October 11, 2005
PROTESTERS BROUGHT OWN SHIELDS TO DEFEND THEIR RIGHTS AND NATIONAL PATRIMONY
It is shield against shield. Without any permit to hold a rally, about 500 environmental activists, indigenous peoples, and advocates from the church trooped to Makati City on Tuesday to denounce the government's mining liberalization policy. Their leaders carried wooden shields and placards against the metal ones of the police as they marched toward Shangri-la Hotel, venue of the Asia Pacific Mining Conference.
"We brought our own shields to assert our right to protest in defense of our patrimony," said Trixie Concepcion, spokesperson of the alliance Defend Patrimony!
"The people condemn the continuous sale of the country's mineral and natural resources by the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's government. They remain steadfast in their opposition to the liberalization of the minerals industry and the unabated plunder and destruction of the resources."
Clemente Bautista, National Coordinator of Kalikasan-People's Network for the Environment warned that "the people will make Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her administration accountable for this, just as she will be made accountable for usurping the highest political position of the land."
"This is a stern warning to all the executives of transnational mining corporations attending the 'Asia-Pacific Conference on Mining' on October 11-13, 2005 at the Makati Shangrila. They are dealing with a beleaguered and illegitimate government which will soon be ousted and tried by the people whose rights she has outrightly and willfully violated."
Meanwhile, the protesters also sought the review of all the Executive and Administrative Orders, and laws that have been passed by the Arroyo Administration including the controversial reversal of the ruling of the Supreme Court on the Mining Act of 1995's unconstitutionality.
According to Himpad Mangulmaas, spokesperson of Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamayan sa Pilipinas (KAMP), "these laws which the GMA Administration in connivance with the ASEAN Federation of Mining Associations (AFMA) is brandishing have caused untold destruction and sufferings on our people."
"The entry of large-scale mining projects in local communities has led to the dislocation, loss of livelihood and violation of human rights of thousands of indigenous people, peasants and small-scale miners."
Five indigenous people, environmental activists and leaders opposing government-mining projects were reported killed this year.
"The liberalization of the mining industry is one of the main reasons that the Arroyo administration has become extremely isolated," said Concepcion.
"The political crisis is worsening and her capacity to govern has been diminishing. More and more people are uniting for her ouster. No amount of repressive laws can stifle the people's right to seek for a government that is just and representing their will."
Mr. Bautista said "Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will be replaced soon and we shall immediately ensure that a government that truly earns the people's mandate will be installed."
"We will then see to it that justice will be served, contracts violating people's rights, national sovereignty and environmental laws will be revoked, and their proponents will be punished," Bautista added.
Reference: kpne@edsamail.com.ph
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Churches call for investigation into Philippines killings
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_051011phil.shtml
Churches call for investigation into Philippines killings -11/10/05
Church and development groups from around the world are calling on Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to investigate the killings of more than 30 human rights activists, including clergy members, in the course of this year, reports Maurice Malanes for Ecumenical News International.
"We are deeply concerned at the killings of 34 activists in the Philippines so far in the year 2005," the groups said in letters last week to President Arroyo and to army chief of staff Lt Gen Generoso S. Senga, released by the Geneva-based Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance.
The more than 30 signatories included the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Lutheran World Federation, World Alliance of Reformed Churches, Franciscans International and the Young Women's Christian Association. They demanded "immediate and impartial investigations into all recent extrajudicial executions".
The signatories cited three recent killings by suspected military agents: Diosdado Fortuna was shot in the back on 22 September in Laguna Province, south of Manila; this followed the death on 4 September of the Rev Raul Domingo of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, two weeks after being shot in Puerto Princesa in the island of Palawan; Norman Bocar was shot in the head on 1 September in Borongan, Eastern Samar in central Philippines.
"We mourn each of those killed and we deplore the ongoing violence and killing," the signatories said. "We stand in solidarity with the struggle of the Filipino people to achieve their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights."
They referred to the report of a delegation sent in July 2005 to the Philippines by the WCC and the Christian Conference of Asia. This had noted increasing numbers of activists, including church workers, being murdered, and the intimidation, illegal detention and torture of peasants working on farms for rich landlords.
