ARMY MOVES TO EVICT PEASANTS FROM LAND

By virtue of a 1991 Deed of Transfer between the DND and the DAR, some 6,000 peasants and other residents in a 3,100-hectare area within a military reservation in Nueva Ecija should have acquired ownership of the land they live on and till. But they have not, and now they face the possibility of being driven away from the area.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat

Melencio Rioroso, 76, and Francisco Espiritu Apellido, 60, are two of the peasants farming and residing in Barangay (village) San Isidro in Laur, Nueva Ecija. That village is part of a 3,100-hectare area within the Fort Magsaysay Military Reservation (FMMR) that is now the subject of a brewing land dispute.

Apellido has spent a good deal of his life in Brgy. San Isidro. He has lived there since 1966, or for 42 of his 60 years.

For as long as he can remember, it is the land in this village that has provided him and his family of eight with their daily needs. “Pagtatanim at pagbebenta ng gulay ang ikinabubuhay namin” (We earn our keep by planting and selling vegetables), he said.

He received a Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) for his one-hectare land in Brgy. San Isidro just three years ago.

Rioroso, meanwhile, has lived in at least three Nueva Ecija towns in the last three decades. Originally from Pantabangan, he and his family of eight moved to Palayan City in 1980 after acquiring six hectares of land there from a certain Armando Sabado. Two years later he and his wife, together with five of their children, moved to Laur, where they have lived since then.

In 1995, the Riorosos received four CLOAs for their land, which all in all covers 10 hectares.

Apellido and Rioroso are two of the over 1,000 peasants in the contested 3,100-hectare area within the FMMR who have received CLOAs since 1991. Right now, they live in fear of losing their lands to the military.

People have been settling in the 73,000-hectare area now known as the FMMR since the early 1950s.

In 1956, then President Ramon Magsaysay declared the area as a military reservation through Presidential Proclamation No. 237. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) uses 15,000 of the 73,000 hectares as a camp and training ground.

On Nov. 5, 1991, through a Deed of Transfer between then Defense Secretary Renato de Villa and then Agrarian Reform Secretary Benjamin Leung, the Aquino government allotted 3,100 hectares of the FMMR to landless peasants, as well as to families evacuating from Pampanga following the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo.

By virtue of this Deed of Transfer, over a thousand peasants and other residents within the 3,100-hectare contested area have received CLOAs, but many more still have yet to acquire these.

And now, those who do have CLOAs –- like Apellido and Rioroso –- face the possibility of losing these. The Philippine Army’s 7th Infantry Division (ID), which is stationed at Fort Magsaysay, is hell-bent on driving them away from the land that should have been turned over to them nearly 17 years ago.

An Oct. 5-6 fact-finding mission organized by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or Peasant Movement of the Philippines), Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon (AMGL or Peasant Alliance in Central Luzon), Alyansa ng Magbubukid na Nagkakaisa (ALMANA or United Peasant Alliance), Promotion of Church People’s Response (PCPR), Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP), and Tanggol Magsasaka (Defend Farmers) found that the 7th ID has requested the DAR to cancel the CLOAs given to peasants within the 3,100-hectare contested area.

This request is contained in a June 24 letter by then Maj. Gen. Ralph Villanueva (recently promoted), commanding officer of the 7th ID, to a Mr. Orlando Tumacay, Provincial Agrarian Reform Officer of Nueva Ecija. Part of the letter reads thus:

This pertains to the dialogue conducted on 17 June 2008 at Hqs, 7ID regarding 3,100-hectare land within the Fort Magsaysay Military Reservation which was ceded by the DND in favor of DAR through a Deed of Transfer executed on 05 November 1991. Also, the latest dialogue dealing on said issue transpired on 25 (sic) June 2008 at the same venue attended by DENR and DAR personnel from Cabanatuan City.

Based on the background investigation conducted by the Division Judge Advocate of this Command, said area is subject to a case filed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) against the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR). This case is still pending at the Court of Appeals.

In this regard, may I request that all issuances of titles within the 3,100 hectares of the Fort Magsaysay Military Reservation be deferred pending the litigation of the case filed at the Court of Appeals. I would like to further request that all Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOAs) be revoked (emphasis supplied -– AMR) upon the affirmation of the Secretary of Justice on our stand that the Deed of Transfer regarding the 3,100 hectares is null and void since only another Presidential Proclamation can declare such land use.

The Division Judge Advocate referred to in Villanueva’s letter is Col. Hermilo Barrios –- the same “Colonel Barrios” who, Brgy. San Isidro residents told the fact-finding mission, has been going around the 3,100-hectare contested area, summoning them and the residents of the other villages to “meetings” and “assuring” them that their lands would not be taken.

Apellido and Rioroso have both lived and earned their living in Brgy. San Isidro for a good part of their lives, and cannot imagine themselves in any other place.

“Malalaman ko na lang siguro” (I’ll probably just find out later), Apellido said when asked where he will go if he and his family are driven away from the land.

“Ewan ko” (I don’t know), Rioroso said when asked the same question. (Bulatlat)

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ANG PINAKATAHIMIK MAN NATING MGA GABI AY HINDI TAHIMIK

NI ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Inilathala ng Bulatlat

Maging ang pinakamahimbing nating pagtulog
ay hindi mahimbing.
Sa pinakatahimik man nating mga gabi,
waring walang katapusan ang ingay ng mga buldoser,
ng nagkakapira-pirasong mga tabla,
ng nagkakayupi-yuping mga yero.
Sapagkat may ilang nagnanasang umangkin
ng ating karapatang
makumutan ng katahimikan sa kalaliman ng gabi,

ng ating karapatang huminga nang maluwag.

Sa lupang itong inaagaw nila sa atin,
ibig nilang itanim ang mga binhi
ng lalong pagrangya nilang mararangya.
Ang ating mga bangkay ang kanilang nais na pataba.

(Inilathala ng Bulatlat)

RANDY ECHANIS AND INHUMAN JAIL CONDITIONS

Being jailed is not new to KMP leader Randall Echanis, 60. His detention in January this year following his arrest in Bago City, Negros Occidental is his third already. It is the prison conditions he is now in that are new to him.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 30, August 31-September 6, 2008

Being jailed is not new to Randall Echanis, 60, deputy secretary-general for external affairs of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or Peasant Movement of the Philippines). An activist for decades now, he had been incarcerated during the Marcos and Aquino administrations. His detention in January this year following his arrest in Bago City, Negros Occidental is his third already.

