This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 9, April 10-16, 2005
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
‘Knowing the
Enemy’ in Negros
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
BACOLOD
CITY – 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. The spate of human rights violations in the region is mounting as the
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) stands accused of unleashing an undeclared
war against legitimate organizations by circulating a power-point presentation
“Know the Enemy” in the media and public audiences.
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 36th 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 © 2004 Bulatlat
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Government
troops sow terror in rural hinterlands
Bulatlat