The WCC wrote at the end of March 2005 to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, calling on her to set up an independent investigation into the atrocities being committed and to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice. The CCA wrote to the President on 23 May raising similar concerns.
The October letter urges the Arroyo government to promote agrarian and land rights reform to enable rural people to have more access to their natural resources. It also calls for the repeal of legislation, including the Mining Act of 1995, which "puts corporate profit before the interests of people and the environment".
Sarah Ford of US-based Lutheran World Relief, one of the signatories to the letter, said: "We are concerned with the increasing threats to religious leaders and civil society representatives struggling for their land, property, and cultural rights. We call upon the Government of the Philippines to work with churches and NGO leaders to bring an end to the violence."
In February 2005, the general secretary of the National Council of Churches of the Philippines (NCCP), Sharon Rose Joy Ruiz-Duremdes, asked for prayer, solidarity and understanding from Christians in Britain and Ireland towards the churches in her country. She highlighted the struggle for justice, the quest for authentic witness and the plight of national minorities as among the major concerns of NCCP.
[Adapted from an ENI article. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches.]
Churches call for investigation into Philippines killings -11/10/05
Church and development groups from around the world are calling on Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to investigate the killings of more than 30 human rights activists, including clergy members, in the course of this year, reports Maurice Malanes for Ecumenical News International.
"We are deeply concerned at the killings of 34 activists in the Philippines so far in the year 2005," the groups said in letters last week to President Arroyo and to army chief of staff Lt Gen Generoso S. Senga, released by the Geneva-based Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance.
The more than 30 signatories included the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Lutheran World Federation, World Alliance of Reformed Churches, Franciscans International and the Young Women's Christian Association. They demanded "immediate and impartial investigations into all recent extrajudicial executions".
The signatories cited three recent killings by suspected military agents: Diosdado Fortuna was shot in the back on 22 September in Laguna Province, south of Manila; this followed the death on 4 September of the Rev Raul Domingo of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, two weeks after being shot in Puerto Princesa in the island of Palawan; Norman Bocar was shot in the head on 1 September in Borongan, Eastern Samar in central Philippines.
"We mourn each of those killed and we deplore the ongoing violence and killing," the signatories said. "We stand in solidarity with the struggle of the Filipino people to achieve their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights."
They referred to the report of a delegation sent in July 2005 to the Philippines by the WCC and the Christian Conference of Asia. This had noted increasing numbers of activists, including church workers, being murdered, and the intimidation, illegal detention and torture of peasants working on farms for rich landlords.
The WCC wrote at the end of March 2005 to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, calling on her to set up an independent investigation into the atrocities being committed and to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice. The CCA wrote to the President on 23 May raising similar concerns.
The October letter urges the Arroyo government to promote agrarian and land rights reform to enable rural people to have more access to their natural resources. It also calls for the repeal of legislation, including the Mining Act of 1995, which "puts corporate profit before the interests of people and the environment".
Sarah Ford of US-based Lutheran World Relief, one of the signatories to the letter, said: "We are concerned with the increasing threats to religious leaders and civil society representatives struggling for their land, property, and cultural rights. We call upon the Government of the Philippines to work with churches and NGO leaders to bring an end to the violence."
In February 2005, the general secretary of the National Council of Churches of the Philippines (NCCP), Sharon Rose Joy Ruiz-Duremdes, asked for prayer, solidarity and understanding from Christians in Britain and Ireland towards the churches in her country. She highlighted the struggle for justice, the quest for authentic witness and the plight of national minorities as among the major concerns of NCCP.
[Adapted from an ENI article. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Conference of European Churches.]
Monday, October 10, 2005
An Illegitimate Government Has No Right to Deal on Matters Involving National Patrimony
October 10, 2005
An Illegitimate Government Has No Right to Deal on Matters Involving National Patrimony
The Philippines has an illegitimate government and it is poised to sell the remaining mineral and natural resources in the coming Asia Pacific Conference on Mining on October 11-13, 2005. Beaming at the controversial reversal of the Supreme Court on the constitutionality question of the Mining Act of 1995, the Arroyo administration has been shamelessly dangling the right of foreign mining TNCs to fully-own the mineral resources in this country.