It is the prison conditions he is now in that are new to him.

Following his arrest on murder charges stemming from allegations that he masterminded a purge within the ranks of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in Inopacan, Leyte in 1984, Echanis –- who was in prison at the time the alleged purge took place –- was detained at the Provincial Jail in Palo, Leyte. In late July, he was transferred to the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center in Camp Crame, but, only a few days later, was again transferred, this time to the Manila City Jail.

When Bulatlat visited to interview him for this article, he was sitting in a cubicle, one of many in Dorm 3 and other “dormitories” at the said jail. His cubicle is just big enough to fit a bed on which Echanis –- who is of average height for a Filipino -– could not even lie down with his body fully stretched. From his cubicle you could barely see the outside of the jail: poet Amado V. Hernandez, who was imprisoned in Muntinlupa on trumped-up “rebellion complexed with murder and other crimes” charges in the 1950s, was “lucky” he could even see “isang dipang langit” (a stretch of sky) from his cell, because Echanis can see less than that.

The cubicles are either for sale for anywhere between P5,000 ($108.88 at the Aug. 29 exchange rate of $1:P45.92) and P70,000 ($1,524.39) or for rent anywhere from P600 ($13.07) a month. The more money you have, the bigger the cubicle you could get.

Even at these rates, however, the rows of cubicles in the “dormitories” look more like rows of shanties.

Still, those among the 244 detainees in Dorm 3 who could afford to either buy and rent cubicles are better off compared to those who cannot, because the latter have no choice but to sleep on the floor at night.

“If you try to get out of your cubicle at night to use the comfort room, you are sure to step on heads,” Echanis said. “You’d have nothing to step on but heads.”

Quiapo, where the City Jail is located, is one of Manila’s most flood-prone areas, and the detainees are not spared from the troubles that floods bring.

“We get a lot of flood here when it rains hard,” Echanis said as he showed us his pair of rubber boots. “When it floods, those who have no cubicles have to share space with those who do when sleeping time comes.”

In the mornings, the detainees wake up to the fact that they would have no power supply until noon. “They say that it is being done to save electricity,” Echanis explained.

But that is not all that they have to put up with. When the time for meals comes, they have to bear with food the quality of which is unthinkable.

“You really can’t eat the food here,” Echanis said. “I’m used to eating just about anything, but the food here is something you really can’t eat.”

For Echanis, adding to the difficulties that all these bring is the fact that he has been placed in a jail where riots are known to be frequent. He was already there when one of these riots took place recently. “It is a very stressful situation because you can never know what will happen to you,” he said.

His present prison conditions have affected his health, said Echanis, who has hypertension.

The KMP leader said that even during his incarceration during the Marcos and Aquino regimes, he did not experience anything like what he now has to deal with on a daily basis.

A history of activism

Echanis studied at the Philippine College of Commerce or PCC, now the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), and the University of the East (UE) in the 1960s. It was at the PCC that he got his first exposure to activism. He was later made chairman of the UE chapter of the Kabataang Makabayan (KM or Patriotic Youth).

In the 1970s, at the height of martial law, Echanis took to the countryside where he did peasant organizing work in the Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, and Cordillera Regions.

He was arrested in 1983 and was placed for two years under solitary confinement at Camp Aguinaldo, the General Headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Following his release in 1986 by virtue of then President Corazon Aquino’s general amnesty proclamation, Echanis co-founded the Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainee Laban sa Detensyon at Para sa Amnestiya (Selda or Society of Ex-Detainees for Liberation from Detention and for Amnesty), as well as the Partido ng Bayan (PnB or People’s Party).

In 1987 he went back to the countryside and became active again in peasant organizing until his arrest in 1990. Following his arrest, he was kept for a week in a safehouse, where he was tortured. He was eventually transferred to the PNP Custodial Center, where he was detained along with his daughter Amanda, then two years old. He was released in 1992 after the court dismissed the case of illegal possession of firearms in furtherance of rebellion filed against him.

In 1999, during the KMP’s fifth National Congress, he was elected as the group’s deputy secretary-general for external affairs. In 2001 he was elected to the National Council of the First Quarter Storm Movement (FQSM). Since 2002, he has been helping in the GRP-NDFP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines-National Democratic Front of the Philippines) peace negotiations as a member of the NDFP Reciprocal Working Committee for Social and Economic Reforms.

At the time of his third arrest, he was attending a conference on agrarian reform initiated by the Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA or Union of Workers in Agriculture).

Deepening social insights

Echanis said his incarceration at the Manila City Jail has only deepened his insights on what is wrong with society and why it has to be changed. Many of his fellow inmates there, he said, are either slum dwellers or farm workers – people too poor to afford legal services. Most of them are in for theft or drug-related offenses. “Through my conversations with them, I have come to know more about the oppression that they suffer from day to day,” he said.

“A lot of them are from the urban poor communities and unable to find decent employment,” he said. “Because of this, they are easily drawn to crimes like theft and drug-related offenses.”

The prison conditions at the Manila City Jail are not conducive to rehabilitation, however, and Echanis said that keeping one’s sanity in such conditions could be a challenge. “Those who are sane could go insane here,” he said.

Still, Echanis has happily not lost his resolve to fight his battles -– be it the fight for his own freedom or the larger political fight.

“My determination to fight, not only for my immediate freedom but for my hasty return to the movement outside to continue my work there, is whole,” he said. “It also helps a lot that there are expressions of support and there are always visits.”

Aside from that, I am also able to follow what is happening outside and this convinces me that we have to work hard toward genuine change in our society,” he added. Bulatlat

KAY PLARIDEL
Alexander Martin Remollino

Binigkas sa isang pagtitipun-tipon ng mga mamamahayag noong 3 Mayo 2008, Pandaigdigang Araw ng Kalayaan sa Pamamahayag, sa 70s Bistro. Inilalathala para sa ika-158 kaarawan ni Marcelo H. del Pilar (30 Agosto 2008).

