Puno Summit: Great, but…
July 27, 2007
By Val G. Abelgas
The efforts of Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno to find a solution to the nagging problem of unsolved extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in the Philippines are definitely commendable. An important branch of government has finally come out of a state of denial and recognizes that there is a problem that calls for immediate solution.
The military and the executive branch’s continued state of denial had been cited by the United Nations’ Alston Commission as the reason the spate of extrajudicial killings remains unabated.
In a direct rebuke of its co-equal branches – the executive and legislative departments – the honorable Chief Justice Puno said Lady Justice must now “unsheathe (her) unused power” since elected political leaders entrusted with upholding human rights cannot fulfill that role. Puno made the stinging remarks at the start of the two-day National Consultative Summit on Extrajudicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances.
The summit came up with several recommendations to solve and stop the killings and disappearances, but whether Malacanang and Congress shall take heed remains a big question. Apparently, despite the presence of AFP Chief Hermenegildo Esperon Jr. at the summit, Malacanang itself has not shown the political will to stop the killings. Congress members, in the meantime, are still trapped in their own battles for control of the Senate and the House.
With the present composition of the Cabinet panel tasked to implement the dreaded Human Security Act of 2007 or the anti-terrorism law, I don’t see how things would change despite the frantic appeals of Puno and the summit attendees. Among those tasked to enforce the law are Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales and Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, who have consistently shown a personal hatred for militant activists.
Worse, it would seem that the extrajudicial killings and disappearances are actually an integral part of what is now looking like a government policy to decimate the ranks of the Left.
Recent articles that appeared in Philippine publications in the past week tend to confirm allegations that the decimation of the ranks of leftist militant organizations is part of a government policy to neutralize what were deemed as communist front organizations.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer ran a two-part series at the start of the week revealing the contents of an alleged confidential Malacanang document that detailed plans to “neutralize” the Communist Party of the Philippines by curbing the expansion of the party-list group Bayan Muna. Most of the more than 800 activists killed by unknown assailants since Gloria Macapagal Arroyo assumed power in 2001 belonged to Bayan Muna. Other victims were members of leftist groups Gabriela and Anakpawis.
The alleged document, titled “The Bayan Muna Party-List Victory and the Prospects for Wider National and Local Political Participation,” was written after Bayan MUna topped the party-list election in May 2001 and was submitted to the Office of Special Concerns, which was then under National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales. The document was part of the evidence submitted by the Left to UN special rapporteur Philip Alston, who was in the Philippines last year to investigate the unsolved extrajudicial killings.
Gonzales admits there was such a proposal but that it was never implemented by the administration. Gonzales’ dread for the Left belies his denial. In the recent elections, Gonzales insisted that Bayan Muna is part of a “single politico-military complex controlled by the Communist Party of the Philippines.”
Gonzales said the alliance between the NPA and the party-list groups becomes obvious during elections because NPA rebels campaign for their candidates and at the same time intimidate or harass rival groups. He has also been pointing out that the extreme leftist party-list groups have never denounced the violence of the NPAs.
His statements were almost lifted from the secret Malacanang document, which called for the use of “massive intelligence operations” to counter the “grassroots clout” of Bayan Muna and its allied organizations. The paper also details the alleged involvement of the CPP in the parliamentary struggle through Bayan Muna and other party-list groups.
The secret document called for “strict monitoring of all Bayan Muna activities… Get the exact data of Bayan Muna’s electoral coverage, membership and network” and also recommended “the implementation of special intelligence operations to neutralize the members.”
Gonzales has been accused by Bayan Muna and the leftist party-list groups of instigating the arrest of, and filing of charges against the so-called Batasan 6 – representatives to Congress of the party-list groups Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Anakpawis and Akbayan.
Also last week, Arroyo was quoted as having talked to a Reuters reporter about “the use of both soft and hard power because we want to remove the breeding grounds and recruiting grounds of the terrorists.” What Arroyo meant by soft power and hard power is beyond us, but she was obviously referring to the militant groups, such as Bayan Muna and Gabriela, as the “breeding grounds and recruiting grounds” of the terrorists.
We can only hope that the “hard power” does not include killing the militant members of these groups. We also hope that the “special operations to neutralize members of leftist organizations” mentioned in the secret document did not include murder.
But what is equally disturbing are statements attributed last Wednesday by Melo Commission chairman former Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo to retired Army Gen. Jovito Palparan, which he said, fanned suspicions of military involvement (and, if we must add, an indication that the document was actually implemented): “I want communists totally erased, by neutralizing not just armed rebels but also members of communist front organizations that include leftist political parties, human rights and women’s organizations, lawyers and members of the clergy.”
From these developments, it would seem that Alston was wrong about saying that the problem is that the government remains in state of denial about the killings. From all indications, it would seem that despite its denial, the government has pursued a policy of neutralizing the militant Left, which some sectors of the military interpreted to mean eliminating them by murder.
Instead of directly ordering a stop to the killings, the Arroyo administration is now hell-bent on raising the tempo of political repression by insisting on enforcing an anti-terror law that would terrorize the people more than it would the terrorists. Already, troops are back in Metro Manila villages -- a move that was also recommended by the secret document -- obviously in preparation for the full implementation of the anti-terror law.
But are we surprised? Not now that the Malacanang document has been exposed, because one of the proposals in that paper was for the passage of the anti-terrorism bill as a means to further control the insurgency.
With the anti-left engine in full throttle, will Malacanang listen to the Puno summit’s recommendations and stop the drive? I don’t think so. In fact, just as the summit was about to conclude last Tuesday, death squads killed another activist in Tacloban.