Absolutely disregarding the nationwide opposition of indigenous people, peasants, and even local government units, the Arroyo administration has sold off shares and equities in mining projects throughout the land. This illegitimate government, in association with the Philippine Chamber of Mines, is now priding itself for facilitating the forceful entry of mining TNCs in the communities, in spite the rampant violation of human rights and even the distortion of existing laws.
The Arroyo administration has already put four hundred eighty six thousand (486,000) hectares of our mineral lands under mineral agreement. Most of these are controlled by foreign mining TNCs and their local partners.
While aggressively seeking new mining investors, the government has remained oblivious to the issues of abandoned mines. There are 857 abandoned mines which continue to cause havoc, endangering the peoples' health and lives in the mining communities. Among these are the Hixbar Open Pit Mine (Rapu-rapu, Albay), Marcopper-Placer Dome Mine (Marinduque), Basay Copper Mine (Negros Oriental), Thanksgiving Gold Mine (Benguet), Black Mountain Copper Mine (Benguet), Boneng-Lobo Copper Mine
(Benguet), and Palawan Quick Silver Mine (Puerto Princesa City). For years, owners of these mines have run from their responsibility of remediating the impacts on the people and the environment. Worst, the Arroyo administration's solution to these problems is to offer these mines to new investors.
We warn the foreign investors and mining TNCs not to enter into any business deals with this illegitimate government. President Arroyo's claim to power is eroding by the day. Mass actions have become more frequent and bigger. Revolutionary groups, like the New People's Army vow to intensify their armed actions against the illegal government. Bickering and factionalism within the Arroyo administration and its military intensify and have become more confrontational.
With President Arroyo's ouster, your mining agreement, under this bogus administration, will not be acknowledged nor honored by the Filipino people.
Scrap Mining Act of 1995.
Junk the Mining Revitalization Program!
Oust the fake President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo!
###
Reference: Kalikasan-People's Network for the Environment
An Illegitimate Government Has No Right to Deal on Matters Involving National Patrimony
The Philippines has an illegitimate government and it is poised to sell the remaining mineral and natural resources in the coming Asia Pacific Conference on Mining on October 11-13, 2005. Beaming at the controversial reversal of the Supreme Court on the constitutionality question of the Mining Act of 1995, the Arroyo administration has been shamelessly dangling the right of foreign mining TNCs to fully-own the mineral resources in this country.
Absolutely disregarding the nationwide opposition of indigenous people, peasants, and even local government units, the Arroyo administration has sold off shares and equities in mining projects throughout the land. This illegitimate government, in association with the Philippine Chamber of Mines, is now priding itself for facilitating the forceful entry of mining TNCs in the communities, in spite the rampant violation of human rights and even the distortion of existing laws.
The Arroyo administration has already put four hundred eighty six thousand (486,000) hectares of our mineral lands under mineral agreement. Most of these are controlled by foreign mining TNCs and their local partners.
While aggressively seeking new mining investors, the government has remained oblivious to the issues of abandoned mines. There are 857 abandoned mines which continue to cause havoc, endangering the peoples' health and lives in the mining communities. Among these are the Hixbar Open Pit Mine (Rapu-rapu, Albay), Marcopper-Placer Dome Mine (Marinduque), Basay Copper Mine (Negros Oriental), Thanksgiving Gold Mine (Benguet), Black Mountain Copper Mine (Benguet), Boneng-Lobo Copper Mine
(Benguet), and Palawan Quick Silver Mine (Puerto Princesa City). For years, owners of these mines have run from their responsibility of remediating the impacts on the people and the environment. Worst, the Arroyo administration's solution to these problems is to offer these mines to new investors.
We warn the foreign investors and mining TNCs not to enter into any business deals with this illegitimate government. President Arroyo's claim to power is eroding by the day. Mass actions have become more frequent and bigger. Revolutionary groups, like the New People's Army vow to intensify their armed actions against the illegal government. Bickering and factionalism within the Arroyo administration and its military intensify and have become more confrontational.
