SINCERELY INSINCERE

Let me take you back to one of the allegations in the 2006 version of the impeachment complaint against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo:

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II. RESPONDENT COMMITTED CULPABLE VIOLATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION, COMMITTED OTHER HIGH CRIMES AND BETRAYED THE PUBLIC TRUST WHEN SHE ALLOWED, ABETTED AND COUNTENANCED, GROSS VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS - ACTS CONSTITUTIVE OF CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW.

10. As the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces and chief executive with the power of control and supervision over her subordinates, the Respondent violated her constitutional duty and oath to protect human rights when she allowed, abetted, and countenanced the killings of civilians - especially political dissenters - and media practitioners, the illegal arrest and prosecution of members of Congress and political dissenters, and infringed the people’s freedoms of expression and assembly and their right to petition the government for redress of grievances. In fact, these killings of civilians, including political dissenters and media practitioners and the illegal arrest and prosecution of members of Congress and political dissenters constitute a systematic and widespread attack against the civilian populace and as such, is reprehensible as a crime against humanity proscribed not only under Philippine law but also in both international humanitarian law and international human rights law.

10.1. Since the Respondent assumed the presidency in January 21, 2001, she has allowed, abetted and countenanced the assassination and summary executions of 690 political dissenters and 42 media practitioners, the involuntary disappearance of some 176 persons, the torture of 320 persons in the hands of government authorities, and the illegal arrest of hundreds of persons. The list of political dissenters who were killed from the time the Respondent assumed the presidency in January 21, 2001, among other information, is attached as Annex A. Copies of pictures of victims of the killings are attached as Annexes B to B-5.

10.5. The Respondent encouraged, approved and ratified the perpetration of massive human rights violations by refusing to cause the investigation of and instead promoting General Jovito Palparan who has consistently been the subject of human rights violation complaints, whose provincial/regional assignments have been characterized by exponential increases in summary killings and human rights abuses, whose “human rights clearance” was withdrawn by the Commission on Human Rights, and who made unlawful public pronouncements that he will rid his area of responsibility “of antigovernment rallies;” xxx

In what could be interpreted as a response to the above complaint, she gave the following statement in her July 24, 2006 State of the Nation Address (SONA) before members of Congress:

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And we will end the long oppression of barangays by rebel terrorists who kill without qualms, even their own. Sa mga lalawigang sakop ng 7th Division, nakikibaka sa kalaban si Jovito Palparan. Hindi siya aatras hanggang makawala sa gabi ng kilabot ang mga pamayanan at maka-ahon sa bukang-liwayway ng hustisya at kalayaan.

In the harshest possible terms I condemn political killings. We together stopped judicial executions with the abolition of the death penalty. We urge witnesses to come forward. Together we will stop extrajudicial executions.
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When this same issue was debated / discussed in GMA 7’s late-night show DEBATE WITH MARE AT PARE last Thursday, Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, the Commanding General of the 7th ID, impliedly admitted to the viewing public that he had a hand in the summary executions of leftist activists in his area of jurisdiction and the recent abductions of two female U.P. students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan.

In their exchange of brickbats with Bayan Muna Representative Teddy Casiño, Gen. Palparan minced no words linking Bayan Muna to the CPP-NPA and that the reason why activists are being assasinated is because they are practically NPAs in disguise. Wow! What an admission!

Which leads me to ask: what in the world was in Arroyo’s mind when she approved of Palparan’s killing spree while at the same time condemning the alarming spate of political killings in the country? Either she thinks we are too dumb not to pierce through her veil of lies or she honestly thinks Jovito Palparan is a mere innocent bystander.

Even assuming arguendo that members of national democratic groups like Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and Gabriela are downright members of the Communist Party of the Philippines, it still is not a justification for the AFP to systematically silence them with impunity. I’m definitely not an avid fan of Joma Sison. Neither am I believer of his Communist dogma. But being an adherent of civil liberties, I should give these leftists, activists, communists or whatever you may want to call them the benefit of the doubt. For all we know, they too may be working for the general good. If Palparan is so sure that these leftists are simultaneously waging an armed rebellion against the government, then by all means he should file the necessary charges in a court of law. It behooves the government to uphold the rule of law and not the rule of one woman by going through the usual legal procedures.

This all-out war against the CPP-NPA is nothing but a convenient excuse to divert the public’s attention away from the real issues hounding no less than Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Well, who was it who said that the most effective recruiter of the NPA is the government itself?

BLOG UPDATE: 8/8/06

In Conrado de Quiros’ THERE’S THE RUB column today in the PDI, he lamented the prevailing indifference of the citizenry, rich and poor alike, towards these extra-judicial murders:

Frankly, I don’t know what’s happening to us. Three deaths were recorded Monday last week and, in Metro Manila at least, I never saw lamentations being sent to the heavens or people taking to the streets in violent protest. Is it possible we now think it’s perfectly normal to butcher activists and journalists and the planet does not stop spinning on its moral axis when these things happen? Have we sunk to the level of animals, unmindful of the plight of others, concerned only with our ragged efforts to survive?

On the recent assasination attempt at Bayan Muna local leader Dr. Constancio Claver that instead cost the life of his dear wife Alice, he has this to say:

Doesn’t your blood just boil at this atrocity? It’s the worst nightmare of all. Every time I read about someone being gunned down in front of his children, I do not think of those who die, I think of those who see them die. Psychologists say it leaves a lasting scar in the mind. I myself think it’s a wound that never heals, the blood continues to spurt at unguarded moments. But for this to happen to a 7-year old! I can’t see that Claver can be happy to have survived. He has been murdered several times over.

And what was his crime? Nothing more or less than to belong to the Bayan Muna party-list group. Otherwise, he is a doctor who has foregone a practice in the city, or abroad, to minister to the needs of the dirt-poor of Tabuk. He is a “barefoot doctor,” and one much loved by his community. Alice’s burial itself drew a record 7,000 people, some from far-off villages. Grateful tribute to one who had been with them in times of adversity.

He went on further to state:

Look at the fallen, like Claver, and look at the standing, like Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan and the multitude of grinning “trapo” [traditional politicians] assembled at the House of Representatives on the day Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo presumed to tell the nation its state, and ask yourself: Who is the scourge of democracy? Claver or Gloria? Alice or Palparan? The more than 700 dead activists, many of them students in the first flush of youth, or House Speaker Joe de Venecia and his cohorts, many of them still outright crooks in the twilight of their lives?

Read the entirety of the article here.

How many activists, journalists, oppositionists and well-meaning citizens have to die under this Administration before the Filipino people will realize that this blatant disregard for human life has got to stop? 1,000? 2,000? 5,000? 10,000? 20,000? God help us!