I
Piping Dilat,
Dolores Manapat,
Plaridel:

Nangarap ka ring tumalunton sa mga ulap
ng mga kaisipang "panghabang-panahon"
ukol sa kagandahan,
ngunit nanatili ang iyong mga paa sa lupa
at ipinagpauna mo ang pagtugon
sa mga panawagan ng iyong panahon.
Sa Diariong Tagalog,
sinimulan mong hubdan ng maskara ng karangalan
ang mga kolonyal na awtoridad ng Espanya sa Pilipinas.
Nakipagdasalan-at-tuksuhan ka pa
sa mga puting malignong suot ay sutanang itim.
Di naglaon,
pinakawalan ng mga prayle ang kanilang mga kampon
at sumikip sa iyo ang Pilipinas
at kinailangan mong mandayuhan sa Espanya
upang doon ipagpatuloy ang paghihimagsik ng panulat.
Doon, ang pinamatnugutan mong La Solidaridad
ay namandila ng mga kahilingan
para sa lalong pagkalinga ng Inang Espanya sa Pilipinas.
Subalit nagtaingang-kawali ang Espanya
at ipinagamit mo kay Pingkian ang iyong pangalan
upang itatak sa una't huling pangulong tudling
ng Kalayaan.
Sa dakong huli, ikaw ay nauwi
sa pamumulot ng beha sa mga bangketa ng Barcelona
upang tupukin ang gutom at ginaw.
Nadarang din ang iyong mga baga
at sapilitan kang inihiga ng tisis.
Ngunit, kahit sa pagkakaratay,
walang pahinga ang iyong diwa
at nanginginig ang mga daliring walang-patid ang pagnanais
na hawakan ang pluma.
Paulit-ulit na nalilimbag sa iyong isip
ang tanong na ito:
"Paano na ang Inang Bayan?"
Hanggang sa ikaw, na sakdal ng kayamanan ang diwa,
ay lisanin ng iyong hininga
sa sala de pobres ng isang ospital sa Barcelona.

II
Piping Dilat,
Dolores Manapat,
Plaridel:

Tiniis mo ang buhay na puno ng pagpapakasakit,
at hanggang sa iniaalok na ang pagpapahingalay
ay walang-tigil ang iyong pagbabalikwas,
sapagkat ikaw ay mangingibig
na taos-pusong humarana
sa Mutya ng Katotohanan --
gaya ng sinumang tunay na peryodista.
Bagama't panulat ang iyong piniling sandata,
dumaloy sa iyong mga ugat ang dugo
ng isang mandirigmang nakahandang sumagupa,
sa ngalan ng matwid,
"kahit na ang labanan ay isa sa sandaan" --
gaya ng sinumang tunay na peryodista.

DENYING HISTORICAL WRONGS
Centerstage / UPI Asia Online
Alexander Martin Remollino

Manila, Philippines, August 27 — In the debate on whether or not the Moros — the Islamized inhabitants of what are now known as the Philippine Islands — should be granted ancestral domain rights in Mindanao, there are those who have put forward the argument that Christians are the majority in the island. The implication is that since the Christians are the majority in Mindanao, there should be no talk of self-determination for the island's Islamized population.

Such an argument, which is bereft of historical validity, does not in any manner help the quest for what has been a long-elusive peace in Mindanao.

The Moros are now a majority only in a relatively small number of Mindanao provinces, but they were once the majority in the entire island. They had and continue to have a socio-political and economic system, as well as a culture, distinct from that of the regional groups who were eventually Christianized.

It is important to understand that the Moros became a minority in Mindanao through a series of historical travesties starting from the Spanish colonial era.

Though the Spaniards were never able to conquer Mindanao, they nevertheless included it in the 1898 Treaty of Paris, through which the U.S. purchased the Philippines as a colony from Spain, months after the Filipino revolutionaries had proclaimed independence. The U.S., through sheer brute force, defeated the Moro forces who resisted its colonial drive.

The inclusion of Mindanao in the U.S. annexation of the Philippines paved the way, through legislation, for large-scale non-Muslim migration to Mindanao. A number of the settlers engaged in land-grabbing.

Shortly after the U.S. granting of "independence" to the Philippines in 1946, in which Mindanao was included instead of being treated separately, the Philippine government was confronted with a communist-led, largely peasant-based armed struggle. Part of the government's attempts to defuse this struggle was the creation, in the 1950s, of a Mindanao Homestead Program — under which lands grabbed from Moros were given to former Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan (HMB or People's Liberation Army) guerrillas who had availed of amnesty.

It is through these series of historical travesties that the Moros ended up being driven to the margins in their own land. To dismiss the Moro people's claim for self-determination with the argument that Christians are now the majority in Mindanao is to deny a whole litany of historical wrongs that need to be corrected.

Recognizing the need to correct these wrongs is the key to the realization of peace in Mindanao.

LORENZO M. TAÑADA: A LEADER FOR FILIPINOS
Centerstage / UPI Asia Online
Alexander Martin Remollino

Manila, Philippines, August 14 — Last Aug. 10 marked the 110th birthday of a great Filipino, Lorenzo M. Tañada — nationalist, freedom fighter, and statesman. It is worth remembering him now not only because we are just four days past a time of year associated with his birth, but also because his life is rich in lessons that would serve us well in this time of crisis.

Tañada, who was born in Tayabas (now Quezon) in 1898, gave a hint of what he was to become very early in his life.

At 15, he dared to publicly speak his mind against an arbitrary proposal by the mayor of Gumaca, his hometown, to close down a parish church. When the mayor, in a town meeting to "discuss" the issue, challenged anyone in the crowd to speak out, it was he who stood up and spoke on stage — a mere boy, and a nephew of the mayor, Deogracias Tañada!

As a student leader at the University of the Philippines (UP), where he took his Associate in Arts and Bachelor of Laws, he showed the beginnings of a lifelong commitment to nationalism.

This was particularly manifested at an Armistice Day celebration during his third year at the College of Law. A cadet major of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) at the time, Tañada was one of the speakers at the affair. When it was his turn to speak, he exhorted the students to take their military training seriously because they, he said, had to be prepared to make the "supreme sacrifice" for their country should the US refuse to grant the Philippines independence.

He went to Harvard University for his Master of Laws, but did not let his US education get in the way of his nationalist thinking.