With President Arroyo's ouster, your mining agreement, under this bogus administration, will not be acknowledged nor honored by the Filipino people.
Scrap Mining Act of 1995.
Junk the Mining Revitalization Program!
Oust the fake President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo!
###
Reference: Kalikasan-People's Network for the Environment
Sunday, October 09, 2005
A threat to blogosphere?
Sedition law's use stirs up Singapore blogging community
SINGAPORE--Singapore, wary of alienating its Muslim Malay minority, has cracked down hard on two men who posted racist remarks on the Internet, but the move caused concern in the growing community of bloggers.
In a landmark ruling Friday, two ethnic Chinese men became the first persons in multi-racial Singapore to be punished under the Sedition Act, which dates back to British colonial rule and was last used in 1966.
Benjamin Koh, 28, was given two concurrent one-month jail terms while Nicholas Lim, 25, was jailed for one day and fined 5,000 Singapore dollars after they pleaded guilty to making strong anti-Muslim remarks.
The case was triggered by a letter to the Straits Times newspaper from a Malay Muslim Singaporean woman, Zuraimah Mohammed, who in a query to taxi firms said uncaged dogs may drool on seats or dirty them with their paws.
Under the Syafie school of thought to which most members of the local Muslim community belong, contact with dog saliva is prohibited.
The two men, who attacked Islam and its believers in reaction to the letter, issued public apologies after pleading guilty.
Koh, an animal shelter assistant, admitted he was "behaving exactly and no better" than a "fanatic" while Lim, an assistant marketing manager, said the episode showed the forgiving nature of Islam and other religions.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had told a foreign media forum Thursday that Singapore wants to ensure that no disaffection takes root among people who might feel excluded in society.
"And so, racial harmony and religious harmony are of utmost importance in Singapore, which is why when somebody went and published some racist blogs recently, we came down very hard," he said.
"All you need is one crazy guy and a disaster takes place and an enormous rent happens, a tear in the fabric of society."
Judge Richard Magnus, who handed out the sentences, said the Internet postings threatened to disrupt racial harmony, a bedrock social principle in Singapore.
Magnus recalled the 1964 racial riots and reminded young Singaporeans that "callous and reckless remarks on racial or religious subjects" can spark social disorder.
The judge also told bloggers who have made similar offending remarks to remove such postings, warning that the court will not hesitate to impose stiffer penalties in the future.
With a growing number of Singaporeans taking to the Internet to express their views in order to bypass the pro-government mainstream media, some fear the ruling could have wider implications.
"People will become more cautious," said Sinapan Samydorai, executive director of Think Centre, a group pushing for greater political freedoms in the tightly-governed city-state.
"People are already cautious in Singapore, but they would become more cautious. Blogging is one of the areas where people thought they could express themselves, but now I think they would have to exercise more caution."
Samydorai, who made it clear he was against making racial remarks, described the one-month sentence on one of the bloggers and the use of the Sedition Act as harsh.
"I don't think the bloggers had any intention to disturb the security of Singapore and create racial violence," Samydorai told Agence France-Presse.
He said Think Centre's work would continue despite the ruling but the group "will keep within the law."
Bloggers were divided, with some saying they would tone down their comments, while others maintained they would not be affected.
"I wouldn't feel censored because I would not post such remarks anyway," a university student who has her own blog told Agence France-Presse.
"I wouldn't be too worried. There are blogs out there that comment openly on government policies. I think there is room for this expression as long as your views are rational and you can substantiate them."
Another blogger said, however, that he would be more careful.
"Yes, I will tone down. The government has a lot of things up its sleeves they can use against me," he said.
Both bloggers spoke on condition they are not identified.
Ethnic Chinese make up 76 percent of Singapore's resident population of 3.4 million with Malay Muslims accounting for 13.7 percent followed by ethnic Indians, Eurasians and other racial groups.
