Archive for July, 2007
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Enforced disappearances: An act of terror
COMMENTARY | By Roland G.Simbulan
No administration can match the frequency and methodical manner in which extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances have occurred during the six years of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. But because there was sustained impunity, with the perpetrators not only still unpunished, but even promoted or even commended, they occur again and again with their own dirty rules.
HONOLULU — Over the past few years, “a distinctive Chinese variety of industrial capitalism has taken shape,” according to East-West Center Senior Fellow Dieter Ernst and Barry Naughton, professor of Chinese economy at the University of California, San Diego, Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies. This foray into once forbidden economic territory is [...]
Mrs. Arroyo didn’t exactly lie when she talked about the economic surge, but she did try to avoid the truth by failing to mention that whatever economic progress has been achieved has not reached the legions of this country’s poor. In one scary instance — when she declared that she would step down, but mentioned no year, and in the same breath warned that not only was she a strong president, she was no lame duck either — Mrs. came so much closer to telling us poor folk what to expect in the next three years and beyond, and that’s more of the same.
There has been progress in saving and releasing hundreds of small children and youth from the stench-filled cells across the Philippines. President Macapagal-Arroyo ordered last July 16 that all children be released from the prisons, police jails and so-called reception centers, a euphemism for child prisons.
A human rights summit takes the first agonizing step toward finding solutions to the epidemic of extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances. The solutions proposed will pit judicial activists against the forces of resistance in the executive branch and Congress.
Clarita Gragasin, 61, traveled to the Koronadal market on May 10, 2003. She was sitting in a rickshaw tricycle when a bomb detonated about five meters from her. Shrapnel from the bomb killed her instantly. © 2006 John Sifton/Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch: Since January 2000, radical armed Islamist groups in the Philippines have carried out over 40 major bombings against civilians and civilian property, mostly in the south of the country. They have killed civilians indiscriminately — Christians and Muslims, men and women, parents and children — and left behind orphans, widows, and widowers. Hundreds of other victims have suffered severe wounds, burns, and lost limbs. In all, the bombings and other attacks have caused over 1,700 casualties in the last seven years, more than the number of people killed and injured in bombing attacks during the same period in neighboring Indonesia (including the 2002 Bali bombings), and considerably more than the number of those killed and injured in bombings in Morocco, Spain, Turkey, or Britain.
Only in areas of conflict and failing states are journalists killed on the same scale as in the country whose press was once referred to as “the freest in Asia”. The killings are outstanding enough to put the country in the map as, at one point, “the most murderous place in the world for journalists” (Committee to Protect Journalists), and in another, as “the second most dangerous place in the world for journalists next to Iraq” (Reporters Sans Frontieres).
“Today, we raise the bar in our campaign against terrorists who kill, bomb and maim to enforce an ideology of evil,” the President said. “Talk is cheap. It is action that counts. I ask the public to give the Human Security Act a chance.”
Outgunned. Members of the MILF in Maguindanao. (Photo by Carlos H. Conde)
The Philippine military has a sordid history of complicity with the same insurgent groups it ostensibly fights, which includes a long-standing practice of selling weapons to the rebels, said Eliza Griswold, a journalist who has covered South Asia extensively; her stories have appeared in The New York Times, National Geographic and other major publications. “The United States has supplied the Armed Forces of the Philippines with high-tech weaponry that some members of the [Philippine military] have gone on to sell to the insurgents,” she said. 
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“The vague language of the Human Security Act invites the government to misuse it,” said Joanne Mariner, terrorism and counterterrorism director at Human Rights Watch. “The Philippine Congress should repeal or revise the act to comply with human rights standards.”
Reds seek activation of NPA hit squads in cities After Ampatuan Massacre, 2009 a Record Year for Journalist Killings Worldwide CHR to military: Respect and protect human rights during martial law in Maguindanao Maguindanao, its political elite and a culture subservient to corruption U.S. Must Improve Responsiveness to Mass Atrocities; Absent UN Action, Make Clear Willingness to Act on Its Own, Says New CFR Report Martial law dilutes the Philippines’s human rights and democratic gains Martial law in Maguindanao sets ‘most dangerous precedent’ Lawyers will wear black armbands, ribbons in courts Law group shall file plunder cases against President Arroyo et al. UN Experts: Maguindanao massacre must be the start of a major reform process
Arroyo’s oil-price control a publicity stunt, cries Ibon Political Bloodbath Continues: Widow of Slain Activist Shot Dead New Wave of Protests Against Charter Change Set in April Comelec’s Automation to Worsen Election Fraud — Watchdog 2008: Another Bad Year for the Philippine Press ‘Unemployment Figures Wrong; Number of Jobless Higher’ ‘Nicole Is Not the Enemy’ ‘Nicole’: ‘My Conscience Bothers Me’ Is the Call Center Industry a Bright Spot for New Graduates? 6 Great Ways to Vent Your Frustrations Eating Dirt Is Actually Good For Children Australia Offers 150 Scholarship Slots for Philippines, Asia-Pacific mamert dolera: The horrible maguindanao massacre displays the “crueltiest 221; act of political warlordism... Don Untalan: I am also interested to buy (AROD) and the tall hybreed variety. Pls advice where to buy from Manila,... scott: Sports and politics do not mix. But the economy of the Philippines relies on Pacqiao. How much money would a... Bernadine Ebo: nov.11,2009 4:45 my husband and i wants to adopt