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