By RAYMUND B. VILLANUEVA / Kodao Productions / Bulatlat.com
I was caught in the middle of a gunfight that lasted hours in Tugaya, Lanao del Sur while covering the country’s first-ever automated elections. I don’t know if being ‘caught in the middle’ is a correct description because I was there as a journalist and had prior knowledge that that town is a poll hotspot. But I use it nonetheless because I did not want the gunfight to happen, much less witness it up close.
Automation and computerization are supposed to make life easier. It is supposed to speed up processes by minimizing human intervention. After all, machines are more efficient, more precise, and do not tire easily compared to humans. However, this is not the case with the first Philippine Automated Election System.
Lt. Col. Romeo Brawner of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Public Information Office is hoodwinking the public when he says that AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Victor Ibrado is ordering the transfer of the 43 health workers collectively known as the Morong 43 to a Philippine National Police (PNP) facility, even as they have supposedly communicated their desire to remain at the military’s Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal, where they are now detained. He is trying to make the AFP and its chief of staff appear more magnanimous than they actually are.
The AFP tries to malign the 43 health workers by calling them communists. Instead, the military is suggesting to the country that NPA guerrillas are dedicated and seriously serving the people, against all odds. The AFP could win its case in the Court of Appeals but it would lose the war against the NPA and public opinion.
By RAYMUND B. VILLANUEVA
Something happened during the National Interfaith Mission for Peace and Justice visit to the massacre site in Barangay Salman, Ampatuan, Maguindanao, last January 23 that leaves a bad taste in the mouth. As an “embedded” Bulatlat correspondent in the mission from Cotabato City, I, along with my Kodao and Pinoy Weekly colleagues, had no inkling that something was wrong when we started out that day.
Human Rights Watch, based in New York, just released its World Report on human rights. It blamed the Philippine government for the rise of private armies. It also blamed the “culture of impunity” in the Philippines for the Ampatuan massacre and other killings.
The Comelec has accredited at least nine party-list groups identified with the Arroyo regime, according to Bayan.
Ka Parago’s wife Evangeline Pitao, together with members of the organization of rights victims’ families, was dismayed after knowing that one of the primary suspects in the abduction, rape and killing of Rebelyn Pitao was immediately released by the Davao City Police office after being apprehended for violation of the gun ban.
Rep. Satur C. Ocampo, Rep. Liza L. Maza, Rep. Rafael V. Mariano, Rep. Raymond V. Palatino, Rep. Teodoro A. Casiño and Rep. Luzviminda C. Ilagan have filed a resolution in Congress asking government agencies to look into allegations that tycoon Lucio Tan had defrauded the government of as much as P330 billion.
The Commission on Audit’s annual reports on Maguindanao have always highlighted deficiencies in the province’s finances. In its 2008 audit report, the commission found that it could not ascertain the validity of the provincial government’s claim that the province had more than P107 million pesos deposited in banks. The COA also could not verify the existence of properties and assets worth P345 million pesos that the province said it had.
The unchecked rule of political warlords like the Ampatuans, army and police units like those controlled by President Arroyo’s mistahs, and warmongers in government like General Hermogenes Esperon and National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, make up a culture of tolerance for killings and contempt for the rule of law. Thus, this culture of impunity traces itself right back at the doorstep of Malacañang.