While ensuring that anti-Muslim feelings are kept in check following September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, Singapore also bars Muslim schoolgirls from wearing veils in government schools, saying the institutions must remain secular.
(1 US dollar = 1.683 Singapore dollars)
Source: http://news.inq7.net/breaking/index.php?index=7&story_id=52782
SINGAPORE--Singapore, wary of alienating its Muslim Malay minority, has cracked down hard on two men who posted racist remarks on the Internet, but the move caused concern in the growing community of bloggers.
In a landmark ruling Friday, two ethnic Chinese men became the first persons in multi-racial Singapore to be punished under the Sedition Act, which dates back to British colonial rule and was last used in 1966.
Benjamin Koh, 28, was given two concurrent one-month jail terms while Nicholas Lim, 25, was jailed for one day and fined 5,000 Singapore dollars after they pleaded guilty to making strong anti-Muslim remarks.
The case was triggered by a letter to the Straits Times newspaper from a Malay Muslim Singaporean woman, Zuraimah Mohammed, who in a query to taxi firms said uncaged dogs may drool on seats or dirty them with their paws.
Under the Syafie school of thought to which most members of the local Muslim community belong, contact with dog saliva is prohibited.
The two men, who attacked Islam and its believers in reaction to the letter, issued public apologies after pleading guilty.
Koh, an animal shelter assistant, admitted he was "behaving exactly and no better" than a "fanatic" while Lim, an assistant marketing manager, said the episode showed the forgiving nature of Islam and other religions.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had told a foreign media forum Thursday that Singapore wants to ensure that no disaffection takes root among people who might feel excluded in society.
"And so, racial harmony and religious harmony are of utmost importance in Singapore, which is why when somebody went and published some racist blogs recently, we came down very hard," he said.
"All you need is one crazy guy and a disaster takes place and an enormous rent happens, a tear in the fabric of society."
Judge Richard Magnus, who handed out the sentences, said the Internet postings threatened to disrupt racial harmony, a bedrock social principle in Singapore.
Magnus recalled the 1964 racial riots and reminded young Singaporeans that "callous and reckless remarks on racial or religious subjects" can spark social disorder.
The judge also told bloggers who have made similar offending remarks to remove such postings, warning that the court will not hesitate to impose stiffer penalties in the future.
With a growing number of Singaporeans taking to the Internet to express their views in order to bypass the pro-government mainstream media, some fear the ruling could have wider implications.
"People will become more cautious," said Sinapan Samydorai, executive director of Think Centre, a group pushing for greater political freedoms in the tightly-governed city-state.
"People are already cautious in Singapore, but they would become more cautious. Blogging is one of the areas where people thought they could express themselves, but now I think they would have to exercise more caution."
Samydorai, who made it clear he was against making racial remarks, described the one-month sentence on one of the bloggers and the use of the Sedition Act as harsh.
"I don't think the bloggers had any intention to disturb the security of Singapore and create racial violence," Samydorai told Agence France-Presse.
He said Think Centre's work would continue despite the ruling but the group "will keep within the law."
Bloggers were divided, with some saying they would tone down their comments, while others maintained they would not be affected.
"I wouldn't feel censored because I would not post such remarks anyway," a university student who has her own blog told Agence France-Presse.
"I wouldn't be too worried. There are blogs out there that comment openly on government policies. I think there is room for this expression as long as your views are rational and you can substantiate them."
Another blogger said, however, that he would be more careful.
"Yes, I will tone down. The government has a lot of things up its sleeves they can use against me," he said.
Both bloggers spoke on condition they are not identified.
Ethnic Chinese make up 76 percent of Singapore's resident population of 3.4 million with Malay Muslims accounting for 13.7 percent followed by ethnic Indians, Eurasians and other racial groups.
While ensuring that anti-Muslim feelings are kept in check following September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, Singapore also bars Muslim schoolgirls from wearing veils in government schools, saying the institutions must remain secular.
(1 US dollar = 1.683 Singapore dollars)
Source: http://news.inq7.net/breaking/index.php?index=7&story_id=52782
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Preempting people power?
