The Wily Filipino

Killing Spree.

Thought I'd post an e-mail message from my student Jun, currently in the Philippines for the summer:

717 Extrajudicial Killings Under GMA: A Fil Am Exposurist Perspective

On July 31 at 12pm, our exposure team was scheduled to attend a presentation on the human rights situation in the Philippines. However, the presentation started much earlier that morning.

At 7:45am I received a text stating, "Rie Mon "Ambo" Guran, 21, League of Filipino Students, spokesperson of Aquinas University was shot dead today 6am in Bulan, Sorsogon. Justice for AMBO! End Arroyo's tyranny!

At 9:24am I received another text stating, "Dr. Chandu Claver (Bayan Muna Chair, and Cordillera Peoples Alliance [CPA] member in Kalinga) and his wife (Alice) were shot early this morning in Bulanao, Kalinga. Dr. Chandu is out of danger but his wife is in critical condition." The text did not include that, Sandy, their 11 year old daughter was also hurt in the incident.

At 11:30am, upon arriving at the location of the human rights presentation, I was informed that a news photographer was shot in my family's hometown of Malabon in Manila.

Finally at 1:30pm I received a text from a friend at CPA stating, "We are now in tears for the death of Alice Claver, Bayan Muna Kalinga."

Three people were murdered all in the span of a few hours this morning.Literally, I received several wake up calls to the horrid human rights situation in my homeland.The three deaths bring the extrajudicial killing total under the Arroyo administration to 717.120 of the murders occurred in the first eight months of this year.

One important question to ask is who is responsible for the seven hundred and seventeen extrajudicial killings.Many witnesses as well as organizers from the militant mass organizations such as Bayan Muna and League of Filipino Students point to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

In a documentary entitled "State of War" broadcasted on mainstream Philippine television last week, a reporter asked Major General Jovito Palparan of the AFP, if he was directly responsible for the long list of killings.Palparan replied with a smile, "Not directly, but maybe indirectly."Palparan explained that he trained his men to be agressive and that his training could encourage such killings. Furthermore, the major general openly commented that because the victims were associated with leftist militant organizations, the murders were good for the country.

Ultimately, it is the President of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA), who is responsible for the spate of extrajudicial killings.She is either responsible for causing them or at the very least she is responsible for bringing the perpetrators to justice.

It is more likely that GMA is a cause behind the killings based on her open endorsement of Jovito Palparan in her State of the Nation Address (SONA) last week.At SONA, GMA stated, "Jovito Palparan has come to grips with the enemy. He will not let go until the communities in the long night of terror emerge into the light of law and freedom.Placing GMA behind the cause of the murders explains why the perpetrators of all 717 incidents were never brought to justice.

Even further beyond GMA, the United States government is also responsible for the horrid human rights situation in the Philippines.Each year the Philippine Government receives hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid as well as training from the U.S.

The hundreds of millions in military aid to the Philippines from the U.S. explains why GMA openly endorses Major General Jovito Palparan even though he may be "indirectly" responsible for the long list of unjust murders.

The clear target of all the murders are those associated with militant left organizations under the BAYAN or Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Patriotic Alliance) umbrella.BAYAN is a pro-people, national democratic alliance that opposes foreign domination and exploitation of the Philippines.

BAYAN believes the Philippines suffers from poverty because the government allows multi-national corporations (MNCs) such as Dole Pineapple and Nestle to use the land, resources, and people of this country at extremely low costs without appropriate compensation.The low operational costs generates super profit for the MNCs.In return, the MNCs payoff the government officials for allowing the practice to continue.The result is what we see in the Philippines today-a small rich elite 1% of the population with a majority living in extreme poverty.

The U.S. being home to many of the largest investors of the MNCs is highly supportive and extremely agressive in developing and maintaining such unjust economic practices with third world countries.That is whythe U.S. government allocates hundreds of millions in military aid to the AFP even though the Philippine military is engaged "indirectly" in murdering hundreds of innocent people.

It is also the millions in payoffs the MNCs give to corrupt government officials such as GMA that explains why the Philippine president would be behind the killing of BAYAN organizers.

For the last twenty years BAYAN has been educating, organizing, and mobilizing the Philippine masses against the corrupt government of the Philippines.It is the organizations under BAYAN that are primarily responsible for both People Power I and II.It is clear, based on the efforts of the governent to wipe out BAYAN and both people power uprisings, that the pro-people alliance poses a serious threat to the unjust order.

The Protracted Peoples War carried out by the National Democratic Front, Communist Party of the Philippines, and the New Peoples Army (NDF, CPP, NPA) is also a direct threat to corrupt Philippine government.The NDF, CPP, NPA have been the primary enemy of the AFP for the last forty years.

