes, containing conversations between then poll commissioner Virgilio “Garci” Garcillano and President Arroyo on the cheating operations, which even included the kidnapping of election officers and their families who do not follow the orders to cheat.
A Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) was signed in October last year between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Comelec, which forbids the participation of the military in the elections, except to vote, claiming this MoA would prevent a repeat of 2004, and that the military would remain an apoliticla force.
But even as the military has been engaging in political partisan activities by deploying its troops in Metro Manila villages to harass and intimidate voters into rejecting certain leftist party list groups, and despite a formal complaint lodged by these party lists groups with the Comelec, Abalos claimed that the Comelec could not intervene since the military was not engaging in a political activity.

Related Links:
3 caught copying ballot serial numbers--sources
Comelec fire alarms opposition bets
OIC printing chief also facing graft charges

Philippines: US State Department Annual Human Rights Report

RP ‘climate of impunity’ scored in annual rights report

By RODNEY JALECO
ABS-CBN North America News Bureau

WASHINGTON D.C. - The US State Department released Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) its annual human rights report, citing among others, the Philippines for the “climate of impunity” in the murder of journalists, churchmen and political activists.

“Members of the security services committed acts of physical and psychological abuse on suspects and detainees, and there were instances of torture,” the report said.

The report was prepared by the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. “During the year there were a number of arbitrary, unlawful, and extrajudicial killings apparently by elements of the security services and of political killings, including killings of journalists, by a variety of actors.”

The report comes amid mounting international pressure against the Arroyo administration. Last month, several Northern California religious leaders met with Jennifer Tang, a staff of California Sen. Barbara Boxer about alleged human rights abuses in the Philippines.

Boxer is the new chairperson of the East Asian Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations committee.

One of the complainants, Presbyterian Rev. Larry Emery of Sacramento, California alleged he and other church members were detained by the military while visiting a rural village on a humanitarian mission last year. They were accused of being rebel sympathizers. Emery claimed the only reason they were not harmed was because he was an American citizen.

But the State Department report also assailed the New People’s Army for the use of landmines and suggested they were behind some of the activists’ murders.

The said the “climate of impunity” was bred in part by “widely held and accurate public perception” that the 115,000-man Philippine National Police (PNP) was corrupt.

“Members of the PNP were regularly accused of torture, of soliciting bribes, and of other illegal acts,” it noted, adding though that, “Efforts were underway to reform the institution in part to counter a widespread impression of official impunity”.

The report said that while PNP officers appear to be receptive to respecting human rights, “rank-and-file awareness… remained inadequate”.

The report noted that while the Arroyo administration “attempted interference in the freedom of the press and right of assembly” during the weeklong State of Emergency early last year, “the government generally respected these rights in practice”.

“The media were active and expressed a wide variety of views without restriction. Broadcast and print media were freewheeling and often criticized for lacking rigorous journalistic ethics,” it averred.

“They tended to reflect the particular political or economic orientations of owners, publishers, or patrons, some of whom were close associates of present or past high-level officials.”

But it was more critical of the violent assault on media practitioners. “In some situations,” the report showed, “it was difficult to discern if violence against journalists was carried out in retribution for their profession or if these journalists were the victims of random crime.”

Among the incidents named in the report were the killings of environmental activist Elpidio dela Victoria in Cebu; CPP-NDF leader Sotero Llamas in Albay; Alice Claver, wife of Bayan Muna leader Constancio Claver in an ambush in Kalinga province (Constancio was himself wounded in the attack); and Methodist church pastor Isaias Sta. Rosa in Albay.

The report also noted the lack of progress in the prosecution of suspects in the killing of striking workers at Hacienda Luisita; the March 2005 murder of Bayan Muna coordinator Felidito Dacut; and the deaths of United Church of Christ pastors in May and August 2005.

The report relied on the NGO Kabataan Consortium when it said at least 76 people were liquidated by vigilantes in Davao City last year; another 70 in Cebu. But the report added the killings appear to have popular support because the victims allegedly had ties to crime in the area.

