Benjie Oliveros » Precarious Rights

Human rights, civil liberties, and democracy are in a more precarious situation now. It is not because of the walk-out of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim from their court hearing at the Makati Regional Trial Court where they are being tried for coup d’ etat and the resulting standoff at the Manila Peninsula. It is because of the reaction of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration to the standoff and its “follow-up operations.”

BY BENJIE OLIVEROS
Bulatlat

MANILA — Human rights, civil liberties, and democracy are in a more precarious situation now. It is not because of the walk-out of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim from their court hearing at the Makati Regional Trial Court where they are being tried for coup d’ etat and the resulting standoff at the Manila Peninsula. It is because of the reaction of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration to the standoff and its “follow-up operations.”

As always, the Arroyo administration showed its penchant for overkill and its disdain for the people’s rights. The government deployed around 300 soldiers and police officers backed up by tanks and armed personnel carriers (APCs) against about 30 Magdalo soldiers. And could someone explain why armed personnel carriers had to ram and destroy the front door of Manila Peninsula Hotel? Sen. Trillanes and Brig. Gen. Lim were holed up at the 2nd flr. Surely the farthest the APCs could go is the lobby.

The standoff lasted for merely six hours and involved less than a hundred people. But the way the Macapagal-Arroyo administration reacted it’s as if the country is in grave danger. Even former vice-president Teofisto Guingona, Bp. Julio Labayen, former UP president Francisco Nemenzo, Fr. Roberto Reyes, Bibeth Orteza-Siguion Reyna, lawyers JV Bautista and Argee Guevarra, other civilians who expressed support to the calls of Sen. Trillanes and Brig. Gen. Lim for the resignation of Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo were arrested. They were well within their rights even if they called for Arroyo’s resignation.

Worse is the arrest of journalists covering the standoff inside the Manila Peninsula. They were handcuffed, herded into buses, and brought to Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig. The reason given by the police that they had to check the journalists because Magdalo soldiers might have tried to pass themselves off as media personnel to evade arrest does not justify their actions.

Then there is the imposition of a curfew. The imposition of curfew is reminiscent of Martial Law. Likewise is the setting up of checkpoints. The comment of an anchor of DZRH that there were only two times when curfew was imposed, as far as she can remember - during the Japanese occupation which was known for its fascism and brutal suppression of the people’s rights, and during the Marcos fascist dictatorship - is instructive of the tendencies of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration.

Just recently, Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings, in his final report, confirmed the suspicions of the Filipino people and international human rights groups: that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is responsible for the spate of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances which have victimized more than a thousand people from 2001, when Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was catapulted to the presidency by a people power uprising and withdrawal of support by the AFP and Philippine National Police (PNP), up to the present. The reaction of Macapagal-Arroyo administration, the AFP, and the PNP denying their culpability and responsibility for the extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, despite the incontrovertible evidences, shows that these abhorrent practices would continue.

This year, the anti-terrorism law euphemistically called the Human Security Act of 2007 was passed amid the protests of a broad spectrum of people and international criticism. While this repressive law has not yet been used so far, its eventual implementation does not bode well for human rights and civil liberties

Thus, as we reflect on and analyze the Manila Peninsula standoff and its aftermath, and as we commemorate international human rights day, let us persevere in defending the rights and liberties that were taken away from us during Martial Law 35 years ago and which the Macapagal-Arroyo administration is trying to take away from us once more. Bulatlat