The Malacañang pronouncement of a shift in policy from “maximum tolerance” to “the rule of calibrated preemptive response” or “CPR” in dealing with demonstrations and other mass protest actions is a clear case of doublespeak; that is, of saying one thing and doing the exact opposite.
The latest concoction of Mrs. Arroyo’s bright boys, the “CPR”, is really nothing new. Even under the so-called policy of “maximum tolerance” the Macapagal-Arroyo regime has blatantly curtailed civil liberties with impunity.
The Arroyo administration wants to give the impression that it has been exercising “maximum tolerance”; that is, demonstrators are allowed to rally in the streets even without a permit, they are not dispersed even when they allegedly tie up traffic, deliver speeches bordering on the seditious and utter invectives against the President.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. Protesters, especially those from nationalist and progressive organizations, have continually been on the receiving end of police brutality and other evidences of state fascism under whatever legal guise. The activist organizations and even the political opposition have simply learned to defy perennial government threats and the actual use of police and military coercive force in order to assert their democratic rights.
Even when the demonstrators produce their rally permits from the respective city mayors, police may or may not honor them depending on “orders from higher ups”.
In many instances, it is the police and the military who cause the huge traffic build up when they arbitrarily set up barricades on thoroughfares that the rallyists use and do not even make any prior announcements regarding the orderly rerouting of traffic.
Worse, it is they who have unlawfully initiated the violent dispersals, evidently premeditated as shown by the absence of nameplates on most if not all of the police in the phalanx barricading the demonstrators' path.
Protesting priests, nuns, human rights workers and peace advocates have been hosed down by water cannon, tear gassed, clubbed, manhandled and illegally arrested even when the protest actions have been peaceful, orderly and not at all constituting any threat to public safety much less national security.
When government appears to be implementing a policy of “maximum tolerance” and the police and military actually exhibit greater willingness to allow a protest action to proceed unimpeded, it is because of certain circumstances that tie their hands from ordering violent dispersals. These are: the presence of personalities, large numbers of protesters, the attention of the international media, or the presence of international observers or participants, etc.
In the absence of these circumstances, the police have unleashed naked brutal force, emboldened by their superiors’ prior approval and confident of subsequent official backing should demonstrators decide to lodge complaints.
“CPR” is Malacañang euphemism for shifting to the policy of the greater use of the state’s coercive force against demonstrators to prevent them from mounting protest rallies that could suddenly grow in size and breadth given the favorable conditions -- GMA’s extreme unpopularity, the worsening economic crisis, cracks in the pillars of the ruling regime such as the military, church hierarchy, Congress and local government units -- enough to threaten the rule of GMA up to her being ousted from power.
“CPR” denies or restricts rights purportedly to avert unlawful or illegal acts from being committed; in truth, rights are denied even as no illegal or unlawful act has even been committed.
Mrs. Arroyo’s “CPR” policy mimics the policy of “preemptive strike” that the big, white brother – rather, master -- US President George W. Bush, has unleashed against sovereign countries and peoples in the name of the “war on terror” . Just as the Bush notion of “preemptive strike” clearly violates international humanitarian law and the United Nations charter, Mrs. Arroyo’s invention, the “calibrated preemptive response”, grossly violates the peoples’ civil, political and human rights.
The most recent events have shown, however, that “CPR” is more than just about how the Arroyo regime deals with street protests. It applies to all possible sources of so-called “destabilization” against the detested regime of Mrs. Arroyo.
This pronouncement is all the more ominous because it is made in the midst of relentless political killings under the Arroyo administration. In August, Karapatan-Palawan Chairperson Rev. Raul Domingo and Anakpawis-Mindoro Coordinator Boker Tagumpay were killed. On Sept. 1, 2005, human rights lawyer Norman Bocar and Bayan Muna leader in Eastern Visayas and, on Sept. 22, 2005, Nestle Union President Ding Fortuna were also treacherously murdered.