Related Link:
UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR CALLS FOR CHANGES TO THE PHILIPPINES’ HUMAN SECURITY ACT

Global Impact Of Asia's Pollution

U.N. Chief Wants U.S. to lead Global Warming Battle
Sun Responsible for Global Warming

Justice For Sale

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

TROs ‘for sale’ in Court of Appeals

By Jomar Canlas, Reporter POLITICAL and administrative cases decided by the Office of the Ombudsman are now one of the primary sources of corruption and temporary restraining orders “for sale” in the Court of Appeals, a CA justice told The Manila Times. The magistrate, who talked on condition of anonymity, said the rulings of Ombudsman Maria Merceditas Gutierrez on preventive suspensions and dismissals have turned into one of the main sources of “business” in the CA. In the past, all administrative cases were decided by the Supreme Court until it issued a ruling in the case of Fabian v. Desierto that all such cases decided by the Office of the Ombudsman shall be reviewed only by the CA through petitions for certiorari. The justice said the minimum price for a TRO is P1 million. The price rises, depending on the influence of the personalities involved. The price gets steeper for a package deal that includes a TRO, injunction, decision and resolution in a motion for reconsideration. The Office of the Ombudsman’s decisions and resolutions that get elevated to the CA for certiorari, the justice said, “become juicy since the personalities involved are high ranking government officials, politicians who failed in the lifestyle check.” Police their ranks Chief Justice Reynato Puno wants the justices of the CA to police their own rank, fight corruption zealously and put an end to the TROs-for-sale business. Jose Midas Marquez, the Court’s public information chief, said the Chief Justice his magistrates they themselves should watch their own ranks and combat corruption. Last Thursday afternoon Puno summoned the 17 chairpersons (most senior members) of the appellate court stationed in Manila and expressed his alarm over the notoriety of some CA justices and employees. The Chief Justice was apparently angered by the negative reports he has been receiving about corruption in the CA. “Let them resolve this issue among themselves, and conduct an immediate investigation,” Puno was reported to have said. The Times source said that the TROs-for-sale racket has become rampant in the CA, overturning the traditional principle that “not to issue a TRO is the general rule and to issue is the exception.” The trend in the appellate court is “to issue a TRO is the general rule and not to issue is the exception.” CA Committee on Ethics CA Presiding Justice Ruben Reyes told The Manila Times that he has tapped the CA Committee on Ethics to accept complaints against justices and employees who are reportedly engaged in corrupt practices. The Committee on Ethics is chaired by Justice Marina Buzon, with Justices Amelita Tolentino and Aurora Lagman as members. “I have referred the complaints received to the Committee on Ethics to check the veracity of the information,” Reyes said. He asked The Times to let people know that those who cannot send their complaints openly may give them directly to him. “If there is any incident of corruption I want to receive the report even in a confidential nature. But of course, it should be supported by evidence,” he said. Reyes said that “it is not necessarily bad to issue a TRO, but what is bad is when there is monetary consideration.” He even urged fellow magistrates and employees to join hands in saving the appellate court and build it from its ruins. Cebu CA open for investigation The justices of the CA in Cebu (Visayas), raised a howl and vehemently denied that they were engaged in corruption. Interviewed over the phone, CA Cebu Executive Justice Arsenio Magpale said that there is not an iota of truth to the complaints against them offering TROs for sale. Magpale said the whole Cebu CA and every justice are ready to be investigated because their conscience is clean. Another CA magistrate in Cebu, Justice Francisco Acosta, said that after the news in The Manila Times broke about corruption in the appellate court in Cebu, each of them is now wondering who among the nine justices are engaged in corrupt activities. Manila Times

AFP Deployed Soldiers in Metro Manila's Depressed Areas

The strategic hamleting first used tactics during the Philippine-American War, then against the Huk agrarian rebellion in Central Luzon provinces, the Vietnam War and Gloria Arroyo government counter-insurgency campaign. The deployment of soldiers in the asphalt jungles of Metro Manila is related to counter-insurgency operations by intimidating militant party-list groups and their supporters. Why? Are they considered enemies of the state? The deployment of soldiers in depressed areas to maintain peace and order is a flimsy excuse. Soldiers are not trained to do police works. Peace and order in villages is the responsibility of barangay captains (village chiefs) and tanods (village guards). The barangay , country's smallest political unit may seek help from the mayor and local police to fight criminality. The militarization of Metro Manila may soon spill over in the provinces.