He was involved in the underground resistance against the Japanese during World War II, working with a group that published an underground newspaper and gathered and gave intelligence information to the guerrillas. After the war, he worked with the People's Court which prosecuted collaborators — among them Teofilo Sison, the third highest-ranking official of the Japanese-sponsored government.

He was subsequently appointed solicitor-general and in this capacity, he fearlessly and competently prosecuted several corrupt high-ranking government officials.

As a senator for 24 years starting from 1947, Tañada authored several bills, a number of which managed to be signed into law, which sought to dismantle the US neocolonial stronghold on the Philippines. He worked closely with Sen. Claro M. Recto, who was a few years his senior, in crafting nationalist legislation. Their legislative thrust centered on national industrialization and independent foreign policy.

Tañada would go on to become chairman of the Movement for the Advancement of Nationalism (MAN), a united front of nationalists from various sectors, in the late 1960s. His increased exposure to grassroots sectors through MAN deepened his ideological footing, so that though he was initially opposed to land reform, he eventually came to recognize it as an indispensable component to any real nationalist program for the Philippines.

He was 74 years old when martial law was declared. Despite his advanced age, he was immediately at the forefront of the resistance against the dictatorship. The legal luminary was among the first personalities to take on the dictatorship, starting out by defending political prisoners in the courts.

In 1978, he became the general campaign manager of the Lakas ng Bayan (Laban or People's Power), a loose coalition of anti-dictatorship forces that fielded a number of candidates for the Batasang Pambansa (National Legislature) on April 7 that year. The Laban slate was badly defeated in a election marred by massive fraud, and Tañada led an indignation rally on April 9 and was detained together with more than 500 others. The image of Tañada peering from a military jeep as he was being hauled away, clenched fist up in the air while shouting "Laban, laban!" (Fight, fight!) has become immortalized.

After the assassination of opposition leader Beningno Aquino, Jr. in 1983, he chaired the Justice for Aquino, Justice for All Movement (JAJA) and, in 1985, he became the founding chairman of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance), an alliance of nationalistic and progressive forces.

He remained an ally of the Bayan forces after the fall of the dictatorship, and devoted his final years to the campaign against US military presence in the Philippines.

It is but proper to remember Tañada at a time like this in the country's history. He is a fine example of the kind of leadership that Filipinos need — especially in these times.

QUESTION OF A FIVE-YEAR-OLD
Centerstage / UPI Asia Online
Alexander Martin Remollino

Manila, Philippines, August 12 — The ever-increasing popularity of bleaching creams and skin-whitening soaps in the Philippines brings to my mind what a friend told me a few years back about a question asked by one of her nephews.

The boy is some sort of a child prodigy. He was reading newspapers at three and knew how to operate a computer at four. I have heard him over the phone and he speaks without eating a single word, which was very remarkable for his age. He had won gold medals in past Recognition Days and his teachers had offered to accelerate him to a higher grade level.

All this did not matter to his schoolmates, however. They had been teasing him for having darker skin than theirs, which had caused him to develop an inferiority complex. My friend related that once, when he was five, the child asked his mother, "Is it okay that I'm dark?"

The boy could not be blamed for asking such a question. It is surprising how many dark-skinned adults in this country still think like he did then. They eternally ask God why He had to make them that way, while the more moneyed ones among them frequently rush frantically to stores to buy bottles of bleaching cream or blocks of skin-whitening soap.

Indeed, it is hard to find a country where bleaching creams and skin-whitening soaps are more popular than in the Philippines.

Looking closely, this may be part of the attitude we have taken towards the Americans. Whenever American soldiers enter the Philippines purportedly for military exercises with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), they are generally welcomed with open arms despite decades of documented US military atrocities against Filipino civilians -- including the rape of a young woman in Subic, Zambales in late 2006.

Of course, not all Americans are white. However, it does not take an anthropologist to know that whites are a majority in the US. For Filipinos, America will always be associated with white skin; think American and you tend to think of white, blond men and women.

However, everyone should realize that it is not color that makes a human, but the knowledge of right from wrong and the adherence to right. Therefore, the darkness of skin does not diminish humanity.

Malcolm X, a black man, taught his fellow blacks to stand up for their rights. He was infinitely more human than Adolf Hitler, a white man, who violated the rights of roughly a fourth of the human race.

Oseola McCarty, a black woman, donated most of the money she earned from washing clothes to the University of Southern Mississippi (USM), to fund scholarships for black students. She was infinitely more human than Evita Peron, a white woman, who enriched herself by ravaging her country's treasury.

This leads us back to the five-year-old's question, to which the boy's mother replied, "It's okay, you're still handsome anyway."

She should have gone beyond that. Her answer implies that it is all right to be dark only if you are handsome, and that it is all right not to be handsome as long as you are fair, but not if you are dark. She should have said that color does not matter at all. She should have told him to ask his schoolmates' parents instead why it is not all right that he is dark.

MILF SEES RENEWED ESCALATION OF CONFLICT WITH GRP

The MILF, which is fighting for an autonomous state in Mindanao and has been engaged in peace negotiations with the GRP since 1996, sees a renewed escalation of its conflict with the Philippine government following a number of encounters with the military in the last three weeks.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 23, July 13-19, 2008

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which is fighting for an autonomous state in Mindanao and has been engaged in peace negotiations with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) since 1996, sees a renewed escalation of its conflict with the Philippine government following a number of encounters with the military in the last three weeks.

Fighting broke out between MILF fighters and government troops in three villages in Maitum, Sarangani early on June 25. The fighting took place in the villages of Ticulab, Maguling, and Mindupok. Hundreds of residents fled to the town center.

That same day another armed encounter transpired between the MILF and government troops in Tugaig, Barira, Shariff Kabunsuan.

“Frustration with the dilatory tactics of the government in the peace talks mainly caused the fighting,” said MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal.

Contentious ancestral domain issue

The GRP-MILF peace negotiations have been stalled since December last year. Negotiations reached a deadlock over the ancestral domain issue.

The ancestral domain issue, which was first discussed only in 2004 or some eight years after the talks started, has turned out to be the most contentious issue in the GRP-MILF peace negotiations.

The MILF last year was proposing a Bangsamoro Juridical Entity (BJE) that would be based on an ancestral domain claim of the Bangsa Moro over Mindanao, Sulu, and Palawan.