On the heels of National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales’s ludicrous testimony at the Senate hearing regarding the highly questionable government contract with US lobby firm, Venable, is the explosive testimony of two high ranking military officers who defied a Malacañang order to desist from appearing in a Senate public hearing. Philippine Military Academy (PMA) assistant superintendent Brigadier General Francisco Gudani and assistant commandant of the PMA corps of cadets Colonel Alexander Balutan testified on fraud committed during the May 2004 presidential elections.
The punishment was swift: the two officers were immediately relieved of their posts and now face court-martial. Gudani stands to lose his retirement benefits after more then 30 years of service with only a week left before he retires from the military.
Malacañang has issued Executive Order 464 that disallows people in government to testify before the Congress without the express approval of the Chief Executive. The directive was issued as the Senate Committee on Defense and National Security started its own inquiry into the wiretap tapes allegedly involving President Arroyo and former elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.
Now Malacañang is poised to suspend the United Opposition President, Makati Mayor Jojo Binay, in a clear case of political harassment and in order to deny the Makati business district as a venue for the big rallies calling on Mrs. Arroyo’s resignation or ouster.
The suspicious appointment by the UP Board of Regents of a new College of Law dean identified with Malacañang despite the overwhelming choice of the faculty, incumbent Dean Raul Pangalangan, and the sacking of Education Undersecretary Juan Miguel Luz, brother of Makati Business Club’s Bill Luz, the business association that called on Mrs. Arroyo to resign, augurs more preemptive moves that are also highly punitive.
The Hyatt 10 are targets of judicial slaps on the wrist, vicious character assassination in newspaper columns and the threat of criminal and civil liabilities should they agree to inform the public of what they know regarding the Arroyo government’s irregularities or worse. Mrs. Cory Aquino is suddenly being hit by known Malacañang paid hacks at her most vulnerable point, the Hacienda Luisita issue.
Emergency rule (a variant of martial law unencumbered by legal, constitutional restraints) probably constitutes the apex of “CPR”. Despite Malacañang denials, it remains an option – a bigger and more deadly weapon with which to bludgeon this administrations’ political enemies misrepresented as the enemies of the people, the enemies of the “rule of law”.
If this administration is good at anything, learning the lessons of history is not it. “CPR” and emergency rule can only stoke and inflame people power, not preempt it.#
The latest concoction of Mrs. Arroyo’s bright boys, the “CPR”, is really nothing new. Even under the so-called policy of “maximum tolerance” the Macapagal-Arroyo regime has blatantly curtailed civil liberties with impunity.
The Arroyo administration wants to give the impression that it has been exercising “maximum tolerance”; that is, demonstrators are allowed to rally in the streets even without a permit, they are not dispersed even when they allegedly tie up traffic, deliver speeches bordering on the seditious and utter invectives against the President.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. Protesters, especially those from nationalist and progressive organizations, have continually been on the receiving end of police brutality and other evidences of state fascism under whatever legal guise. The activist organizations and even the political opposition have simply learned to defy perennial government threats and the actual use of police and military coercive force in order to assert their democratic rights.
Even when the demonstrators produce their rally permits from the respective city mayors, police may or may not honor them depending on “orders from higher ups”.
In many instances, it is the police and the military who cause the huge traffic build up when they arbitrarily set up barricades on thoroughfares that the rallyists use and do not even make any prior announcements regarding the orderly rerouting of traffic.
Worse, it is they who have unlawfully initiated the violent dispersals, evidently premeditated as shown by the absence of nameplates on most if not all of the police in the phalanx barricading the demonstrators' path.
Protesting priests, nuns, human rights workers and peace advocates have been hosed down by water cannon, tear gassed, clubbed, manhandled and illegally arrested even when the protest actions have been peaceful, orderly and not at all constituting any threat to public safety much less national security.
When government appears to be implementing a policy of “maximum tolerance” and the police and military actually exhibit greater willingness to allow a protest action to proceed unimpeded, it is because of certain circumstances that tie their hands from ordering violent dispersals. These are: the presence of personalities, large numbers of protesters, the attention of the international media, or the presence of international observers or participants, etc.
In the absence of these circumstances, the police have unleashed naked brutal force, emboldened by their superiors’ prior approval and confident of subsequent official backing should demonstrators decide to lodge complaints.
