amnesty international tells gma to disband groups with ties to military thats killing leftists militants and journmalists
- From: "why do you like right wing assassins?" <socculturefilipino@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 30 May 2006 19:37:03 -0700
btw they use motorcycles in these assassinations because its the
most convenient way to escape ,and evade traffic
AMNESTY International (AI) has urged President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
to disband any groups found responsible for the murder of hundreds of
left-wing activists and journalists in the country.
The London-based human rights watchdog yesterday said Ms Arroyo must
make "a public statement to make it crystal clear to all -- including
the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Philippine National
Police (PNP) and other security forces -- that involvement in such
killings will not be tolerated and that she will do everything in her
power to combat impunity."
Malacañang earlier branded as unfair the entry on the Philippines in
AI's world report for 2006, which pointed to a pattern of impunity in
the unsolved killings in the country.
AIP, nevertheless, lauded Ms Arroyo's call for an end to the killings
but said the administration had yet to deliver the message that those
crimes committed by alleged state agents should not go unpunished.
AI said it had received reports
of paramilitary groups, operating outside the AFP but with ties to some
military officers, carrying out extrajudicial killings.
"Forces operating outside the chain of command but with the
acquiescence of any official should be immediately prohibited," AI
Philippines (AIP) said in a statement yesterday.
Jessica Soto, AIP executive director, said members of groups
perpetrating extrajudicial executions should be brought to justice.
Mei Orias, a media affairs officer of AIP, told the Inquirer that the
watchdog was preparing a report on extrajudicial killings, including
cases in which vigilantes allied with some personalities in the AFP
were involved.
The Philippine human rights group Karapatan said it had documented the
killings of 73 leftist activists by suspected government forces or
their agents so far this year, and 152 in 2005.
More than 140 left-wing activists have been abducted and remain missing
since Ms Arroyo took office in 2001, and almost 600 have been killed
during the same period, it said.
At least 79 journalists have been killed since democracy was restored
in 1986, according to the National Union of Journalists of the
Philippines (NUJP).
The most recent killing was the ambush on Monday in Tabaco City of
Sotero Llamas, a former communist rebel leader.
The Arroyo administration has denied any involvement in the killings
and abductions.
Go extra mile
Soto said the President "must also go the extra mile to make it
absolutely clear that this government will not shirk its responsibility
to protect the individuals at risk -- whether journalists, leftist
activists or suspected criminals."
"Why are you allowing death squads to decimate the ranks of the legal
Left?" Bayan Muna party-list Representative Satur Ocampo asked Ms
Arroyo.
"The killings have reached an alarming rate and even included Sotero
Llamas who, like us party-list representatives, was also charged with
rebellion," Ocampo said.
Speak out
He said Ms Arroyo was allowing her forces to "get rid of us because
it jibes with her self-serving objective of silencing ... calls for her
ouster, which the Left vigorously pursues."
Rep. Crispin Beltran of Anakpawis party-list group called on the
Catholic Church and other religious groups to speak out against the
killings.
Rep. Risa Hontiveros, for her part, believed that the military
"wishes to push the envelop further" by staging so-called
"peace" rallies in rural areas in which effigies of left-leaning
leaders are burned.
She said such military-backed rallies were stoking an "irrational
fear and hatred against all forms of dissent."
Used as scapegoat
A congressman came to the defense of the administration.
"Government is being unfairly used as a scapegoat for the killings.
We challenge accusers to bring their case to the legal forum and prove
their charges instead of maligning government," said Rep. Antonio
Cuenco of Cebu City.
Malacañang acknowledged that it would remain a suspect in the rash of
killings unless authorities could present at least one of the
perpetrators.
"What we should do is go after the real masterminds of these
killings. That's the only way to answer all these charges," said
Presidential Chief of Staff Michael Defensor in an interview with the
Inquirer.
He said the government was not anticommunist. "We encourage communism
as well as socialism as a party just like those in Europe. What we do
not want is when they preach armed revolution," said Defensor.
At a briefing with reporters, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said
the government would rather keep mum on the killings. "The more we
talk about it, the more it is being used for propaganda," said
Ermita.
"They (communists) only want to protect their own interest by blaming
everything on the government because they think their position will
become stronger," he said.
Third angle
Ermita said the public should wait for the results of the probe of Task
Force Usig and those of the military and intelligence community upon
the directive of the President. He earlier suggested that the killings
were part of a purge by the communists.
Task Force Usig of the PNP offered up a third angle in the killings.
A senior police official said investigators were vigorously looking
into the possible involvement of a paramilitary organization closely
identified with former Senator Gregorio "Gringo" Honasan.
The first angle was the killings were a result of a purge within the
Communist Party of the Philippines, according to Director Marcelo Ele
Jr., chief of the PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detective
Management.
The second angle was that the military and the police were behind the
extrajudicial killings.
The police based the third theory on the recovery of a black sweatshirt
that the men who shot journalist Alberto Orsolino left behind during
their escape in Caloocan City on May 16. Ele said the sweatshirt bore
the logo of the Philippine Guardians Brotherhood Inc., Honasan's
faction of the group.
But Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) secretary general Renato Reyes
dismissed the angle as just another ploy to draw attention away from
the administration.
Police finally see pattern
Some 224 dead activists later, the police are finally starting to see a
"pattern" in the killings.
"The pattern that we are referring to is based on the facts -- that
first, these killings could not be said to be individual or separate.
That's the pattern that is beginning to develop in the investigations
of Task Force Usig," PNP spokesperson Senior Superintendent Samuel
Pagdilao said.
His statement deviated from earlier pronouncements by task force
officials that the killings were not "serialized."
Without directly saying it, officials also hinted that the killings
were part of the moves to destabilize the administration.
Use of motorcycles
Although pieces of evidence were still being evaluated, this angle was
being explored because the police said they "cannot say that these
killings suddenly came about without rhyme or reason."
One glaring similarity in the killings was the use of motorcycles as
getaway vehicles, according to the task force.
As a result, the police hierarchy has directed field commanders to set
up checkpoints and to include motorcycles in inspections. With reports
from Michael Lim Ubac, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse
.
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