The GRP had insisted that areas to be covered by the BJE other than the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) should be subjected to a plebiscite. This repeatedly led to an impasse in the peace negotiations with the group.

The impasse was broken only in November last year, when the GRP and the MILF reached an agreement defining the land and maritime areas to be covered by the proposed BJE.

Things seemed to be looking up after that, prompting lawyer Eid Kabalu, then MILF spokesperson, to make media statements to the effect that they expected a final agreement to be signed by mid-2008.

But all hopes for forging a peace pact between the GRP and the MILF were dashed last December, when the peace talks hit a snag following the government’s insistence that the ancestral domain issue be settled through “constitutional processes” – a phrase which, according to Iqbal, had been inserted into the agreement without their consent.

Renewed armed clashes

On June 30, MILF fighters and government troops clashed in Aleosan, North Cotabato. The fighting caused some 200 families from the town’s Barangay (village) Paganan to flee, based on reports from the Philippine Army’s 6th Infantry Division.

Col. Julieto Ando, spokesperson of the 6th ID, said it was the MILF who started the fighting. “We were the ones being attacked here,” he said.

But Iqbal denied this. “Beyond all doubt, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) started the fighting; fighting took place 2.5 kilometers away from the Cotabato-Davao National Highway,” he said.

Iqbal said that coming as they did in quick succession, these skirmishes appear to indicate a renewed escalation of the conflict between the GRP and the MILF – a potential threat to the peace negotiations. “But the MILF flexed its muscle to make everyone in the organization toe the line by giving the peace talks every opportunity to continue,” Iqbal however added.

The MILF, meanwhile, has also been accused of attacking power transmission lines in North Cotabato. They have been accused of bombing a steel tower of the National transmission Corporation in Brgy. Bagontapay, M’lang; and of firing rocket-propelled grenades at a power facility of the Cotabato Electric Cooperative in Matalam.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita accused the MILF of perpetrating these bombings “to pressure the government into agreeing into a peace agreement that would violate the Constitution” –- an accusation Iqbal denied.

“Ermita has never appeared to be sincere in addressing the root causes of the conflict in Mindanao; he is always in favor of the counter-insurgency approach to the problem,” Iqbal said when asked to comment on Ermita’s statement.

“The MILF is not asking the government to violate its constitution; far from it,” Iqbal added. “But we say the government should not use the constitution to forego compliance with its commitment or signed documents.”

Iqbal also said Ermita could have made such statement to win “sympathy” from the people and the international community. “In short, he wants to picture the MILF as an unreasonable group,” he said.

Roots of the conflict

Moro historian Salah Jubair traces the roots of the present conflict in southern Philippines to the U.S. annexation of Mindanao and Sulu into the Philippine territory in 1946. Jubair argues that the Bangsa Moro is a people with a socio-political, economic, and cultural system distinct from that of the Filipino people.

The inclusion of Mindanao and Sulu in the scope of the 1946 “independence” granted to the Philippines paved the way for large-scale non-Muslim migration to the two islands. This large-scale migration, which began in the 1950s, brought with it the problem of land grabbing.

At some point the government even instituted a Mindanao Homestead Program, which involved giving land parcels seized from Moro peoples to landless peasants from the Visayas islands and Luzon and also to former communist guerrillas who availed of amnesty.

This was intended to defuse the peasant unrest and the revolutionary war that was staged in the late 1940s and early 1950s by the communist-led Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan (HMB or People’s Liberation Army), which was basically a peasant army.

The Jabidah Massacre triggered widespread outrage among the Moros and led to the formation of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) that same year. The MNLF, led by former University of the Philippines (UP) professor Nur Misuari, waged an armed revolutionary struggle against the GRP for an independent state in Mindanao.

The Marcos government, weighed down by the costs of the Mindanao war, negotiated for peace and signed an agreement with the MNLF in Tripoli, Libya in the mid-1970s. The pact involved the grant of autonomy to the Mindanao Muslims.

Conflicts on the issue of autonomy led to a breakdown of talks between the GRP and the MNLF in 1978, prompting a group led by Dr. Salamat Hashim to break away from the MNLF and form the MILF. Since then, the MILF has been fighting for Moro self-determination.

In 1996, the MNLF signed the Final Peace Agreement with the GRP, which created the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) as a concession to the group. That same year, the MILF began peace negotiations with the GRP.

While the peace agreement with the MNLF supposedly holds, armed skirmishes between the AFP and MNLF did not stop. On Nov. 19, 2001, Misuari declared war on the Arroyo government for allegedly reneging on its commitments to the Final Peace Agreement. The MNLF then attacked an Army headquarters in Jolo. Misuari was subsequently arrested in Sabah, Malaysia for illegal entry and was turned over to the Philippine government by Malaysian authorities. He is currently under house arrest.

Meanwhile, the GRP-MILF peace talks have repeatedly bogged down on the issue of ancestral domain, mainly because the GRP has frequently insisted on resolving it within “constitutional processes.” This does not sit well with the MILF.

MoA-AD

Still, the MILF is optimistic that a Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MoA-AD) may be signed sometime this year.

“As of today (July 9), only two points remain unresolved by the Parties namely, the word freedom and effectivity of those (provisions) in the MoA-AD that require legislation,” Iqbal shared. “We insist that if they decide to pass it through legislation it should not derogate prior agreements. If the government is serious, we can sign it before August this year.” Bulatlat

COURT STARTS HEARING TAGAYTAY 5 BAIL PETITION

After more than two years of being abducted and detained, the Tagaytay 5 finally had their day in court as the latter started hearing their petition for bail.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 22, July 6-12, 2008

The Tagaytay City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 18 has started hearing the Tagaytay 5’s petition for bail after more than two years of their being abducted and detained.

Judge Erwin Larida Jr. started hearing the case last July 4 and is expected to hold hearings in the succeeding Fridays of July. The Tagaytay 5 is composed of Axel Pinpin, a consultant of the Kalipunan ng mga Magsasaka sa Kabite (Kamagsasaka-Ka or Association of Peasants in Cavite) and a poet who was a fellow in the 1999 University of the Philippines (UP) National Writers’ Workshop; Riel Custodio, a Kamagsasaka-Ka member; Aristides Sarmiento, a freelance researcher for various non-government organizations; and Tagaytay City residents Enrico Ybañez and Michael Masayes.

