Update on the Philippine Situation

The lifting of Presidential proclamation 1017, declaring the Philippines under a state of national emergency, on March 4, 2006, was a facelift. The repressive situation continued. Congresswoman Liza Masa of the Gabriela Women partylist,together with four other progressive congressmen continue to mount their legal defense against arrest within the confines and custody of the House of Representatives. Congressman Crispin Beltran, the first to be arrested with the declaration of pp1017 remain in jail. They together with 53 others were slapped with rebellion charges by the Department of Justice. Over a hundred more are claimed by the military to be in their list to be charged in the coming days.

But the people’s movement is unrelentless, it continues to fight the repressive policies of the Arroyo government. Two repressive policies of the Arroyo government were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court: Executive order 464, banning executive officials from testifying in congress and senate investigation hearings without the permission of the president, and the calibrated pre-emptive response (cpr), which paved the way for violent dispersals of rallies and demonstrations. The Supreme Court subsequently ordered the government to rescind these policies.

Only yesterday, May 3, 2006, the Supreme Court also ruled as unconstitutional certain acts committed during the implementation of Arroyo’s emergency rule. And these include the warrantless arrests, the violent dispersals of rallies and demonstrations and the media clampdown.   

The media is in a fighting stance.Moves by the government to restrain media’s right to truthfully inform the people about the actual events and happenings in the country were questioned. A set of guidelines on media reporting which was attempted by the National Telecommunications Commission to impose was questioned by leaders of the media industry. A military stand off in Fort Bonifacio, unabashedly ordered by the government not to be aired, was ignored by various media outlets.

But while Metro Manila still offers space for legal struggles and defense of human rights, the rural areas is  fastly becoming a huge jungle ruled by the power of the gun: no room for legal organizations and struggles. The military’s guiding rule is: “if you do not cooperate with us, you are against us.” Refusing to cooperate, and fearing military persecution, this has caused an exodus of government officials particularly at the barangay level to Manila and other cities.

Legal organizations and their leaders and members are proscribed as front organizations of rebel groups, now interchangeably called terrorist groups. Proscription or labeling bears a heavy consequence, as it provides the basis and justification for the extrajudicial killings that is happening in different parts of the country.
Everyone is accounted in the villages. Even people who in one way or another have been involved in the progressive movement in the past, and  now decided to “retire” for reasons such as old age, ailments and physical disabilities are being accounted by the military for participation in legal organizations and possible links with the rebel groups.

Leaders and members of progressive organizations are primary targets for assassination. And no one is safe, even women and their  organizations, are considered just like the men, a serious threat to the continued stay in power of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

This is now the case for members and leaders of the AMIHAN, National Federation of Peasant Women who are not spared from the killings, harassments and death threats. Perla Rodriguez, 61 years old, a peasant woman leader from Barangay Divisoria, Mexico, Pampanga, was killed on January 16, 2006. She was shot at close range inside her house while she was feeding her grandchild.  Perla Rodriguez has been repeatedly warned by the military to stop her involvement, but she was undaunted.She was killed a week after she testified in a forum organized by the human rights group, KARAPATAN, on the atrocities undertaken by military forces in their  town. Juanita Diaz, the chairperson of Amihan chapter in  Aurora province was visited by military agents in their house twice in a row. She later learned that her name was included in the military’s  “order of battle” (OB) list. A person in the military’s OB list, is virtually in the shoot to kill order list, or  those that are ordered to be arrested even without a warrant issued by a regular court. She left Aurora and is now in Manila in the sanctuary of Amihan with the support of  religious congregations. Magdalena Napigkit, is staying in Oroquieta city,in Mindanao, staying with relatives and at times staying in church congregations.The military chanced upon her at the back of her house doing the laundry, while the military were in pursuit operations of a group of rebels who the military claimed went to the direction of her residence.The military then continued harassing her, even threatening to kill her if she does not cooperate with them.Imelda Lacandazo, the chairperson of Samahan at Ugnayan ng Makabayang  Magsasakang Kababaihan sa Timog Katagalugan ( Organization and Network of Pro-People Peasant Women in Southern Luzon) the regional chapter  of AMIHAN in Southern Luzon, was threatened by the military : “You have until February 14, 2006, to live.” She had to move from one place  to another daily, she beat her execution date set by the military;  Carina  Espino, Leony Halili, Rita Dacanay, and Florida Sibayan are all members of the United Luisita Workers Union (ULWU) of the Hacienda Luisita, Inc. (HLI). These women are among the 1,500 women farm workers of the sugar estate of the family of former President Cory Aquino. ULWU – women, is affiliated with AMIHAN. All four  women are in the military’s wanted list, because of their participation in the estate wide strike they launched in 2004, and are still part of the continuing fight to claim their right to the Hacienda Luisita land.All four women were advised to refrain from going home to their residences. Rita is now staying at the national office of Amihan; Esmeralda Ecat, was a torture victim.She was  forcibly dragged out of her house in the evening of May 27, 2005, by military men, with her two children and was brought to a place near a river, where the entire evening, the military kept asking her at gun point to tell them where the camp of the rebel armed group, the New People’s Army (NPA)is located and also to name the villagers who are extending food and other support to the armed group. She left Leyte for Cebu  as the military continued harassing her and her children. She now lives in the sanctuary of church organizations, and some allies of the organization. Riza Fanilag  witnessed the abduction of a co-human rights worker, by hooded fully armed military men. Deeply traumatized she had been in and out of the hospital since then. She decided to go to Manila for further medical check up for various ailments, but even before she had completed her medical treatment, she together with her husband were put in the military’s order of battle (OB) list, naming them leaders of the underground communist movement in West Mindanao. They were forced to prolong their stay in Manila, for fear they might be arrested or worse assassinated, when they arrive in West Mindanao. Carmen Buena has been unable to go back to her residence in Pampanga for almost two years now. She bore the pain of not seeing for the last time a sister who died last March,2006 as the military and men in plain clothes continue to ask for her whereabouts.The military were  enraged when they saw the photo of Carmen  in the front page of Philippine Daily Inquirer when she testified in a Senate hearing about the fertilizer fund which did not benefit the peasants but instead went to the 2004 election funds of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. In another tabloid, she landed front page in a protest action burning a huge photo of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Unable to find her, an irritated military threatened: “if ever she dares come home, she will no longer see the sun rise.” Beth Alfiler, witnessed the assassination of a co-human rights worker, right in the middle of a huge and busy market in Baguio City. She got identified by the military and has since been under military  surveillance.She still can not go back to her home so she stays from one place to another to escape military surveillance.

To date, since January, 2006 a total of 59 people, mostly peasants have already been killed including five women. Enrico Cabanit, a participant of the World Forum on Agrarian Reform held in Valencia, Spain,in 2004 of which AMIHAN was also a participant was gunned down in Mindanao.

The biggest source of casualty so far, is Central Luzon now under the command of General Jovito Palparan, named as the “Butcher”  by human rights groups because of his record of extrajudicial killings, abductions and various forms of human rights violation in all regions he had been assigned to command. This has been the case, when he was assigned in Mindoro provinces in eastern Visayas and now in Central Luzon. But rural people remain undaunted. Whatever opportunity and  safety offered by their mastery of their own turf is taken advantaged of. Whatever space is left to pursue the fight against economic injustices, killings, abuses and other forms of human rights violations , however, limited, are still pursued vigorously.  

As stated by Amihan Chairperson, Carmen Buena,when interviewed by media “ If we do not continue to fight,all the more that this fascist Arroyo government will continue to oppress and abuse us.”