State fascism
 |
From the time Macapagal-Arroyo became president in January 2001 up to November, 2002, 1,545 cases of human rights violations have been recorded according to KARAPATAN. Seventy percent (70%) of these were committed by the AFP, 13% by the PNP and the rest by goons, vigilantes and other groups. Thus, at least 19 cases of human rights violations are committed weekly under the Macapagal-Arroyo regime. An average of two "suspected terrorists" or "communist sympathizers" are killed every week. A hundred and sixty-seven (167) activists, mass leaders and suspected sympathizers of the revolutionary movement have already been killed within the period, of whom 30 were members of Bayan Muna, 22 were women and seven were children. Thirty-four (34) survived the attempts on their life while 16 remain missing.
Political detainees now number 314, two hundred and nine (209) or 66% of whom were imprisoned under the Macapagal-Arroyo regime. The regime's "all-out war" has already displaced 17,000 families. The Macapagal-Arroyo regime's bloody record has been the subject of intense criticism. According to Party spokesman Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal, Macapagal-Arroyo has not only equalled Marcos in perpetrating terrorism and human rights violations. He said military abuses in Southern Tagalog today are far worse than during the Marcos dictatorship. "They are killing civilians," Ka Roger said. "And the civilians aren't simply killed. Some have been beheaded, and their body parts scattered in several places." The latest case occurred on November 23-24 in Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro. Four civilians were abducted and killed, including Anthony Martinez, a mass leader. Martinez's severed head and his body were found in separate barangays. Nine Mangyans were also abducted during this period.
Macapagal-Arroyo has bloodstained hands. She herself endorsed the murderous antipeople and counterrevolutionary campaign in the island when she visited Mindoro in mid-2001 and ordered the deployment of more troops to the island.
The different forms of human rights violations were condemned in the December 10 demonstration in Manila, where Macapagal-Arroyo's "strong republic" was assailed as meaning nothing but the further repression of the people's civil and democratic rights in the name of "anti-terrorism."
There has been no letup in state terrorism and human rights violations since the time of the Marcos dictatorship. According to Amnesty International (AI), "There exists a pattern of arrests, detention and torture reported by a wide range of political and criminal suspects, both then and now." It said that the pattern includes beating up suspects in the course of their arrest, often without warrant; depriving them of the right to counsel and to be visited by their physician and families during prolonged periods of incommunicado detention; and the use of force, including means that leave no traces, mainly to coerce suspects or name suspected conspirators.
AI is currently undertaking a campaign regarding the celebrated case of the "Abadilla 5"�five innocent men charged with the killing of Col. Rolando Abadilla, a notorious torturer and murderer under the Marcos dictatorship. Abadilla was killed in June 1996 by opportunist renegades led by Sergio Romero who use the name Alex Boncayao Brigade without authoritization from the Party.
Despite repeated admissions by Romero's group and the presence of evidence proving the group did it, the PNP charged the "Abadilla 5" to get Romero's gang off the hook and come up with other "guilty persons." The five do not know Abadilla, did not have any link to him until they were implicated in the killing and investigators failed to come up with a motive or any possible mastermind for the crime. The "Abadilla 5" were severely tortured to make them confess to the killing. The court sentenced them to death, ignoring evidence that they were tortured.
In an interview by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, a vicious police official haughtily confirmed the common use of torture by the state.He added that the "Abadilla 5" were believably innocent and were only used as "fall guys".
Even the regime's Commission on Human Rights (CHR) admits that the Philippine government has failed in terms of compliance to the United Nations Convention Against Torture. According to CHR chair Purificacion Quisumbing, the government and the commission have failed to protect the people's human rights.
In the final analysis, the Macapagal-Arroyo government has not only failed. It is the very mastermind behind the cases of torture, murder, repression and other grave violations of human rights.
|