Now the Philippine government and the AFP have changed its primary target.It is no longer aiming primarily at the NDF, CPP, NPA.The Philippine government and AFP's number one enemy is now the unarmed civilian mass movement led by BAYAN.The government and its military is making the allegation that BAYAN is a front for the NDF, CPP, NPA and therefore is no longer distinguishing between armed combatants and unarmed civilians.Under the Oplan Bantay Laya, the government aims to wipe out all opposition to its corrupt practices by taking away the most basic human right, the right to life.

This statement comes from one of the members of the League of Filipino Students and babae San Francisco Philippine Exposure team. Both organizations are members of BAYAN-USA. For more information on BAYAN USA go to http://www.bayanusa.org.
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Below are the inq7.net articles on the incidents:

Militant student leader slain in Sorsogon
By Bobby Labalan, Thea Alberto
Inquirer, INQ7.net
Last updated 04:38pm (Mla time) 07/31/2006
SORSOGON CITY -- (2ND UPDATE) A student leader and member of a left-leaning student group was shot and killed early Monday by two unidentified suspects as he was waiting at a bus terminal here, police said.
Rei Mon Guran, not Reymond or Rie Mon Guran as posted earlier on the website, 21, spokesman of the League of Filipino Students (LFS) and a student of Aquinas University in Legazpi City, succumbed to four gunshot wounds -- two in the head, one in the body, and another in the hand, said Senior Police Officer 3 Eugenio Magno, officer-in-charge of the Bulan Municipal Police Office.
Investigation showed that Guran was at a bus station in Zone 2, Bulan in Sorsogon when his assailants on board a motorcycle fired at him at about 6 a.m., Magno said.
The victim was dead on arrival at the Sorsogon Doctors Hospital, Magno said.
In Manila, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Movement of Filipino Farmers, KMP) spokesman Carl Ala said Guran was a second year political science student at the Aquinas University.
The victim was on his way to school when he was shot, said Renato Reyes, Bayan secretary general.
The militant groups slammed anew the spate of political killings.
Ala said Duran was the 715th militant slain since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo came to power in 2001.
Reyes believed that the killings were done by the military, and were tolerated by Arroyo.
However, police said they had yet to determine whether the killing was politically motivated, said Superintendent Elciar Bron, Region 5 police spokesman.
With a report from Luige Del Puerto, Inquirer
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Bayan Muna official killed in Kalinga, husband critical
By Villamor Visaya
Inquirer
Last updated 01:36pm (Mla time) 07/31/2006
(UPDATE) QUEZON, Isabela -- A Bayan Muna official in Kalinga was killed while her husband and child were wounded when masked armed men aboard a black van ambushed them early Monday along the national highway in Barangay (village) Bulanao in the town of Tabuk, in the province, police said.
Superintendent Pedro Ramos, Kalinga police director, said Bayan Muna-Kalinga chairman Dr. Constancio Chandu Claver, his wife Alice, Bayan Muna coordinator, and Sandy, 11, were attacked at 7 a.m. by two men armed with an Armalite and caliber .45 guns in front of the Saint Toni's College.
They were brought to the Kalinga Provincial Hospital, according to Inquirer reports.
The same reports said that contrary to a statement by Ramos earlier on Monday that Alice was declared dead on arrival, the Bayan Muna coordinator was still alive when she was brought to the hospital where she died at 12:45 p.m.
Gkachay Claver, a cousin of the Dr. Claver, gave a similar report to INQ7.net following the shooting.
Constancio is in critical condition while Sandy has sustained a minor injury, the Inquirer reports said.
Ramos said the suspects alighted from their black van, without a plate number, and shot the Clavers.
With a report from Thea Alberto; Inquirer Northern Luzon Bureau
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Tabloid photographer gunned down in Malabon
By Nancy C. Carvajal
Inquirer
Last updated 11:19am (Mla time) 07/31/2006
(UPDATE) A NEWS photographer was killed in front of his house at around 8:45 a.m. Monday at the Gozun Compound, Letre in Malabon, police reported.
Initial investigation showed that three unidentified gunmen shot dead Vic Melendres, a photographer for the tabloid newspaper Tanod (Watchman), said Northern Police District chief Chief Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil.
The photographer died on the spot with two gunshot wounds in the body, Bataoil said.
Bataoil said the victim was a cousin of photojournalist Alberto Orsolino for the tabloid Saksi (Witness) who was slain on May 16 this year.
Police are still looking for a motive for the killing of Melendres, Bataoil said.
Thea Alberto, INQ7.net