Fascist state on a rampage:
Broader resistance to the US-Arroyo regime's fascist crimes

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

Thousands marched towards the Department of Justice in Manila on April 7 to condemn the Arroyo regime's terrorism. But in a testament to the mailed fist policy the reactionary state wishes to impose, police violently dispersed the demonstrators and illegally arrested four of the rallyists.

The attack has failed to deter the growing mass movement calling for an immediate stop to the regime's fascist attacks on democratic sectors. Prior to this, progressive parties in congress launched a hunger strike to show foreign members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) now in the country the effects of the Arroyo regime's fascist campaign. Democratic organizations are preparing bigger mass actions in the coming days.

Among those who have strongly assailed the Arroyo regime are church people. The Catholic Church has released several pastoral letters condemning intensifying human rights violations by the police and military and has demanded the immediate resolution of the murders in Hacienda Luisita where the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) serves as mediator in negotiations between the Cojuangco family and the strikers.

Up to 32 leaders and members of democratic organizations have been killed from January to March 17 as a result of fascist attacks by the US-Arroyo regime. Five others have been abducted and remain missing and four seriously wounded after attempts on their lives. Many have also been illegally arrested and detained and victimized by grave threats and harassment.

The latest incident was the bombing of the Bayan Muna office in Barangay Kawayan, Catarman, Northern Samar on April 6. An activist was injured when Molotov cocktails were lobbed at the office.

The attempted killing of lawyer and Bayan Muna member Charles Juloya has also been added to the regime's long list of crimes. Juloya was on his way to San Fernando, La Union to meet other leaders of BAYAN and Bayan Muna when he was shot. He is one of the convenors of the Justice for Romy Sanchez Movement which was formed to demand an investigation and seek justice for the Bayan Muna-Ilocos region secretary general who was murdered on March 9.

Central Luzon has become the center of the renewed spate of fascist attacks, and is the setting of one of the bloodiest and most intense class struggles. On November 16, elements of the police and military massacred sugar and mill workers and supporters of the strike in Hacienda Luisita. Since then, military elements and their agents have been killing the leaders and prominent supporters of the hacienda strikers one by one. From January to mid-March, up to 12 persons have been killed or involuntarily disappeared in the region. The Northern Luzon Command (NOLCOM) is using the entire region as a laboratory for the regime's policy of unleashing death squads against people's organizations and their prominent leaders.

Other victims are from Northern Luzon, Southern Tagalog and Eastern Visayas. The renewed spate of attacks follows the series of killings in 2001 when the US-Arroyo regime declared Mindoro a "national priority" of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). This year, the Arroyo regime deployed Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, dubbed the "butcher of Mindoro", to Eastern Visayas.

Progressive organizations denounced this March the document "Knowing the Enemy," an AFP briefing paper now being circulated among various military units. The paper identifies progressive organizations, institutions and even church groups as front organizations of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and consequently as "enemies of the state." It campaigns for the outright liquidation of leaders and members of such organizations and institutions as part of the AFP's war against the CPP and the New People's Army (NPA). Now, the AFP has the gall to tell these organizations to stop their criticisms and prove their "innocence."

Aside from perpetrating such heinous crimes against the democratic movement, the ruling classes have also had the media in their crosshairs. Newspaper reporters and broadcasters who openly criticize corruption and anomalies both at the local and national levels are particular targets.

On March 24, Marlene Garcia Esperat was killed in front of her 10-year-old son in Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat. Esperat, a correspondent for the Midland Review is a known critic of corruption and nepotism among national and local officials. Prior to this, Arnulfo Villanueva, a writer for the Asian Star Express, was killed in Naic, Cavite on February 18. This year, four journalists have already been killed while six others have either received death threats or experienced actual attempts on their lives.

According to Reporters Without Borders, an international organization advocating press freedom, the Philippines is second only to Iraq as the world's most dangerous place for journalists. Last year, up to 14 journalists were killed while 10 others survived attempts on their lives.

07 April 2005
English Edition

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