The series of hearings follow their June 16 arraignment for the crime of rebellion, to which the five entered a “Not Guilty” plea.

The five were abducted by a composite Philippine Navy and Philippine National Police (PNP) team on April 28, 2006 in Tagaytay City.

Pinpin, Custodio and Sarmiento had just come from a meeting with coffee farmers in the city and were on their way to Manila for the forthcoming Labor Day rally. They had hired Ybañez as their driver while Masayes accompanied Ybañez.

Three days after, they were presented to the media as “communist rebels” who were conspiring with “dissident soldiers” in an alleged plot to “destabilize” the Arroyo administration. They were subsequently charged with rebellion.

Pinpin, Custodio, and Sarmiento said that they expect the prosecution together with their PNP “abductors-torturers” to “demonize” them to secure a conviction –- which, under the Revised Penal Code, carries a penalty of reclusion perpetua (20 years and one day to 40 years in detention).

“The prosecution and the PNP will again publicly peddle their pack of lies and life-threatening intrigues,” they said. “They will again cover up the truth about the case of the Tagaytay 5 in order to get their much-awaited judicial victory against ‘bomb-wielding communists-terrorists out to destabilize’ the corrupt and fascist Arroyo regime. They will repeatedly gloss over substantive issues and matters of judicial principles such as the human rights violations committed by government authorities during our abduction, interrogation, incommunicado status, prolonged detention, and delays in the judicial process, in order to consign us to perpetual silence and public oblivion.”

They vowed, however, to assert “rigorously” the following “truth(s) and substantive issues”:

· That they were waylaid and abducted by more or less 60 heavily armed men without necessary warrants on April 28, 2006; hence violating their basic right against arbitrary arrest;

· That they were not carrying guns or explosives of any kind at the time of their abduction, yet the list of evidence showed that they were in possession of one handgun; but all their personal belongings (including dentures and flashlights) and money totaling almost P800,000 (or ¥1,904,700 or $18,300) were missing and never accounted to them, an act which they said is “tantamount to highway robbery by law enforcement agents” and which violates their right against unlawful search and seizures;

· That they were shuttled to various military camps and safe houses, where they were repeatedly interrogated against their will and without counsel –- acts which violate the basic rights of arrested persons under the Miranda Doctrine and judicial guarantees against illegal detention;

· That they were physically and psychologically tortured, having been hidden from their families, lawyers and friends for seven days and nights, to enable their abductors to extract extrajudicial confessions, again without the aid of counsel of their choice; thus violating their rights against torture and self-incrimination;

· That they were “persecuted” in a court after being held for more than 100 hours without charges, thus violating basic rights against illegal detention;

· That they we were detained and padlocked 24/7 in a police camp with no provisions for sunlight and outdoor exercises for 10 months, thus endangering their health and welfare; and that it took a 67-day fasting/hunger strike to gradually improve their detention conditions; and

· That their court hearings are few and far between, and are often postponed “for whatever flimsy reason,” thus prolonging their hardships, and “effectively silencing some critics and dissenters of the current regime.”

Pinpin, Custodio, and Sarmiento also said that on several occasions during the 26 months since their being charged with rebellion, the prosecution and the PNP were asked to present all necessary evidence and affidavits.

“But all the prosecution can show are three joint testimonies packed with lies and half-truths on what really happened on that fateful night of April 28, 2006 –- full of loopholes, self-serving alibis, pock-marked with hearsays and afterthoughts, and coached assertions,” they said. “The prosecutors haven’t produced in court any credible evidence to buttress their trumped-up rebellion charge –- for they have none, and have nothing to hold on to; for it is cardinal rule in criminal proceedings that any illegally obtained evidence is inadmissible in court, and that planting of evidence against any suspect is punishable by law as incriminatory machination.” Bulatlat

TO A WARRIOR DYING OLD
Alexander Martin Remollino

You were one of a kind as a warrior,
one who dared to venture
where even the fearless feared to tread.
You marched to the Devil's den
for the cause of the heavens.
Without hesitation you courted the wrath
of the false gods, the usurpers of power:
you fought for the right "without question or pause,"
ever resting your faith
on the God of justice fighting by your side.

In memoriam: Danilo Poblete Vizmanos
(24 November 1928-23 June 2008)

MGA MANHID
Alexander Martin Remollino

Habang binabagtas ng sinakyan kong dyip kanina
ang isang lansangan sa Quezon City,
tinawag ang aking pansin
ng isang higanteng karatulang may nakangiting mukha ni GMA
na nagsasabing,
"Ramdam ang kaunlaran."
Siguro,
ramdam na ramdam nga ang kaunlaran
kaya kailangang ipagsigawang nararamdaman ito –-
parang sinasabing mga manhid tayo
kaya hindi natin nararamdaman.
Pero sino ba ang talagang mga manhid?
Ano ang pagiging manhid?
Ang pagiging manhid
ay ang pagsasabing "ramdam ang kaunlaran"
kahit na pinagtitiyagaang pilahan ng mga tao
ang kakapurit na murang bigas na mabuhangin at mabato
habang kayraming palayan sa Pilipinas
na nagiging mga golf course o taniman ng export crops.
Ang pagiging manhid
ay ang pagsasabing "ramdam ang kaunlaran"
kahit na nag-uunahan patungong kalawakan
ang mga presyo ng inangkat na produktong petrolyo
habang mga korporasyong dayuhan ang nagpapasasa sa Malampaya't Sulu.
Ang pagiging manhid
ay ang pagsasabing "ramdam ang kaunlaran"
kahit na nagtitiis na kumain ng darak ang karamihan
habang dalawa sa malalaking negosyante ng Pilipinas
ang nasa talaan ng 500 pinakamayayaman sa buong mundo.
Silang nagsasabing "ramdam ang kaunlaran" –-
sila ang mga manhid:
mga may kalyo sa tiyan
mga may kalyo sa mata
mga may kalyo sa utak.
Sila ang mga manhid at hindi tayo.

