Analysis
Political Killings as State Policy
The Logic of Killers
One only
needs to analyze the statements of Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita,
National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, and Armed Forces of the
Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon to realize that
extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances are all part of state
policy.
BY BENJIE
OLIVEROS
Bulatlat
The
issue of political killings continues to hound the Arroyo administration.
And rightfully so, because gauging from the reactions of the Armed Forces
of the Philippines (AFP) and the Department of Justice (DoJ), the horrible
crimes of extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances seem to be
far from being solved.
UN
Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions Philip Alston
underestimated the gravity of the problem when he compared the AFP to an
alcoholic who is in a state of denial. Without assistance in
rehabilitation, an alcoholic feels helpless because he is addicted to
drinking. Extrajudicial executions, on the other hand, are consciously and
systematically being done as part of the Arroyo administration’s
counterinsurgency program called Oplan Bantay Laya (Operation Guard
Freedom). The only thing common in them is the denial that the problem
exists.
One only
needs to analyze the statements of Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita,
National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, and AFP Chief of Staff Gen.
Hermogenes Esperon to realize that extrajudicial executions and forced
disappearances are all part of state policy.
Justice
Sec. Raul Gonzalez is in a league of his own although he is quick to
defend the government. He says something terribly stupid like calling
Alston a “muchacho” and still looks as if he is the god of logic.
All those jokes about lawyers pale in comparison to what he does and
says.
But
going back to the government’s line: first, the government denies that the
AFP is involved in political killings and points to a supposed “internal
purge” by the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA)
as the culprit. Why the CPP-NPA is trying to kill hundreds of its members
and still hopes to win the revolution is something only Malacañang and the
AFP can imagine.
Second,
government argues that Alston and the international community should
understand that the government has been battling an insurgency. By doing
so, it appears to be justifying political killings by the fact that it is
waging a war against insurgents! Because if political killings are not
part of the government’s counterinsurgency program, what is it that the
international community needs to understand?
Third,
government accuses the victims of being “communists” and the organizations
they belong to as “front organizations.” The AFP even showed a video of
Jose Maria Sison allegedly enumerating the organizations which have been
subjected to attacks as part of the “legal democratic movement.”
It’s as if the government is saying that the victims deserve to die
because they are communists anyway. Brutally stupid as it may sound, this
is the logic of U.S. counterinsurgency and counterterrorist strategy: that
by being “terrorists” the insurgent forfeits his or her life.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, on the other hand, condemns political
killings but praises Palparan and defends 99.99 percent of the AFP. But
the small fraction of the AFP cannot plan and commit political killings
without the knowledge and order of the commanding officers especially at
the scale it is being done. And after all the investigations that have
been done, including that of Alston and the government’s Commission on
Human Rights, she still calls for further investigation. It has been said
in management books that if a manager wants to avoid making a decision, he
or she forms a committee. In the context of politics, an official who
does not want to address a problem ends up calling for more investigation.
Solving political killings
Extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances must stop. It has no
place in a civilized world and degrades our humanity. It violates the most
basic of rights. Not even an insurgency, a civil war or an international
conflict can justify the commission of such horrible crimes. Even
combatants in a war who are rendered as hors de combat or who has
lost the ability to fight are protected under international humanitarian
law and cannot be killed arbitrarily. Civilians, even if they believe in
the same principles as a revolutionary movement but have not taken up
arms, cannot be killed or forcibly abducted.
The
spate of extrajudicial executions and forced disappearances already
constitutes crimes against humanity.
To put a
stop to the political killings and forced disappearances, the Arroyo
administration cannot simply ignore two important recommendations of
Alston: to review its counterinsurgency program and to create space for
the Left to participate in the party-list system. If the President is
sincere in solving political killings, she should call for a review and
reorientation of Oplan Bantay Laya, threaten military officers with court
martial for treason or dishonorable dismissal for refusing to obey the
order of their commander-in-chief if political killings persist in their
areas of responsibility, and immediately prosecute those deemed
responsible. It should also stop all harassments directed against
progressive party-list groups and prosecute all those responsible for
committing such acts.
The
proposed special courts and the strengthening of the justice department’s
witness protection program will only be effective if the Arroyo
administration shows its seriousness in prosecuting the perpetrators. If
the justice secretary keeps on shooting from the hip, if the Philippine
National Police (PNP) continues to cover-up for the AFP, and Macapagal-Arroyo
keeps on defending the AFP even as investigations show their culpability
for the spate of political killings, then the courts will be useless and
witnesses would still not trust the government.
If the
U.S., which recently added its voice in the growing concern of the
international community over the spate of political killings in the
country, is serious in addressing the problem, it can suspend all military
and economic aid to the government until the issue is seriously
addressed. It can also suspend all joint military exercises and
training.
The U.S.
armed forces supposedly has an existing policy of not training foreign
armies notorious for human rights violations after its School of the
Americas, its training facility for armies in Central and South America,
was exposed to be a training ground for death squads and torturers. Then
again, this policy has never been followed.
The U.S.
can also use its military advisers in the Joint U.S. Military Assistance
Group (JUSMAG) and the Security Engagement Board to pressure their AFP
counterparts to put a stop to political killings and review its
counterinsurgency program which, after all, is based on U.S.
counterinsurgency strategies.
That is,
if the Arroyo and Bush administrations are really serious in putting a
stop to political killings and forced disappearances. Are they?
Bulatlat
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