“CPR” is Malacañang euphemism for shifting to the policy of the greater use of the state’s coercive force against demonstrators to prevent them from mounting protest rallies that could suddenly grow in size and breadth given the favorable conditions -- GMA’s extreme unpopularity, the worsening economic crisis, cracks in the pillars of the ruling regime such as the military, church hierarchy, Congress and local government units -- enough to threaten the rule of GMA up to her being ousted from power.
“CPR” denies or restricts rights purportedly to avert unlawful or illegal acts from being committed; in truth, rights are denied even as no illegal or unlawful act has even been committed.
Mrs. Arroyo’s “CPR” policy mimics the policy of “preemptive strike” that the big, white brother – rather, master -- US President George W. Bush, has unleashed against sovereign countries and peoples in the name of the “war on terror” . Just as the Bush notion of “preemptive strike” clearly violates international humanitarian law and the United Nations charter, Mrs. Arroyo’s invention, the “calibrated preemptive response”, grossly violates the peoples’ civil, political and human rights.
The most recent events have shown, however, that “CPR” is more than just about how the Arroyo regime deals with street protests. It applies to all possible sources of so-called “destabilization” against the detested regime of Mrs. Arroyo.
This pronouncement is all the more ominous because it is made in the midst of relentless political killings under the Arroyo administration. In August, Karapatan-Palawan Chairperson Rev. Raul Domingo and Anakpawis-Mindoro Coordinator Boker Tagumpay were killed. On Sept. 1, 2005, human rights lawyer Norman Bocar and Bayan Muna leader in Eastern Visayas and, on Sept. 22, 2005, Nestle Union President Ding Fortuna were also treacherously murdered.
On the heels of National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales’s ludicrous testimony at the Senate hearing regarding the highly questionable government contract with US lobby firm, Venable, is the explosive testimony of two high ranking military officers who defied a Malacañang order to desist from appearing in a Senate public hearing. Philippine Military Academy (PMA) assistant superintendent Brigadier General Francisco Gudani and assistant commandant of the PMA corps of cadets Colonel Alexander Balutan testified on fraud committed during the May 2004 presidential elections.
The punishment was swift: the two officers were immediately relieved of their posts and now face court-martial. Gudani stands to lose his retirement benefits after more then 30 years of service with only a week left before he retires from the military.
Malacañang has issued Executive Order 464 that disallows people in government to testify before the Congress without the express approval of the Chief Executive. The directive was issued as the Senate Committee on Defense and National Security started its own inquiry into the wiretap tapes allegedly involving President Arroyo and former elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.
Now Malacañang is poised to suspend the United Opposition President, Makati Mayor Jojo Binay, in a clear case of political harassment and in order to deny the Makati business district as a venue for the big rallies calling on Mrs. Arroyo’s resignation or ouster.
The suspicious appointment by the UP Board of Regents of a new College of Law dean identified with Malacañang despite the overwhelming choice of the faculty, incumbent Dean Raul Pangalangan, and the sacking of Education Undersecretary Juan Miguel Luz, brother of Makati Business Club’s Bill Luz, the business association that called on Mrs. Arroyo to resign, augurs more preemptive moves that are also highly punitive.
The Hyatt 10 are targets of judicial slaps on the wrist, vicious character assassination in newspaper columns and the threat of criminal and civil liabilities should they agree to inform the public of what they know regarding the Arroyo government’s irregularities or worse. Mrs. Cory Aquino is suddenly being hit by known Malacañang paid hacks at her most vulnerable point, the Hacienda Luisita issue.
Emergency rule (a variant of martial law unencumbered by legal, constitutional restraints) probably constitutes the apex of “CPR”. Despite Malacañang denials, it remains an option – a bigger and more deadly weapon with which to bludgeon this administrations’ political enemies misrepresented as the enemies of the people, the enemies of the “rule of law”.
If this administration is good at anything, learning the lessons of history is not it. “CPR” and emergency rule can only stoke and inflame people power, not preempt it.#
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