(valabelgas@aol.com)
By Val G. Abelgas
The efforts of Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno to find a solution to the nagging problem of unsolved extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in the Philippines are definitely commendable. An important branch of government has finally come out of a state of denial and recognizes that there is a problem that calls for immediate solution.
The military and the executive branch’s continued state of denial had been cited by the United Nations’ Alston Commission as the reason the spate of extrajudicial killings remains unabated.
In a direct rebuke of its co-equal branches – the executive and legislative departments – the honorable Chief Justice Puno said Lady Justice must now “unsheathe (her) unused power” since elected political leaders entrusted with upholding human rights cannot fulfill that role. Puno made the stinging remarks at the start of the two-day National Consultative Summit on Extrajudicial Killings and Enforced Disappearances.
The summit came up with several recommendations to solve and stop the killings and disappearances, but whether Malacanang and Congress shall take heed remains a big question. Apparently, despite the presence of AFP Chief Hermenegildo Esperon Jr. at the summit, Malacanang itself has not shown the political will to stop the killings. Congress members, in the meantime, are still trapped in their own battles for control of the Senate and the House.
With the present composition of the Cabinet panel tasked to implement the dreaded Human Security Act of 2007 or the anti-terrorism law, I don’t see how things would change despite the frantic appeals of Puno and the summit attendees. Among those tasked to enforce the law are Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales and Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, who have consistently shown a personal hatred for militant activists.
Worse, it would seem that the extrajudicial killings and disappearances are actually an integral part of what is now looking like a government policy to decimate the ranks of the Left.
Recent articles that appeared in Philippine publications in the past week tend to confirm allegations that the decimation of the ranks of leftist militant organizations is part of a government policy to neutralize what were deemed as communist front organizations.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer ran a two-part series at the start of the week revealing the contents of an alleged confidential Malacanang document that detailed plans to “neutralize” the Communist Party of the Philippines by curbing the expansion of the party-list group Bayan Muna. Most of the more than 800 activists killed by unknown assailants since Gloria Macapagal Arroyo assumed power in 2001 belonged to Bayan Muna. Other victims were members of leftist groups Gabriela and Anakpawis.
The alleged document, titled “The Bayan Muna Party-List Victory and the Prospects for Wider National and Local Political Participation,” was written after Bayan MUna topped the party-list election in May 2001 and was submitted to the Office of Special Concerns, which was then under National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales. The document was part of the evidence submitted by the Left to UN special rapporteur Philip Alston, who was in the Philippines last year to investigate the unsolved extrajudicial killings.
Gonzales admits there was such a proposal but that it was never implemented by the administration. Gonzales’ dread for the Left belies his denial. In the recent elections, Gonzales insisted that Bayan Muna is part of a “single politico-military complex controlled by the Communist Party of the Philippines.”
Gonzales said the alliance between the NPA and the party-list groups becomes obvious during elections because NPA rebels campaign for their candidates and at the same time intimidate or harass rival groups. He has also been pointing out that the extreme leftist party-list groups have never denounced the violence of the NPAs.
His statements were almost lifted from the secret Malacanang document, which called for the use of “massive intelligence operations” to counter the “grassroots clout” of Bayan Muna and its allied organizations. The paper also details the alleged involvement of the CPP in the parliamentary struggle through Bayan Muna and other party-list groups.
The secret document called for “strict monitoring of all Bayan Muna activities… Get the exact data of Bayan Muna’s electoral coverage, membership and network” and also recommended “the implementation of special intelligence operations to neutralize the members.”
Gonzales has been accused by Bayan Muna and the leftist party-list groups of instigating the arrest of, and filing of charges against the so-called Batasan 6 – representatives to Congress of the party-list groups Bayan Muna, Gabriela, Anakpawis and Akbayan.
Also last week, Arroyo was quoted as having talked to a Reuters reporter about “the use of both soft and hard power because we want to remove the breeding grounds and recruiting grounds of the terrorists.” What Arroyo meant by soft power and hard power is beyond us, but she was obviously referring to the militant groups, such as Bayan Muna and Gabriela, as the “breeding grounds and recruiting grounds” of the terrorists.
We can only hope that the “hard power” does not include killing the militant members of these groups. We also hope that the “special operations to neutralize members of leftist organizations” mentioned in the secret document did not include murder.
But what is equally disturbing are statements attributed last Wednesday by Melo Commission chairman former Supreme Court Justice Jose Melo to retired Army Gen. Jovito Palparan, which he said, fanned suspicions of military involvement (and, if we must add, an indication that the document was actually implemented): “I want communists totally erased, by neutralizing not just armed rebels but also members of communist front organizations that include leftist political parties, human rights and women’s organizations, lawyers and members of the clergy.”
From these developments, it would seem that Alston was wrong about saying that the problem is that the government remains in state of denial about the killings. From all indications, it would seem that despite its denial, the government has pursued a policy of neutralizing the militant Left, which some sectors of the military interpreted to mean eliminating them by murder.
Instead of directly ordering a stop to the killings, the Arroyo administration is now hell-bent on raising the tempo of political repression by insisting on enforcing an anti-terror law that would terrorize the people more than it would the terrorists. Already, troops are back in Metro Manila villages -- a move that was also recommended by the secret document -- obviously in preparation for the full implementation of the anti-terror law.
But are we surprised? Not now that the Malacanang document has been exposed, because one of the proposals in that paper was for the passage of the anti-terrorism bill as a means to further control the insurgency.
With the anti-left engine in full throttle, will Malacanang listen to the Puno summit’s recommendations and stop the drive? I don’t think so. In fact, just as the summit was about to conclude last Tuesday, death squads killed another activist in Tacloban.
(valabelgas@aol.com)
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