HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

‘Knowing the Enemy’ in Negros
Government troops sow terror in rural hinterlands

State terror stalks the rural population of Negros Island in central Philippines as the military steps up its counter-insurgency operations against what the Arroyo government describes as the “front organizations” of the armed Left.

By Karl Ombion
Bulatlat

Alejandro Deoma, Negros Occidental chair of the party-list Bayan Muna (BM or people first), said April 7 that many leaders, organizers and members of their party including allied parties Anakpawis (AP or toiling masses) and Anak ng Bayan (nation’s youth), especially in rural areas have borne the brunt of illegal arrests, torture, harassments, threats, and even displacements from their homes and farms, by government troops and members of the paramilitary Revolutionary Proletarian Army–Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB).

On March 29 - the anniversary of the New People’s Army (NPA) - huge streamers were hanged in strategic places in some Negros cities and towns. The streamers bore the message “Mabuhay ang Ika-36 nga Anibersaryo sg NPA!” (Long Live the 36^th Anniversary of the NPA!) and below it were the names of the progressive party-list groups along with Bayan, the labor federation NFSW, KMU, PCPR, LFS, NUJP, and several other organizations.

Since December last year, Deoma revealed, BM members in the towns of Guihulngan, Vallehermoso, Isabela and the mountain city of Canlaon, all in central Negros, have complained of the AFP’s intensifying psy-war campaign and combat operations against legitimate people’s organizations in the guise of hunting NPA guerrillas.

Last Feb. 3, a group of Philippine Army special forces had a class suspended in Barangay (village) Maniak Elementary School, Guilhulngan, Negros Oriental and forced the students and teachers to listen to their lecture about “the enemies of the state,” referring to the Communist Party of the Philippine-NPA and alleged legal front organizations.

Military garrison

A report by the human rights alliance Karapatan revealed that in January several farmers’ houses in Barangay Trinidad, Guihulngan, Negros Oriental, were taken over by troopers of the Army’s 55th special forces and turned the village into a military garrison. Farmers were barred from going to their farms and were forced to cook and run errands for the troopers.

In the same barangay also in January, 11-year-old Noli Senoron was threatened at gun point by soldiers to be circumcised if he refused to name Bayan Muna members in their community and divulge where NPA guerrillas were hiding. The following month, an Army trooper mauled and hit Apolinario Caballero with an Armalite when he could not give information about the guerrillas and “legal front members” in their area.

In a similar incident, Terisito Abarello, 42, was preparing his farm animals when a group of Army troopers wearing no name patches surrounded his house and asked him where the NPA guerrillas are. Unable to answer their question, a trooper hit him with an Armalite and beat him up until he lost consciousness. When he regained consciousness another army trooper wrapped his head with a plastic bag as he was interrogated further. Just before he lost consciousness again, he heard a trooper saying, “We better just kill him.”

On Jan. 29, in Barangay Calupaan, Guihulngan, Alselma Sereno, local head of Bayan Muna, together with around 70 farmer-members were herded by Army troopers into their detachment beside the barangay hall. Made to stand under the heat of the sun they were forced to testify that BM is a “front” of the CPP-NPA.

‘Invited’ to be executed

Deoma also reported that no less than Siefred Deduro, BM vice president for the Visayas, was set up for a kill sometime in December, when troopers of 61st IB PA reportedly with intelligence agents flagged down the car of Deduro and company at two separate checkpoints in isolated areas in far south Negros, and “invited him for a talk” with their commander. The troopers told him they were looking for a car loaded with NPA guerrillas and ammunition. In these two occasions, Deduro refused the “invitation” insisting that he was a BM congressman on his way to conduct dialogues with various communities.

From February to March, several other cases of abuses and brutalities were recorded in the towns of Guihulngan, Vallehermoso, Tayasan, Siaton, Bayawan in Negros Oriental, and in Isabela, La Castellana, La Carlota City, Himamaylan City in Negros Occidental.

Last week, mountain villagers of Guihulngan petitioned their mayor Ernesto Reyes and Gov. George Arnaiz for a dialogue with the 11th IB PA and commanders of the 303rd Brigade regarding alleged military abuses. Hundreds of people came to the dialogue on March 29. The military and the governor never showed up.

Throughout Negros last week, thousands of members of the progressive party-list groups together with other cause-oriented mass organizations took to the streets to condemn the wave of state-perpetrated political killings nationwide directed against their leaders, members and sympathizers. The week-long protests ended April 7 with a rally at the Fountain of Justice, ground of this city’s Hall.

Rally speakers said that since January this year, 32 figures identified with the militant party-list groups, Bayan, Karapatan, and progressive media organizations have been executed nationwide. At least five others have been reported missing.

They accused President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo through the AFP’s “death machineries,” as responsible for the political killings.

In the same rally, Deduro told Bulatlat that the wave of political killings, harassments and psy-war campaigns not only against the Left but also citizens critical of government economic policies, show that the Macapagal-Arroyo government is desperately veering toward open fascist rule instead of facing the social roots of the crisis wracking her government.

‘War on terror’

From the start, he said, Macapagal-Arroyo has succumbed to U.S. President George Bush Jr.’s “war on terror” campaign. “Instead of listening to the rising opposition to her rule and addressing the roots of civil war in the country, she tries to cover her inutility and bankruptcy by resorting to open fascist measures,” he said.

Deoma, on the other hand, said that the AFP’s sustained psy-war campaign to demonize the progressive parties and organizations, is aimed at conditioning the public to support the military’s campaign to silence government’s most effective critics.

“If the government especially the AFP were not crazy, then they must be stupidly paranoid,” he said.

He added that the President’s maneuvers to pass the anti-terror bill, national ID system, and other repressive measures, are just formalities since these draconian policies are already being implemented anyway.

Lawyer Edmund Manlapao, council member of the Civil Liberties Movement, warned that the AFP’s CD on “Knowing the Enemy” is not simply a watch list as claimed by an AFP spokesperson, but a hit list. The list practically makes groups and persons identified in the CD as fair game for punitive actions by either the AFP or its paramilitary and vigilante groups, he said.

Archie Baribarm, human rights lawyer and former Bacolod councilor, said that the military top brasses are calling the shots in the Arroyo administration, especially on national security matters.  Key posts in the executive branch of the government, he also said, are now run either by retired or by active military generals and personnel, thus making it easy “to militarize government policies and activities.”

Meanwhile, the Civil Liberties Movement asked the AFP to issue an unconditional public apology for its destructive psy-war campaign like the “knowing the enemy” propaganda and put an end to all politically-motivated killings against progressive party-list groups and mass organizations. Bulatlat

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