Renato M. Reyes Jr. » Alston Report Clearly Shows Killings Are Arroyo’s Policy

By Renato M. Reyes, Jr.

MANILA — There are no if’s and but’s about it.

The final report of United Nations Special Rapporteur Philip Alston on the extrajudicial killings in the Philippines clearly points to a national policy of the Arroyo administration through its Armed Forces of the Philippines and other agencies such as the Inter-agency Legal Action Group (IALAG) of Norberto Gonzales.

The national policy being pointed out by Alston is the counter-insurgency program of the AFP known also as Oplan Bantay Laya as well as various pronouncements from ranking officials and military literature which label legal Left organizations as “communist fronts”. This attitude of the military, which the Arroyo regime fully agrees with, is the lynchpin of the national policy for exterminating legal activists. The Oplan Bantay Laya 1 and 2 all emanated from the Arroyo regime. We hold this government responsible for these fascist policies and for the 800 dead and almost 200 disappeared.

We in Bayan and our allied mass organizations and partylist groups, as affirmed by Altson’s report, have borne the brunt of the attacks, killings and enforced disappearances. Yesterday, Hope Hervilla, a Bayan leader in Panay Island, was almost assassinated by unidentified men believed to be working for the military. The fascist policy continues.

Meanwhile, the IALAG under Sec. Norberto Gonzales has also been tagged by Alston as partly responsible for reinforcing the military view of legal activists as “communist fronts”. That military and police officials also sit on the IALAG establishes a circumstantial link between this agency and the killings. We support the call for the abolition of this agency insofar as it has been responsible for the arrests, detention and political persecution of many activists including partylist representatives.

We demand that the Arroyo administration adhere to all of Alston’s recommendations insofar as government’s role in the extrajudicial killings is concerned. This includes an immediate stop to the practice of publicly labeling our organizations as “communist fronts”, the harassment of our leaders and members and the drawing up of an Order of Battle which serves as a virtual hit-list on activists.

We call on the Philippine Senate to sanction the AFP based on these abuses by reducing the military’s budget. The Philippine Senate can certainly do better than the US Senate which has tied $2 million in military aid to the Philippine government’s human rights record.

We urge the Philippine Supreme Court and the Commission on Human Rights to intensify the defense of human rights and civil liberties now that a national policy on killings has been affirmed by the UN rapporteur.

We call on the AFP and PNP and the entire administration to once and for all get over their collective state of denial and start facing the problems squarely. This includes the investigation of officials known for their human rights abuses, starting with the notorious Gen. Jovito Palparan. Anything less will be construed as a refusal of the regime to reverse the national policy of killings that Alston has blamed.

(The author is secretary-general of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan)