In 1980, the PPT convened a Session on the Philippines to hear the case filed by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) against then President Ferdinand Marcos, the U.S. government, and U.S.-controlled financial institutions, multi-national corporations and commercial banks. The Marcos dictatorship, which was supported by the U.S. government, was specifically charged with violation of human rights and peoples rights, and crimes under international law.

After a trial, the PPT delivered a “Guilty” verdict on Marcos and his government – in effect becoming the first international body to condemn the Marcos dictatorship. It also recognized the NDFP and the MNLF as the “legitimate representatives” of the Filipino and Moro peoples, respectively.

Convening in The Hague this Oct. 30 is the PPT’s Second Session on the Philippines. In March next year, the PPT will be hearing a case filed against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the U.S. government, and multi-national agencies “acting as their accomplices in violating the individual and collective rights of the Filipino people.”

Filing the indictment on behalf of the Filipino people are: Hustisya (Justice), an organization of human rights victims under the Arroyo administration and their relatives; Desaparecidos, a group of relatives of victims of enforced disappearances; Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainee Laban sa Detensyon at para sa Amnestiya (SELDA or Society of Ex-Detainees Against Detention and for Amnesty); and the multi-sectoral Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance).

FULL STORY HERE

Related:

Verdict of the First Session on the Philippines (1980), Permanent Peoples' Tribunal

An Urgent Appeal to the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal (PPT) of the Lelio Basso International Foundation for the Rights and Liberation of Peoples

FULL STORY HERE

Communique of the 3rd IAPL Congress

Highly regarded as a progressive religious leader, Bishop Ramento has condemned attacks on leaders of activist organizations since 2001, among them Fr. William Tadena, IFI who was ambushed on March 13, 2005 by what activists now call as “death squads.”

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Central Luzon (Bayan-CL) in an SMS statement dubbed the killing as a “brazen attack on a peace-loving church leader,” calling it further as a “damnable imprint of a dictatorship.”

A fact-finding mission led by the human rights group Karapatan is now on its way to Tarlac City. Gitnang Luson News Service

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Pagtatapat ng Patalim na Nagkamalay
Sa Araw na Ganap Nating Bawiin ang Ating Pagpapahintulot
For Genuine Truth and Justice

Since February, dozens of killings, many widely thought to be politically motivated, have taken place. None of the recent cases have been brought to trial yet and only a handful of cases have been filed.

The special 10-week investigation, headed by Task Force Usig, began August 1 when President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo instructed the Department of Justice and the Philippine National Police to jail suspects in at least 10 killings before the October deadline. At the time, President Arroyo said, “I continue to condemn media and leftist killings in the strongest terms, and I have ordered law enforcement to dig deeper into the motives involved.” No updates on Task Force Usig’s or other authorities’ efforts have been made public, however.

“The government’s special investigation in the killings must be effective. Otherwise, justice is in jeopardy in the Philippines,” said Sophie Richardson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Prompt and thorough investigations, credible prosecutions and public access to justice should be the norm, not the exception.”

FULL TEXT HERE

CODAL condemns the shameless lack of remorse and sensitivity of Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile for his role as the implementor of martial law. He misses the point when he justified his role by using the ‘constitutionality’ of martial law, since the issue is not merely whether Pres. Ferdinand Marcos had the power to declare martial law but whether he had the power to close Congress, to conduct political killings, illegally arrest and detain the opposition and enrich his family through graft and corruption. Surely, many of the acts Hitler may have constitutional basis in Germany, but they were crimes against humanity under international law just the same.

CODAL is seriously concerned that the Melo Commission is contributing to the military’s media counter offensive when it allowed the AFP to explain why they are not guilty of the political killings rather than asking the victims what actually happened. Any serious, competent and genuine fact finding body or court for that matter must first establish the facts of the incident before interviewing the suspects. The prosecutor must first lay the basis of the case before the accused or the respondent is allowed to present his or her defense. This major mistake of the Melo Commission is a serious blow to its already tattered credibility, from which the Commission may not be able to recover. From the conduct and composition of the Melo Commission, it is no longer surprising to expect that it will come out with a decision declaring that there is no evidence proving government involvement in the killings, using the killing of journalists as a basis. It may sacrifice an individual soldier or two as perpetrators but will point to the NPAs and criminal syndicates as the main perpetrators of the killings.

The sinister inclusion of the Committee on Defense and the Public Order Committee headed by former military officers in the House of Representatives’ investigation of the political killings is one more proof of the malicious effort by government to derail the ongoing investigation and discourage witnesses from testifying. Rep. Abante, who chairs the human rights committee, shows his lack of human rights advocacy and sensitivity by inviting former military officers to join in his committee’s investigation.

FULL TEXT HERE

This is the highest number of libel charges filed by a single person. Arroyo has been “fighting back” against journalists and media outfits publishing articles criticizing him by filing libel suits.

“This situation highlights the predicament of journalists who risk imprisonment when reporting on controversial issues, particularly those involving powerful individuals,” said Jose Torres Jr. and Rowena Carranza-Paraan, NUJP chairman and secretary-general, respectively, in a letter to fellow journalists.

“It also highlights the need for the decriminalization of libel to allow greater room for open debate and public discussion of socially-relevant issues,” Torres and Paraan added. “Decriminalization of libel will strengthen the safeguards on free speech and expression and promote free flow of information – ingredients necessary in a democracy which we claim to enjoy.”

SEE LIST OF JOURNALISTS CHARGED WITH LIBEL HERE

14 September 2006 AI Index: ASA 35/010/2006 (Public)

The work of the Melo Commission should assist and should not prejudice current or future criminal proceedings. If the Commission obtains information indicating that identified individuals may have been responsible for committing, ordering, encouraging or permitting unlawful killings, abductions and enforced disappearances, that information should be passed to the relevant judicial or law enforcement bodies for investigation without delay, with a view to bringing those individuals to justice. Principle 8(e) of the updated Set of Principles to Combat Impunity states:

"Commissions of inquiry shall endeavour to safeguard evidence for later use in the administration of justice."

In carrying out their mandate, the Commission should bear in mind the rules and conditions for the admissibility of evidence in the criminal process and should ensure that they produce admissible evidence for later criminal proceedings.

The government should ensure that persons identified by the investigation as having participated in the unlawful killings, abductions and enforced disappearances investigated are brought to justice. The Commission should recommend modalities of bringing to justice alleged perpetrators from both sides.

READ FULL TEXT HERE

FULL STORY HERE

Historically, US assistance to the Philippines had been directly affected by government decisions that impact on American geopolitical or economic interests. For instance, the Senate rejection of the extension of the Military Bases Agreement in 1990 set off the yearly downfall in US aid to the country until the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) was approved by the Senate in 1998 and reversed the downward trend in US aid. The sharpest increases in US aid happened after 9/11, with US military assistance to the Philippines growing by an overwhelming 1,639 percent between 2001 and 2002.

READ FULL STORY

FULL STORY HERE

Part 1: Breaking Ties, Wounding Lives

Part 2: Children Victims of the All-Out War

RELATED STORY:

Refugees of the All-Out War BY JHONG DELA CRUZ

Reports received by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said the MTRCB, after reviewing materials for Frontline's episode called "Shadow" (a story about the shadow government of the NPA), has told producers to delete portions of the show.

Aside from the questioned story, Frontline will also feature the Mayon volcano eruption, NUJP learned.

The MTRCB move constitutes prior restraint which is a grave infringement on the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech and of the press.

NATIONAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS OF THE PHILIPPINES

READ MORE

Related article:

Communists have Infiltrated Media, Says Gonzales

In its concluding observations in 2003, the UNHRC lined up several questions on the Philippine government's poor performance in its compliance to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The UN body instructed the Philippine government to reply to these observations on Nov. 1 this year.

Karapatan is also set to lobby for the review of the pledges the government promised as a member of the UN Human Rights Council.

According to the rights alliance, 729 persons, many of them confirmed to be identified with cause-oriented organizations and progressive party-list groups, were killed extra-judicially allegedly by military, paramilitary and police forces since Macapagal-Arroyo took power in early 2001. The number does not include 181 abduction cases during the same period.

Reports of political killings, where not one case has been investigated or suspects brought to courts, have increasingly alarmed international bodies. Nobel Peace Prize winner Amnesty International, the World Council of Churches and the Vatican’s Papal Nuncio in Manila, the International Parliamentary Union and several other groups in Europe, the United States and other countries have criticized the Macapagal-Arroyo government for its failure to rein in its security forces over the killings.

FULL STORY

The attacks, mostly carried out by unidentified men who shoot the victims before escaping on motorcycles, have very rarely led to the arrest, prosecution and punishment of those responsible. Amnesty International believes that the killings constitute a pattern and that a continuing failure to deliver justice to the victims represents a failure by the Government of the Philippines to fulfil its obligation to protect the right to life of every individual in its jurisdiction.

The organisation is also concerned that the killings have played a major role in the break-down of a protracted peace process and an accompanying human rights agreement, between the government and the National Democratic Front (NDF), representing the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA).

The common features in the methodology of the attacks, leftist profile of the victims, and an apparent culture of impunity shielding the perpetrators, has led Amnesty International to believe that the killings are not an unconnected series of criminal murders, armed robberies or other unlawful killings. Rather they constitute a pattern of politically targeted extrajudicial executions taking place within the broader context of a continuing counter-insurgency campaign. The organisation remains gravely concerned at repeated credible reports that members of the security forces have been directly involved in the attacks, or else have tolerated, acquiesced to, or been complicit in them.

READ FULL REPORT HERE

In the long-drawn war against the Marxist guerrillas where force takes the lead, the country’s security forces have had a reproachable record in human rights threatening even legitimate political dissent, the peaceful advocacy of radical reform and, now, the use of the legislature to push for patriotic and progressive legislation. BY BOBBY TUAZON

The U.S. Doctrine of Counter-insurgency in the 'Silent War'
Second of three parts

The deliberate use of terror is “a legitimate and highly effective tactical tool of unconventional warfare.” This unconventional warfare is designated as a “national policy” with the military assigned the primary responsibility in “the conduct of punitive operations” backed by police, paramilitary and civilian agencies. BY BOBBY TUAZON

What Drives Macapagal-Arroyo's 'Silent War'?
Last of three parts

The issue of political murders is tied to the issue of regime survival. BY BOBBY TUAZON

We call on U.S. citizens to demand the cut-off of U.S. military and other assistance to the corrupt and illegitimate Arroyo regime as a gesture of solidarity to millions of Filipinos victimized by the tyrannical, militarist Arroyo regime. READ MORE

We sat through the chilling stories of political repression narrated by kith and kin of women and men whose sole purpose in life was to ensure that justice and freedom are lived realities for every Filipino. We were anguished at the reality that the state which is supposed to protect the life of its citizens is, according to these victims, responsible for these violations. We listened intently to an elucidation of Oplan Bantay Laya, the government's organizing principle for the "reign of terror" it is presently sowing in the midst of a struggling people. We were painfully reminded that the pattern of human rights violations is the way in which the US War on Terror is being played out in the Philippines. We unearthed possibilities and prospects for peace, drawing wisdom and inspiration from our learnings to live out our days courageously.

We are confounded by the fact that this attack on life is carried out in a culture of impunity and that our leaders refuse to lift a finger in order to bring to a halt these human rights violations. We are appalled at the political intolerance of the State authorities whose response to abject poverty, unemployment and landlessness is military might and a vicious campaign to obliterate a bourgeoning revolutionary movement.

The political repression that is done with such savage brutality insults the sense of justice of people of goodwill. Everytime we hear the dull thud of a body that falls to the ground or the painful wail from the lips of a dying victim, a righteous indignation is fanned in our hearts, compelling us to fight for the vindication of the innocent and the punishment of the perpetrator. From the nooks and corners of this beleaguered land, people are expressing their rage against the dying of the light of freedom in our society. And the voices of our overseas partners and friends blend with ours in a rising crescendo of concern and protest.

Today, we stand on sacred ground watered by the blood of the people's martyrs. Moved by their heroism, we call….

1. for the conduct of an independent investigation on these violations of human rights by a group of esteemed individuals from different walks of life such as church people, academicians, lawyers, legislators and leaders of peasants and workers, to be done with dispatch;

2. for a thorough inquiry by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Human Rights Council and other international courts of justice to ferret out the truth and to hold accountable those responsible for such wrongdoings;

3. for the government to exercise its political will to put an immediate end to the extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and other forms of political persecution.

4. for the resumption of peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

5. for concrete initiatives and programs to support the efforts of victims and families of human rights violations to rebuild their lives, i.e. scholarships, financial and livelihood assistance, etc.

July 21, 2006
St. Cecilia's Hall
St. Scholastica's College
Manila, Philippines

Other documents of the Human Rights and Peace Summit are available at http://contakphilippines.tripod.com/statementsandresolutions/id13.html

PHOTOS

The witness, Antonio Lacno, said he escaped from his alleged military captors on June 27 somewhere in Camarines Sur a day after he and four others were reportedly abducted.

The four others are Prudencio Calubid, said to be a regional consultant to the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace panel; Ariel Beloy, Calubid’s staff member; Calubid’s wife, Celina Palma, and sister-in-law, Gloria Soco.

Bishop Emeritus Julio Xavier Labayen of the Roman Catholic church’s Prelature of Infanta, Quezon made this observation in an interview with Bulatlat on June 26, during the launching of The GRP-NDFP Peace Negotiations: Major Written Agreements & Outstanding Issues, a book published by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Human Rights Monitoring Committee containing all 17 major written agreements in its peace negotiations with the Philippine government.

Both Labayen and NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison criticized the proposal by Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz, Jr. of solving the “insurgency” through what he described as development.

FULL STORY

In the manifesto they signed with their own blood, the peasant leaders from Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog regions accused Mrs. Arroyo of murdering peasant leaders, diverting fertilizer and other farm funds towards her 2004 electoral campaign, authoring or perpetrating pro-imperialist globalization measures and for siding with oppressive landlords who dispossess peasants.

The Mendiola Massacre occurred on Jan. 22, 1987 after Philippine police and soldiers fired at a peaceful peasant demonstration led by the KMP. It demanded the then Aquino regime to implement a genuine agrarian reform. Thirteen peasants were killed in the massacre, while scores were injured. Read a survivor's account of the Mendiola Massacre

Mendiola is the name of a bridge leading to the presidential palace.

Capt. Nathaniel Rabonza, and First Lieutenants Lawrence San Juan, Sonny Sarmiento and Patricio Bumidang Jr. escaped from detention on the night of January 17. Last December, Marine Captain Nicanor Faeldon also fled from detention.

Rosal said the CPP and the New People's Army are offering the four soldiers “friendship, alliance and sanctuary” in any of the revolutionary movement's territories.

The Arroyo government has ordered a nationwide manhunt on the four soldiers who, after their escape, called on the other members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to support moves to oust the illegitimate president from power.

The CPP-NPA had been waging a civil war since 1969. They are part of the growing anti-Arroyo united front. Several AFP personnel, including a ranking general, have defected to the NPA.

CPP-NPA Website CPP-NPA website

The probe will proceed as planned from August 14 to 19 with 85 foreign and local delegates representing 17 countries worldwide. The ISM 2005 delegates will visit five areas where the grossest human rights violations (HRVs) under the Arroyo administration were recorded: Mindoro Island, Hacienda Luisita (Tarlac), Samar Island, Surigao del Sur, and Jolo Island, Karapatan secretary-general Marie Hilao-Enriquez said.

The data collated during the ISM 2005 may possibly be included as evidence in the ongoing impeachment case against Pres. Arroyo. “The rising trend of killings since 2001 is alarming and unprecedented enough; these could not have possibly escaped the President’s attention without her consent,” she said.

The ISM 2005 will end with an International Peoples’ Tribunal at the University of the Philippines Film Center on August 19, where a jury composed of distinguished international delegates will issue their verdict based upon the body of evidence gathered during the ISM 2005.

FULL STORY
Selected Profiles of ISM Delegates

Produced by Artists for the Removal of Gloria (ARREST Gloria)
Lyrics: Alex Remollino (Kilometer 64)
Music: Bobby Balingit (vocalist and lead guitarist, The Wuds)
Vocals: Lourd de Veyra (vocalist, Radioactive Sago Project)
Sound mix: Southern Tagalog Exposure

(Southern Tagalog Exposure and Kilometer 64 are member organizations of the ARREST Gloria alliance, while Bobby Balingit and Lourd de Veyra are individual members)

("Tuparin Natin ang Banta ng Ating Panahon" first appeared in print as a poem in the Oust Gloria chapbook published by Kilometer 64)

It is not just in the now almost-daily rallies that protest against the Macapagal-Arroyo regime finds expression.

Macapagal-Arroyo's now infamous conversations with a Commission on Elections (Comelec) official -- widely suspected to be Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano -- has found its way into the more sophisticated cellular phone models, in the form of ringtones. TXTPower, a broad-based cellphone users' group, has sent QC Indymedia a number of ringtones that were drawn from the taped conversations:

Hello Garci ringtones
More Hello Garci ringtones
5-second Hello Garci ringtone
Three more Hello Garci ringtones

The President's recent admission that it was indeed her voince that was on the tapes has only added fuel to the public indignation against her administration. There is now an I Am Sorry ringtone.

Former actress Susan Roces, wife of the late "defeated" presidential candidate Fernando Poe, Jr., who had previously chosen to remain silent on the issue, has recently come out with a statement demanding Macapagal-Arroyo's resignation. Part of her impassioned rebuke of the President has also found its way into the cellphones as a Susan vs. GMA ringtone.

The Macapagal-Arroyo camp's attempt to respond to Susan Roces' statement has given birth, meanwhile, to a GMA vs. Susan ringtone.

Also available are a number of anti-GMA placards and posters, courtesy of TXTPower.

(Photo from Bulatlat)

WELCOME ROTONDA (QUEZON CITY/MANILA) -- About 20,000 protesters belonging to mainstream opposition parties and the biggest people's organizations marched together today to demand Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's ouster from office.

Shouts of “Gloria Arroyo, pekeng pangulo (fake president) thundered across Quezon Avenue, as several remixes of the now-popular Hello Garci ringtone added humor to the otherwise militant march.

Protesters demanded that Arroyo tell the people the truth behind her Bayan alliance, in coordination with the Unity for Truth Coalition and the United Opposition, which groups all major mainstream opposition groups in the country.

These groups were mostly enemies when Arroyo's predecessor, Joseph Estrada, was booted out of office. They included supporters of the late Fernando Poe Jr. who was Arroyo's main opponent in the last elections.

The broad united front against Arroyo got a strong boost following the release by the presidential palace of tapes of a conversation between the chief executive and Virgilio Garcillano, a member of the Commission on Elections days after the May 2004 elections.

Arroyo has since refused to react on the issue and has instead allowed martial law tactics against critics: copies of the Gloriagate CDs are seized, sedition cases slapped against whistleblowers, presses printing anti-Arroyo posters raided and even users of Hello Garci ringtones threatened with sedition raps.

Organizers of yesterday's protest said that more and bigger protests are in the offing.

Bayan had called for Arroyo's ouster as early as July 2004 on account of her servility to US imperialism, unbridled corruption, economic hardships brought about by pro-imperialist economic policies, acts of brutality against activists and dissidents and her full support to US terrorism.

Related: No Way But Out of Malacañang, Bayan statement for the National Day of Protest

The calls were issued by various political forces and personalities soon after the release of wiretapped conversations between Mrs. Arroyo and a certain Gary, said to be a nickname of a ranking member of the Commission on Elections.

Caught on tape were exchanges between Mrs. Arroyo and Gary about the results of the national elections in Mindanao, a place the political opposition had long charged to have been the place where widespread cheating purportedly happened.

The mainstream INQ7.net website has removed from its website the audio clips earlier provided for free and instant download following threats by Arroyo's justice secretary Raul Gonzales that those who spread copies of the conversation may be liable for violations of the anti-wiretapping law.

In the interest of truth and justice, Indymedia Quezon City (Pilipinas) makes available for download the controversial audio clips.

Other developments:

On June 9, Aquilino Pimentel, Jr., a ranking senator who fought Ferdinand Marcos' dictatorship and figured prominently in Joseph Estrada's removal from office, called for Mrs. Arroyo's resignation.

At the House of Representatives, activist solons led by Rep. Liza Maza of Gabriela Women's Party and Rep. Teddy Casiño of Bayan Muna (People First) said that, if proven to be true, the contents of the conversation may form the basis for an impeachment case against Arroyo.

Revolted by Arroyo's deception, students belonging to the League of Filipino students have started spreading compressed audio files and transcripts of the controversial telephone conversation of the Chief Executive.

The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, in the group's commemoration of the "bogus" agrarian reform law's anniversary, has called for Arroyo's outright ouster.

The Kilusang Makabansang Ekonomiya (KME, Movement for a Nationalist Economy), which includes three anti-Arroyo bishops of the Catholic Church, has called for a National Day of Mourning on June 11.

For its part, the Bangon Pilipinas National Renewal Movement (Arise Philippines!) has reportedly called for a prayer rally on June 12. The group is led by Bro. Eddie Villanueva one of Arroyo's opponents in 2004.

Big mass actions are set to be staged in the coming weeks.

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), the underground alliance of revolutionary organizations that include the New People’s Army (NPA) and Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), will turn 32 on April 24.

In connection to this, a rare public showing of documentary films on the underground Left will be held on Monday, April 25 at the Aldaba Hall (located at the back of the Film Center), University of the Philippines, Diliman. The activity is sponsored by the group Contend-UP.

Read full text

From February 24-26, 2005, we internationals from Belgium, Canada, Germany, Ireland, South Korea, the Netherlands, and the United States who are living and working in the Philippines, gathered for the 21st Annual Conference of the Philippine International Forum (PIF) with the theme, Globalization and Domination: Building a Culture of Resistance and Exploring Alternatives. We listened to workers, peasant farmers, women, and overseas Filipino workers as they shared their hopes, their pains, and their experiences with oppressive structures resulting from the offensive of neo-liberal/imperialist globalization. They also shared with us the concrete actions they are taking in resistance to the present institutionalized, unjust world order. We were deeply moved by the inspiration they draw from small victories amid overwhelming problems--something we all can learn from.

We condemn neo-liberal globalization as a system of domination that further impoverishes the world's majority, ever widening the gap between the rich and the poor. Through our sharing, we identified the ways in which globalization negatively impacts small farmers, workers, women, and small businesses around the world. Neo-liberal globalization has meant a dangerous decline in people's health and access to health care in both the industrialized countries and developing countries; it has caused the bankruptcy of small farms, the conversion of agricultural land into tourist areas and for industrial use, and has ushered in the dominance of big agri-business through mono-cropping and the imposition of genetically modified organisms. Neo-liberal globalization has introduced and promoted policies of labor flexibility (such as contractual labor) which results in loss of job security and increasing obstacles to the basic rights of workers around the world, including the right to organize. Globalization promotes a mono-culture consumption pattern which is destroying cultural identity the world over. FULL TEXT

Adan may argue to high heavens that the proposal is not meant to stifle press freedom, as he was quoted as saying in a recent press interview. But it cannot be denied that the proposal carries grave implications for press freedom, a sacred right enshrined in no less than the Philippine Constitution as one of the foundations of the democracy that the government claims the Republic of the Philippines to be.

If there is anything that the government of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has proven so indisputably in the three years since the people catapulted her to power, it is that its use of the term "terrorism" is not at all founded on an even remotely accurate definition of the word.

The public has not forgotten that Macapagal-Arroyo called nationalists and legal cause-oriented groups "terrorist lovers" amid the controversy over the RP-US Balikatan military "exercises" in late 2001 and early 2002.

These same nationalists and legal cause-oriented groups have at various instances been called "communist fronts" or "communist sympathizers" by Malacañang spokespersons. Which also means danger for them, considering that the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) is included in the US Department of State's list of "foreign terrorists," together with its armed component the New People's Army (NPA) and its founding chairman Jose Maria Sison.

There can be no denying that the Macapagal-Arroyo government has been dubbing as "terrorist" anyone it pleases to, but most particularly those personalities and groups critical of its anti-national and anti-people policies.

With his proposal, Adan is advocating a return to the days of dictatorship, when the military had a monopoly of access to the media while the torture and slaughter of hundreds of thousands of freedom-loving and justice-loving Filipinos went unreported and those who reported on these paid dearly -- like Henry Romero who remains missing nearly 30 years after he disappeared.

QC Indymedia is committed to joining all efforts at fighting off this attempt to further constrict our already limited democratic space and imposing a regime of open state terrorism against Philippine media and the Filipino people -- all in furtherance of a US-led war on "terror" that had long ago bared itself to be totally devoid of moral and legal basis.

Malacañang is confident that a national identification (ID) system, which it is now pushing for in the wake of the Valentine's Day bombings will not run into conflict with the country's laws. "We are confident that any legal barriers on the implementation of the national I.D. system can be overcome," said Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye in a Feb. 21 statement.

Bunye's statement echoes a view expressed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Feb. 18 in Bohol. "That’s why we’re working for a law, or at the local level an ordinance," Macapagal-Arroyo said when asked whether a national ID system would not run counter to a Supreme Court decision declaring it as unconstitutional. "For the national ID, we need a law precisely why I am pushing for this bill."

Senate Bill 833, filed by Sen. Panfilo Lacson, provides for the establishment of a national reference card system that will supposedly facilitate government transactions. Under the bill, all citizens are assigned a reference number upon birth and issued a National Reference Card free of charge at age 18.

Opposition Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile is a proponent of the national ID system. The national ID system is one issue in which Macapagal-Arroyo sees eye-to-eye with opponents Lacson and Enrile.

The opponents of the bill argue that a national ID system would violate human rights.

"This measure will be used to monitor citizens and groups opposing the Macapagal-Arroyo administration’s anti-people policies," said Joel Maglunsod, KMU secretary-general. "Wanton violation of civil, political and human rights will take place if the ID system will be approved."

Arroyo and Pangilinan, for their part, said that the national ID system would violate civil liberties and the right to privacy.

"Today more taxes, tomorrow less liberties, what next? That is what happens when the president has an unthinking, unfeeling support staff," Arroyo said.

Kampanyang Ahos was supposedly a campaign to weed out deep penetration agents from the national-democratic movement in Mindanao during the 1980s. "This campaign involved the kidnapping, torture and murder of hundreds of CPP cadres and members, NPA commanders and fighters and mass activists who were falsely accused of being enemy deep penetration agents (DPAs)," Sison said. Reyes is said to have attempted to extend the campaign to the National Capital Region (NCR), but was prevented from doing so.

Kampanyang Ahos is just one of a number of purges that rocked the Philippine Left during the 1980s. These purges nearly brought the national-democratic movement to its death.

Sison had knowledge of these purges as early as 1988 and, in his book The Philippine Revolution: The Leaders' View (with Reiner Werning), warned against the use of torture and pushed for the exercise of due process in dealing with suspected deep penetration agents.

Among the accusations by Akbayan against Sison is one by Rep. Etta Rosales, who claimed in a Jan. 23 interview with the Sunday Inquirer Magazine that the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) had attempted to recruit her into an "inner sanctum" that would decide who would next be executed.

Other personalities whose names appear in connection with Kampanyang Ahos are Dr. Nathan Quimpo, Salvador Baz, and Frank Gonzales. NDFP chief negotiator Luis Jalandoni, in a 2002 interview with journalist Juan Escandor, Jr. which was published in Bulatlat, also named Benjamin de Vera as one of the persons behind Kampanyang Ahos.

In an interview with Grace Albasin of the Philippine Daily Inquirer in January 2004, De Vera pointed to Quimpo and Baz as the ones who launched Kampanyang Ahos in 1985.

Four gun men on board a Nissan Patrol driving from inside Las Haciendas De Luisita and coming out to the west gate drove through the makeshift barricade manned by striking workers at about 10 pm Wednesday night and shot Jorge Loveland, 32, resident of Barangay Balete, Tarlac City and critically wounded Ernesto Ramos, 50, of Barangay Mapalacsiao, uncle of CATLU president, Ricardo Ramos.

Doctors at the Ramos General Hospital, where the victims were rushed, pronounced Loveland, who was hit by a single bullet in the upper left breast, in stable condition. Ramos, who was also hit by a single bullet in the stomach is in critical condition and will undergo a major operation. (more)

Related story: KARAPATAN denounces new attempt on the lives of striking workers in Luisita

An alleged “hit list” of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) hogged the news headlines on Dec. 26 - the same day the CPP itself marked its 36th anniversary. The alleged “hit list” against “counter-revolutionaries” was denounced by Walden Bello, director of the Bangkok-based and well-funded Focus on the Global South and Etta Rosales, Akbayan party-list House representative. Bello is himself “chair emeritus” of Akbayan.

Their denunciation sprang from an article that came out in the Dec. 7, 2004 issue of Ang Bayan (AB or The People), the central publication of the CPP. The article is half-page with a diagram showing the links of reformist and pseudo-revolutionary groups with international Trotskyite and social democratic formations. The term “hit list” attributed to the diagram was coined by Bello and Rosales.

Bello and Rosales used the AB article to launch an offensive on Jose Maria Sison, founding chair of the CPP, accusing him of, among others, using the CPP as a “fascist harbinger of violence, hatred and murder.” They issued an “Open Letter” – a copy of which was never sent to Prof. Sison himself – and delivered it personally to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, which headlined the story, and other dailies. The letter is now circulating worldwide.

QC Indymedia is publishing the Bello-Rosales letter and replies by Sison dated Dec. 26 and 27.

The rejection of a longer-term truce was made in reaction to statements by Malacanang calling for a permanent cessation of hostilities between the government and the NPA.

The Christmas ceasefire, which takes effect from midnight of December 23 until midnight of January 2, 2005, was made "in unity with the Filipino people's traditional celebration of Christmas and the New Year" and "to pave the way" for the celebration of the CPP's 36th anniversary on December 26.

The CPP, however, has instructed NPA fighters to continue to bear arms and "remain alert and ready to fight and defeat any attacks and harassment" by government armed troops.

The CPP said it issued the declaration despite the Arroyo government's continued violation of past agreements reached in the now-suspended peace talks. The government, said the CPP, has failed to fulfill its commitment to take concrete measures to oppose and rectify the malicious inclusion of the CPP, NPA and NDF Peace Panel Chief Political Consultant Jose Ma. Sison in the US list of so-called terrorists.

The CPP also accused the Arroyo regime of "relentlessly violating" provisions of the human rights agreement signed by the NDF and the Philippine government.

It likewise condemned "successive brutal attacks by fascist forces of the reactionary government against unarmed people," citing the the November 16 Hacienda Luisita massacre and the more recent killing of peasant leader Marcelino Beltran, a vital witness to the massacre. It also condemned state forces for indiscriminately firing at a human rights day demonstration in Daet, Camarines Sur.

The CPP also scored the Arroyo regime for "duplicity" in declaring a Christmas ceasefire even as AFP and PNP continue with their military campaigns and operations against NPA guerrilla fronts across the archipelago. The CPP reported ongoing AFP offensive military operations in Cagayan Valley, Mindoro Occidental, Surigao del Sur and Negros Occidental.

No permanent ceasefire

Saying that the "puppet, corrupt and antipeople" Arroyo government has made a permanent ceasefire impossible, CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal cited the regime's extreme subservience to US interests and its antipeople acts.

"In the face of its relentless attacks against the people, calling for a long-term truce is a psywar ploy to camouflage its militarist war of terror and crimes against the people," said Rosal.

Rosal likewise cited the regime's policy of freezing wages amid soaring prices and allowing foreign oil companies to raise oil prices with impunity, as well as worsened corruption and criminal activities by government officials as added factors that make a long-term truce untenable.

"A just and lasting peace can only be achieved by resolving the roots of the armed conflict, primarily by carrying out land reform and national industrialization," Rosal added.

"The Arroyo regime's puppetry to US interests, its worsening corruption and criminal activities, the intensified hardships and oppression of the masses and the brazen use of fascist state violence all justify the intensification of revolutionary armed struggle," Rosal said.

The government expected the NDFP to reciprocate "in respect to the essence of the Yuletide season," said Malacañang spokesperson Ignacio Bunye in a news briefing.

"Any move to reciprocate the unilateral ceasefire declared by the government is welcomed, but we believe that it would be more beneficial if both the government and the CPP-NPA can come up with a lasting ceasefire like the one that we have with the MILF," Bunye added in a Dec. 18 statement.

The NDFP, however, is wary about Malacañang's ceasefire declaration.

Fidel Agcaoili, NDFP co-chair of the Joint Monitoring Committee for human rights, lambasted the government for setting capitulation as precondition.

NDFP chief negotiator Luis Jalandoni, meanwhile, accused the government of poisoning the backchannel line of communications. "Based on past experiences with so-called unilateral ceasefire of the GRP and the regime’s proven record of anti-people and anti-national policies and actions," Jalandoni said, "the regime’s unilateral ceasefire for Christmas and New Year holidays must be considered a tricky psywar scheme."

On the prospect of a long-term truce, NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison said that it is possible if there are basic reforms.

On the other hand, the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU or May First Labor Center) hopes that the bombing was not the handiwork of the military and is not a pretext for an escalation of the presence of state forces in the city. The KMU calls for an independent investigation into the bombings.

The Philippine Constitution lists press freedom as a basic right of Filipinos, on par with the right to life, the right to freedom of speech and expression, and freedom from involuntary detention and torture.

On the eve of the commemoration of the International Day of Human Rights, Filipino print, radio, television and web-based media practitioners join the lament of all compatriots whose rights have been violated in what is supposed to be one of Asia's most vibrant democracies.

Our national officials like to describe the Philippine press as among the freest in the region. Certainly, many journalists in other Asian countries languish indefinitely in jail. Colleagues in other nations experience censorship or work under the shadow of draconian internal security laws that brook no dissent against a country's rulers.

But in the most basic of right -- that to life -- the Philippine press is under siege. The Philippine press will remember 2004 as a year of infamy. We have lost 13 colleagues in what could be work-related murders, the highest number in history. We have lost more in other incidents billed as "ordinary" crimes -- though no bereavement due to senseless violence can be called ordinary.

There has been no single conviction for a journalist's murder since 1986. And the killers of our colleagues are getting bolder. In at least three recent killings -- that of Bombo anchor Herson Hinolan in Kalibo, Aklan; of Freeman reporter Allan Dizon of Cebu, and of Guru Press reporter Stephen Omaois in Kalinga -- the dastardly acts were followed by gloating calls and more death threats to the newsrooms. The climate of impunity is such that murder of a journalist also sparks a rash of death threats in other regions.

In condemning the killings, media groups are aware that our profession does not suffer alone. We also condemn the killings of judges, lawyers, anti-corruption advocates and human rights workers nationwide.

As Filipino journalists unite today in outrage, we also stand defiant against those who wish to silence Philippine media.

The press does not exist in a vacuum. Our nation's history has shown that it is when the press is silenced that the dark hours descend on our people. Many journalists joined our people's struggle for the restoration of democracy, and a number of us gave up careers and lives for this cause. Many journalists also fought to protect democracy against those who sought to turn back the tide of change.

We ask the public to support us in the fight for press freedom. This right is enshrined in the Constitution, not because a special sector demands special privilege, but because it helps ensure adherence to all other basic civil liberties.

With every murder of a journalist, or a judge, an environmentalist, an anti-corruption activist, a human rights worker – democracy dies a little. As our nation grapples with crisis, and powerful groups jockey to control big chunks of our economy and body politic, many among our citizens, journalists among them, become casualties of events.

It is time Filipinos raised their voices against the violence that stalks our land. Media organizations are stepping up the campaign for the ethical practice of journalism. Media groups and individual journalists are struggling to rectify numerous flaws in our profession. This we owe the public -- our readers, listeners and viewers. Indeed, these tasks are overdue, and we also ask the public to continuously remind us of our duties and responsibilities.

But Filipino journalists shall give no quarter to those to want to see a cowed and quiescent press. A united media sends notice to the enemies of Press Freedom: We shall overcome.

In response, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) will lead a nationwide mediapersons' protest on Nov. 17 to seek justice for their slain members and to demand an end to the killings and intimidation of members of Philippine media which, the group laments, continues to this day.

Gene Boyd Lumawag (in photo), 26 years old, was shot dead by still unidentified assailants in downtown Jolo Nov. 12 after taking photos of the sunset at the pier. He had come to Jolo along with fellow journalist Carolyn Arguillas of the MindaNews news agency to pursue a story on graft in local governments.

Herson "Bombo Boy" Hinolan, 38, was shot by a lone gunman a day after Lumawag's killing. He died yesterday while undergoing medication at a local hospital.

Lumawag and Hinolan the 57th and 58th casualties in the unending spate of murders of journalists since the so-called restoration of democracy in 1986 with the overthrow of the Marcos dictatorship.

The Antonio Zumel Center likened the situation to the post-1986 media atmosphere with the martial law years, "when journalists like the late Antonio Zumel were relentlessly pursued by the state, and many of them landed behind bars and not a few were killed or abducted, for exposing the fascist regime's atrocities against the people. Journalists were among the first to be arrested following the Sept. 21, 1972 declaration of martial law."

In a brief statement, Indymedia QC (Pilipinas) expressed full support to the NUJP and the AZC, vowing to expose on the worldwide alternative media network the ongoing murderous spree against Filipino journalists. "We will fight back by exposing to the whole world these cold-blooded murders and the refusal of the Philippine government to protect Filipino journalists."

(In photo: Gene Boyd Lumawag)

A tense AFP has declared a “red alert” nationwide in the face of mounting reports that many soldiers and the public have become restive over bureaucratic corruption by the AFP top brass and following a call for action by the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Gen. Carlos F. Garcia, the suspended AFP comptroller, has been accused of amassing wealth grossly disproportionate to his income as a military officer. (Not even one general who authorized fascist attacks on the Filipino people under the US-backed Marcos dictatorship has ever been tried under any court in the Philippines.)

In a apperance before the House of Representatives, Garcia only kept mum and refused to answer the legislators' queries.

Garcia could become the first general to be tried before a court martial. Among the charges to be heard against him is Violation of Articles of War 96 or conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman.

The scandal over Garcia and other generals erupted following the apprehension by US immigration authorities of Garcia's wife for failing to declare that she has in her possession 100,000 US dollars.

Garcia's declared net worth as of 2003 is at 58,,050 US dollars. However probes have led to the discovery of 2.5 million US dollars worth of ill-gotten wealth.

Garcia's wife told the US authorities that his husband, the AFP comptroller, receives commissions and perks amounting to millions of pesos.

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, who ran under the administration banner in the last elections, shocked the military establishment early this week with an expose claiming that AFP chiefs of staff were given at least P100-million each when they retire.

Santiago also alleged that AFP generals' wives also interfered in AFP processes in order to milk money from the military projects even as ordinary soldiers remain under-paid and ill-equipped.

Various groups have proposed that graft, corruption and plunder cases be filed before the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan and the Ombudsman.

The partylist Bayan Muna (People First) has called for the arrest and prosecution of all erring generals but authorites have kept mum over the demand.

In a statement, CPP spokesperson Ka Roger Rosal called on Filipino soldiers, especially those of peasant origin and have long been suffering under the fascism and corruption of the AFP top brass, to raise their voices, launch protests, leave the AFP and join the New People’s Army.

The AFP was formed by the US during the latter's colonial rule over the Philippines in the early 1900s and has since been a steady recipient of US military aid.

The AFP and the US Armed Forces have ongoing joint military exercises or war games, activities that have been the subject of serious protest by people’s organizations, the CPP, the New People’s Army and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

See also: Bayan Muna picket at AFP headquarters

CPP diagnosis of AFP corruption scandal

Govt prosecutors ask court to seize Garcia's ill-gotten wealth

Pictures: Picket at Cory's house | Street conference | Solidarity night 1 | Solidarity night 2 | Program at the Department of Agriculture | Caravan to Malacanang | Program at Welcome Rotonda | The crowd at Welcome Rotonda

See also: Hunger and World Food Day

Indeed, the weather last Sept. 21 was the doing of a sky seemingly gone berserk. At first it was hotter than the hottest summer day. Then a little over an hour later, it was raining cats and dogs, and very few of the ralliers had brought their umbrellas and jackets.

Still they marched on. After all, they were thinking, the country had gone through far worse on that very day 32 years ago.

It was a day that had to be commemorated, the declaration of martial law. It was a day that ushered in some 14 years in which many of the best and brightest Filipinos were punished for fighting for a life fit for all.

Data from human rights groups working since the late 1970s places the number of human rights victims of the martial law period at no less than 104,000. Of these, at least 35,000 were tortured, according to military historian Alfred McCoy.

In a statement, the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan said that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is becoming "more like Marcos."

Prof. Jose Maria Sison, chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and himself a martial law victim, is similarly convinced. In an e-mail interview, Sison said that there are many similarities between 1972 and 2004.

But he also mentioned several dissimilarities which, he said, would have implications on whether Macapagal-Arroyo would succeed in doing a Marcos.

He has called for struggle against the escalation of terrorism by the US and the puppet state.

Meanwhile, the progressive party-list group Bayan Muna is asking what happened to the Marcos escrow funds. The Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainee Laban sa Detensyon at para sa Amnestiya, through the Bayan Muna representatives, has refiled the bill seeking indemnification of martial law victims.

Thirty-two years after the declaration of martial law, its victims have yet to receive justice. Sad to say, but hardly surprising since no government after Marcos has made any serious measure to prosecute its perpetrators.

Which is why many of Marcos' cronies are still here.

- Alexander Martin Remollino

Its shortness notwithstanding, Jeng's life was surely not an ordinary one. She left behind a long and distinguished record in the service of the people.

Hundreds of friends and supporters of the victim staged an indignation march in the afternoon of Aug. 27 in front of the Sta. Rosa City Hall to condemn the perpetrators of the killing.

GWP secretary-general Emmi de Jesus has released a statement condemning the killing.

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> The butcher is at the helm of the Philippine Army

The NUJP had earlier slammed what it called the constriction of democratic space for media, referring to the Philippine military's plan to embed soldiers in media organizations. It called the plan "a heavy-handed attempt at news management and the latest sign of the constriction of democratic space in the country."

In letters to AFP Chief of Staff, Gen. Narciso L. Abaya; AFP civil relations service chief, Brig. Gen. Victor Corpus, and the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas, the NUJP had questioned how the embedded soldiers would be able to maintain objective, much less critical, reportage. The letters were signed by NUJP chairperson, Inday Espina-Varona and NUJP secretary-general Carlos Conde.

De Castro, a media practitioner since the 1960s, was known as news anchor of ABS-CBN's TV Patrol and host of Magandang Gabi, Bayan for several years.

Radio commentator Roger Mariano of Ilocos Norte was gunned down July 31 by still-unidentified assailants. Yesterday, columnist and reporter Arnel Manalo of Batangas was murdered in Bauan town, same province. Full story