WATCHDOG SAYS GOV’T IN DENIAL OF RIGHTS VIOLATIONS’ CAUSES, SOLUTIONS

The Philippine UPR (Universal Periodic Review) Watch has assailed the Arroyo administration for being “in denial” about the causes of human rights violations in the Philippines. It also criticized the government for adamantly refusing to heed the recommendations of UNHRC members, which could have helped improve the human rights situation in the Philippines.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 19, June 15-21, 2008

The Philippine UPR (Universal Periodic Review) Watch has assailed the Arroyo administration for being “in denial” about the causes of and solutions to human rights violations in the Philippines. This was in response to the Philippine government representative’s statements at the eight session of the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which began last June 2 and is set to conclude on June 18.

The Philippine UPR Watch delegation to Geneva is composed of Fr. Rex Reyes, National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) general secretary; Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights) secretary-general; Trisha Garvida of Karapatan; Edre Olalia, International Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL) president; Dr. Edita Burgos, mother of missing activist Jonas Burgos; Donnie Mapanao of Migrante-Switzerland; and Ed Cubelo of the Toyota-Philippines union.

The UNHRC is holding the session to tackle the reports of its 47 member-countries to the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which held its first session on April 7-18, 2008. The Philippine government’s human rights record was discussed in that session.

The UPR is a new mechanism that was established under General Assembly Resolution 60/251, which established the UNHRC on March 15, 2006. The said resolution provides that the UNHRC shall “undertake a universal periodic review, based on objective and reliable information, of the fulfillment by each State of its human rights obligations and commitments in a manner which ensures universality of coverage and equal treatment with respect to all States; the review shall be a cooperative mechanism, based on an interactive dialogue, with the full involvement of the country concerned and with consideration given to its capacity-building needs; such a mechanism shall complement and not duplicate the work of treaty bodies…”

The Arroyo administration has in recent years reaped international outrage over the spate of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances under its watch.

Based on data from Karapatan, there have been a total of 903 extrajudicial killings and 193 enforced disappearances from 2001 –- when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was catapulted to power through a popular uprising –- to March 31, 2008.

The three regions with the highest number of extrajudicial killings are Southern Tagalog with 163, Central Luzon with 137, and the Bicol Region with 127. Most of the victims are peasants (numbering 419) and indigenous people (85). Among political organizations, the party-list group Bayan Muna (People First) and the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or Peasant Movement of the Philippines) have the highest number of victims, with 132 and 104, respectively.

Meanwhile, the three regions with the highest numbers of enforced disappearances are Central Luzon with 64, Southern Tagalog with 28, and Eastern Visayas with 24.

Southern Tagalog, Central Luzon, the Bicol Region, and Eastern Samar are all marked as “priority areas” in the government’s counter-insurgency operations dubbed as Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL or Operation Freedom Watch).

UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary and Arbitrary Executions Philip Alston went on a mission to the Philippines in 2007 to investigate the spate of extrajudicial killings and came up with a report specifically pointing to the military’s involvement in these. “In some parts of the country, the armed forces have followed a deliberate strategy of systematically hunting down the leaders of leftist organizations,” Alston, who is also a professor at New York University (NYU), said.

During the eight UNHRC session this June, Philippine Permanent Representative to the UN Erlinda Basilio disputed Alston’s findings.

“The Philippines finds that the report and the recommendations of Professor Alston are inaccurate, highly selective, and biased,” Basilio said in her statement to the UNHRC on June 7. “The report neither provides a complete picture nor a fair assessment of the situation in the Philippines. Nevertheless, the Philippines remains committed to its state responsibility to resolve verifiable and legitimate cases of extrajudicial killings whoever may be the perpetrators, whether members of rebel groups or members of the military and police.”

Alston, however, said he stood by his findings. “I am simply being faithful in playing my role as an honest broker,” he said.

Repeated denials

At the interactive dialogue during the consideration of the report of the UPR’s working group on the Philippines, Philippine Permanent Representative to the UN Erlinda Basilio said that the government cannot “provide follow-up reports on efforts and measures to address extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, taking into account the recommendations of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.”

Basilio also rejected outright the Swiss representative’s recommendation last April to strengthen the government’s Witness Protection Program “in the context of the reform of the judiciary and the armed forces.” Basilio was quoted as saying during the eight UNHRC session that the Philippine government does not support this recommendation. This contradicted the claim of the government as contained in the Philippine National Report submitted to the UNHRC that “the President has certified as urgent legislation to strengthen the Witness Protection Program.”

Basilio was also cold to the recommendation of the representatives of Slovenia and Mexico for the Philippines to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances. Basilio’s response to this during the eighth UNHRC session was that this recommendation is noted and would be “studied further.”

“This speaks so eloquently of the insincerity of the government to address issues of killings, disappearances and other human rights violations in the Philippines,” said Reyes, who heads the Philippine UPR Watch delegation. “First it paints a glossy picture of the Philippine Government as a ‘rights-based’ State that has signed the UN core documents and has enacted laws that supposedly protect the rights of its citizens; and then in the same breath, they refuse to accept the recommendations of the UNHRC that would help resolve the killings and disappearances and stop the impunity.

“Killings and disappearances continue in a climate of impunity and the Philippine government’s Report hypocritically trumpets its ‘commitment, constructive and consultative approach.’ We urge the Filipino people to remain resolute in exposing human rights abuses and be steadfast in denouncing falsehood and hypocrisy. Let us continue the struggle for peace and justice in our country.” Bulatlat

CARTEL, GATT-WTO, GOV’T POLICIES TO BLAME FOR RICE CRISIS

The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or Peasant Movement of the Philippines) said that the current rice crisis is a result of hoarding by the rice cartel, loopholes in the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988, and the government’s policy of liberalization, deregulation, and privatization, which is in line with its commitment to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade-World Trade Organization (GATT-WTO).

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 18, June 8-14, 2008

The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or Peasant Movement of the Philippines) said that the current rice crisis is a result of hoarding by the rice cartel, loopholes in the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law of 1988, and the government’s policy of liberalization, deregulation, and privatization, which is in line with its commitment to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade-World Trade Organization (GATT-WTO).

This crisis, KMP said, cannot be solved neither by the government’s aggressive importation of rice nor by the extension of the CARP.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, early last week, certified as urgent House Bill No. 4077, which provides for a five-year extension for CARP. HB 4077 provides for an allocation of P100 million ($2.27 million at the June 6 exchange rate of $1:P44.14).