AFP nixes pullout; Comelec gives in

Daily Tribune 03/06/2007
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) isn’t going to pull out troops it deployed in slum areas all over Metro Manila, insisting that the troops are assigned to these areas merely to maintain peace and order in the community.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec), for its part, said it will not question the presence of the AFP troops deployed in the National Capital Region, if the purpose is “purely military.”
“If an operation is purely military and devoid of political motivation, the Comelec cannot intervene,” Comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr., yesterday told reporters, despite the complaint lodged before it by the leftist Party-list groups, complete with pictures and affidavits stating that the soldiers have been harassing and intimidating the members of the party-list group and instructing the voters there not to vote for the leftist groups, which the military has accused of being the fronts of the communist party of the Philippines.
AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. yesterday claimed that the presence of the military in Metro Manila has been requested by local government leaders to curb the drug problem in various areas and criminality, insisting that the accusations that the military troops deployed had been ordered to campaign against the leftist party-list groups were false.
But Esperon failed to show the alleged letters of requests from the local executives from 27 barangays.
Abalos seemed to have taken Esperon’s claim as gospel truth, and appeared to be disinterested in getting to the bottom
of things.
It also appears that all the military has to do, during the polls when the AFP gets into the picture, is merely to state that the activities the soldiers are engaged in are purely military and Comelec will not intervene.
The military brass said the AFP has no plan to pull out troops, with Esperon denying the allegations of party list groups on the military’s electioneering for the administration.
AFP spokesman Maj. Gen. Jose Angel Honrado also insisted that the deployment of troops will stay and said there is no order for a pullout. “It (deployment) is not election-related,” he stressed.
But when asked what the deployment was for, the spokesman said: “I don’t want to answer that. Let’s wait for our (AFP chief’s) reply to the Comelec.”
Maj.Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino, chief of AFP-National Capital Region Command said the deployment of soldiers in some areas of Metro Manila is “indirectly” related to counter-insurgency operations and part of a civil-military program to maintain peace and order in communities.
“Yes (the operations of the Armed Forces) are indirectly (related to counter-insurgency) because we are trying to help solve peace and order problems so the people will not go to streets or think of fighting the government,” Dolorfino said.
Dolorfino said the AFP is forging a partnership with the Philippine National Police (PNP) and local governments in maintaining peace and order in problematic communities.
“I think nothing is wrong when we have civil-military operations programs and these are promoting good relations between military and civilians,” he said.
He said the military has received requests to maintain peace and order in areas frequented by activist groups.
The party-list group Gabriela filed a complaint against the military whose troops were said to be campaigning against the group and harassing its supporters in Barangay Commonwealth in Quezon City.
Honrado said the military received formal notice from the Comelec seeking its comment on the deployment, on Monday
Comelec said it may ask the AFP, and in particular, Dolorfino to explain the extent of the military operations.
Abalos over the weekend asked Dolorfino to investigate the presence of military troops in Isla putting Bato and in Delpan all in Tondo and to submit a written report.
But Abalos said he has not received any report from Dolorfino as of yesterday.
Meanwhile, opposition leaders yesterday rebuked Esperon’s mobilization of soldiers to urban poor communities, saying this is a clear plot to harass candidates from militant partylist organizations and prevent from campaigning.
More than the issue of the military’s presence in areas not within their so-called war zones, the legality of the move by the AFP presents a danger, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. pointed out the danger as far as legality of the move by the AFP hierarchy.
His counterpart in the House, Minority Leader Francis “Chiz” Escudero, denounced the AFP deployment saying: The threat against opposition candidates on the campaign trail, the presence of soldiers in places where they have no business to be, seen against the backdrop of the continuing extra-judicial executions, create an atmosphere of fear that makes a free, orderly, and fair election impossible.”
Escudero warned the administration against continuing the enforcement of such policy as it might compel the public to resort to violence if the people’s will is frustrated at the polls.
He reminded the administration over the public backlash experienced during the 2004 presidential election, which was a serious blow to country’s democracy when the people refused to accept the results.
“Another fraudulent election will again drive people to the streets, and this time they could very well succeed in their desire to oust the President. To an incensed people, impeachment would cease to be an option,” he said.
He said the mid-term elections had better be clean and honest. Otherwise, he added, the people will resort to extra-constitutional means.
“Do not make the elections a prologue to chaos and disorder that could very well run out of control,” he said, addressing the administration.
Pimentel, principal author of the Local Government Code, emphasized that under existing laws, it is only in the event that the civil agencies that maintain law and order are unable to do so that conceivably the military as military can now make its presence felt in the barangays.
“The barangay officials are the civilian arms of law and order in their barangays. They can assert that authority first by calling on their tanods to do so. If the tanods cannot do the job for one reason or another, the next civilian officials they can ask for help are the mayors of their cities and municipalities.
“The mayors can, then order the police, another civilian agency, to go out to the barangays concerned and maintain law and order there. If the mayors prove unavailable, the barangay officials can always call on the governor and the Sangguniang Panlalawigan concerned to help them out with their problem,” he explained.
He urged barangay captains and their barangay councils all over the country to now assert their right as civilian functionaries to maintain law and order in their barangays.
“They should do so before the nation becomes fully militarized under a President who is a captive of certain generals in the Armed Forces.
“Unless the local government officials are unable to maintain law and order, soldiers should stay in their barracks and wait until they are called upon to help. Or perhaps, they can do construction work,” he added,
Pimentel also said that their unwarranted intrusion into local government domain raises alarm bells that during this election period, they are sent to the barangays to intimidate people into voting for the administration candidates, or, worse, to condition the minds of the people that the law of the gun or martial law is inevitable and that there is nothing we can do about it.
Escudero also asked: What is the Comelec doing about it?,” pointing out that the various militant groups had already raised this issue long before the election period and yet nothing is being done about it either by the Comelec or Malacañang.
He also stressed that the AFP chief of Staff did not even bother to present any petition coming from the community or communities that demanded for the military presence to back his claim that the military acted on the request of the barangay leaders.
As early as the last two months of last year, partylist Gabriela has been sounding its alarm over the presence of military troops in many areas in Quezon City, and yet Malacañang and the AFP ignored this..
The Palace has admitted that it gave AFP the go signal to push through with the deployment of troops in some urban areas in the metropolis, claiming it is only the Palace and AFP’s will to protect civilians from the threat of insurgency and criminality.
But this was immediately dismissed by members of the partylist group Bayan Muna.
Reps. Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casino belied claims made by Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Esperon. Dolorfino and Col. Bartolome Bacarro that the deployment of the military was for the protection of the people.
“They were dishing out barefaced lies to cover up the government’s dirty war against progressive partylist groups,” they said in a press statement.
It was also untrue, according to the legislators that the deployed military personnel were unarmed.
Aside from that, these military personnel impose curfews, and even threaten leaders and supporters of the partylist group, according to Casiño.
“The deployment began in November last year. This is part and parcel of two AFP documents entitled ‘CPP-NPA-NDF Partylist Operations for 2004 Elections,’ a 51-slide powerpoint presentation, and ‘AFP Onward to Political Warfare Arena,’ authored by Lt. Col. Yogyog-NIWG1. This is an anti-party-list plan to ‘make it hard for progressive partylist groups to campaign and make it easy for AFP partylist allies to campaign,” Casiño further said.
To achieve these aims, these documents pushed for “focus denial operations” in 305 cities and towns tagged as CPP-NPA-NDF strongholds, the division of potential votes by promoting AFP-preferred partylists, and the actual use of AFP and PNP operations.
According to Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, in order to inform the public well and to avoid confusion, the AFP has to explain more thoroughly the issue of deployment of troops in the slum areas in the metropolis.
The Palace spokesman, however, became clueless and almost speechless when pressed if President Arroyo was aware of Esperon’s order or if proper consultation between the Palace and the AFP on the matter took place.
He appeared clueless and fell back on saying it will be the AFP that will do the explaining insread.
Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs Gabriel Claudio defended the AFP saying that its only objective is to protect the communities from the threat of insurgency and criminality. With Gina Peralta-Elorde, Angie M. Rosales, Dona Policar and Marie A. Surbano.

