NOTEBOOK: The ‘Killing Fields’ issue

NOTEBOOK: The ‘Killing Fields’ issue

REPORTS of political killings in the Philippines were coming in so quickly we could not cope with them. There’s not enough space in this issue to accommodate all these stories and statements. But since we have already used many of them, we might as well call this the ‘Killing Fields’ issue.

In fact, this being the June 1-15 issue and therefore should mainly contain many June 12 national day-related stories, we chose to print only the schedule of activities commemorating the 108th “independence day” of the Philippines.

After all, what is more valuable than human lives? When they are being snuffed out systematically like what’s happening now in the Philippines, we believe it’s justified to use countless column inches for these stories so that our readers will know the extent of the genocide with all its barbarity that’s being perpetrated.

I call it genocide because the killings are directed at the legal political groups, specifically Bayan Muna (People First) (93 members killed since 2001), and like-minded groups that include church or church-related groups, the mass organizations of workers, peasants, women and professionals like lawyers, and more prominently, journalists (with 41 killed).

In many of the cases, the assassins are armed motorcycle-riding men wearing ski masks. They are methodical and they execute their missions in cold-blood precision and even leave the scene casually, as if confident the local law enforcers would not apprehend them. In some cases the murders were committed in areas where military detachments were close by.

The numbers are shocking. 601extrajudicial killings and 151 cases of enforced disappearances since 2001 when Gloria Arroyo took over as President. This is an average of 150 killed a year for the past five years. It’s like almost three persons are killed each week for five years.

This may not look like the situation in Iraq but the Philippines is not in a state of war where a foreign occupation army is involved. And the victims are in most cases members and leaders of legal organizations fighting for political and social changes. How else will you interpret this other than a systematic elimination of the legal people’s organizations? And who stands to benefit from this? No one else but the clique in power in Malacañang, whose legitimacy is under serious question for its election fraud, corruption and human rights violations. There is no other way for it to stay in power but to eliminate its strongest political opponent — the grassroots people’s organizations.

What is ridiculous is that the government task force recently formed to investigate these killings had already concluded that the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army are involved in these killings in a campaign of “purging” their ranks.

Besides, Task Force Usig is composed mainly of military officers, much like the SIU in Toronto.
It is notable that most of the extrajudicial killings of activists were perpetrated in the regions targeted by the military’s Operation Bantay Laya as strongholds of the CPP-NPA.

Notable also is the general atmosphere of repression prevailing in the country: the February declaration of national emergency (PD 1017) and its paper lifting, the clamp down on press freedom, the no-permit, no-rally rule, the calibrated preemptive response (CPR), violent dispersal of rallies, the arrest of Rep. Crispin Beltran, the rebellion charges against party-list representatives and other leaders, the reign of terror in Central Luzon under the military rule of Gen. Palparan.

Just think about it, under these conditions of intensified repression, will the armed revolutionary groups eliminate the leaders and members of the legal organizations who militantly oppose the rulers they also oppose?

Besides, the Philippines is not new to death squads. According to the story on page 18 of this issue, death squads first appeared in the Philippines in the 1950s at the height of the Huk rebellion, reappeared during Marcos’s rule as the “Monkees”, and during the Aquino regime as the vigilante groups like Tadtad and Alsa Masa.

What is disturbing is a global pattern where death squads are linked to the CIA and is regarded as part and parcel of counterinsurgency programs. It’s scary but it’s true.

For expatriates like us in Canada, these developments may seem to be happening so far away to affect our lives. And it seems there’s not much we can do to help. On the contrary, we should be affected deeply because these are our kababayans who are getting killed and they are the ones fighting for change so that our people may live better lives. We should feel with the victims and would want to do our share in our own limited ways. Expatriate Filipinos have played a role in critical times of our history. This may be another of those critical times. (Email:hermiegarcia4 @gmail.com)