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. The rest of the story

Peasant Leader Killied in Davao Del Sur

It’s another casualty of war . Some elements of the security forces were allegedly responsible for extra judicial killings, disappearances, torture, and arbitrary arrest and detention. The Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Hermogenes Esperon insists that the murder of political activists is mere communist propaganda, if not self-inflicted. UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Philip Alston and Melo Commission Report blamed the military for political killings. The Arroyo government is in a state of total denial.

Militant shot dead in Davao del Sur
Victim a party-list group coordinator

A PEASANT leader and provincial coordinator of the party-list group Anakpawis was shot dead yesterday morning in Davao del Sur by two motorcycle-riding masked men.
Victim Renato Pacaide, 45, was secretary general of the Nagkakaisang Magsasaka ng Davao del Sur, a provincial chapter of the militant farmers’ group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP).
Wilfredo Marbella, KMP internal deputy secretary general, said Pacaide was shot four times with a .45 caliber pistol at around 10:45 a.m. at Rizal avenue and Lim street in Digos City.
Marbella said Pacaide died at the Davao del Sur provincial hospital.
Camp Crame reports said Pacaide was with his daughter Michelle when attacked.
Investigators recovered three shells and a round of ammunition, two slugs and a wristwatch.
The killers escaped on their black Yamaha DT motorcycle.
The human rights group Karapatan listed Pacaide as the 835th victim of extra-judicial killings since President Arroyo assumed office in 2001.
The 834th victim was student leader Farly Alcanta, who was killed last February 15 in Camarines Norte. Malaya 03/03/2007