The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law was signed in 1988 and was intended to be in force until 1998. CARP expired in 1998 but was extended for another 10 years. It expires again on June 10 this year.

Based on DAR data, only 3.96 million hectares out of the target 5.16 million hectares, or 77 percent, under CARP have been redistributed.

Usec. Gerundio Madueño of the Department of Agrarian Reform supported the extension of CARP saying that extending CARP will help improve the country’s rice production.

“By completing CARP, it will help in the increase in the production of rice ‘cause the farmers will be given the basic rural infrastructure, technology, the training and support for their cooperatives and training for themselves,” Gerundio said.

But Madueño’s claim was belied by KMP secretary-general Danilo Ramos. He pointed out that the country had experienced rice crises under CARP. This, he said, does not give a promising picture of CARP’s supposed ability to solve the rice crisis.

“When did we first experience a rice crisis?” Ramos said. “That was during FVR’s (Fidel V. Ramos) time (as President). 1994-1995. CARP ended only in 1998, before it was extended for another 10 years. That means that experience shows that CARP is not a solution to rice crises.”

The rice cartel

“In fact, during FVR’s time, rice supply increased by 350 percent, but prices nevertheless soared,” he added. “Why? Because of the cartel.”

The rice crisis of 1994-1995 was largely a result of the partial privatization of the National Food Authority (NFA), which then procured only 0.5 percent of total palay (unhusked rice) production. Private traders took advantage of the situation, creating an artificial rice shortage by hoarding supplies. This caused rice prices to jump by 90-100 percent.

The present rice crisis is also largely traceable to the activities of a rice cartel, known as the Big Seven, whose members, aside from being able to channel production to itself through a network of traders, are also allowed to import heavily.

The members of the Big Seven have been identified in Senate investigations as Joaquin Go Soliman (JOMERCO Trading), Pio Sy Lato (PNS Grains Center), Ramon Ang Syson (Family Native Supply), Gil Go (Jocardo Merchandising), Leoncio Tan/Janet Tiu (Leoneco Merchandising), Santos See (Manila Goodyear), and Teofredo Co (Teofredo Trading).

CARP and GATT-WTO

The depredations wrought by the rice cartel are aggravated by CARP’s loopholes and the government’s implementation of liberalization, deregulation, and privatization policies in accordance with the GATT-WTO (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade-World Trade Organization) framework.

The Philippines is now the world’s top importer of rice, according to the socio-economic think tank IBON Foundation –- a far cry from its status as a self-sufficient, rice-exporting country in the 1980s. IBON Foundation’s research also shows that the Philippines devotes only 4 million hectares to rice production -– contrasting sharply with Vietnam, with more than 7 million hectares planted to rice, and Thailand which devotes more than 10 million hectares.

Lands planted to cash crops are exempted from CARP. The owners of lands planted to rice and corn, which are subject to CARP, have found a way out of the government’s agrarian reform program through crop conversion. This contributed to the decrease in rice production.

Under the WTO’s Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), which the Senate ratified in 1995, the Philippines has been forced to meet a minimum rice importation requirement, whether or not the country has sufficient rice yields. The Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA), which Ramos signed into law in 1997, aims for further privatization of the NFA and increased private-sector participation in rice importation.

The NFA is mandated by law to procure at least 12 percent of palay production. From an average of 7.95 percent of palay production in 1977-1983, the NFA’s procurement dropped to 3.63 percent in 1984-2000 and from 2001-2006 was only 0.05 percent of total production.

Rice imports have increased from 257,260 metric tons (MT) in 1995 to 1.7 million MT in 2006. This year, the government has secured the importation of some 2.2 million MT of rice from Vietnam, Thailand, and the U.S. –- the country’s largest volume of rice importation since 1998.

“The government’s ratification to the GATT meant full liberalization of Philippine agriculture, particularly the emphasis on export crops and, on the other hand, rice importation,” Ramos said. “That is why in 1994, when the GATT was being deliberated upon in the Senate, we put forward a position urging them to reject it.”

The government’s Medium-Term Agriculture Development Plan (MTDAP) aims to reduce rice and corn production from 5 million MT to 3.1 million MT. Meanwhile, the Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP) for 2004-2010 aims for “the development of 2 million hectares of new agribusiness lands through multi-cropping, the cultivation of idle and marginal lands, the expansion of fishery production in unutilized offshore and inland waters, and expansion of the product mix through high value crops and value-adding through innovative packaging and agro-processing.”

The reduction of rice production and the country’s increased dependence on rice importation have placed the people more and more at the mercy of private traders, who control rice prices.

HB 3059

The KMP is calling for the passage of House Bill No. 3059, or the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill. Principally authored by the late Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) Rep. Crispin Beltran, the bill provides for free distribution of land to farmers, the expansion of agrarian reform coverage to include all agricultural lands, and government support services for beneficiaries. Bulatlat

CRISPIN BELTRAN: THE PEOPLE’S STATESMAN

By Alexander Martin Remollino
Column: Centerstage
Published: June 06, 2008

Laguna, Philippines — In life, Philippine Congressman Crispin Beltran frequently clashed with the powers that be –- whether they were leaders of big business or politicians representing elite interests. But in death, Beltran earned only praise, even from those he could not see eye-to-eye with. This is because of the kind of life he lived and the rich symbolism his death showed.

There have been few people in Philippine history who deserved to be called statesmen, and fewer who can rightfully be called people’s statesmen. The recently deceased representative from the Anakpawis, or “toiling masses” party, Crispin Beltran, was one of them.

Beltran died May 20 from head injuries sustained after a fall from the roof of his house in Bulacan, a province north of Manila. He was fixing the roof of his house -– a bungalow for which he was paying 5,000 pesos (US$112) a month -– in preparation for the rainy season when he suffered a fall that led to a coma and, later, death. At the time of his death, his total assets amounted to less than 60,000 pesos (US$1,350) and included two barong Tagalog (the Philippine national attire for males) and a pair of eyeglasses –- making him the poorest member of the House of Representatives, which is known as a bastion of the Philippines’ landlord class.

Thus was the conclusion of his colorful life as a labor leader, and –- later on -– as head of a multi-sectoral activist alliance and, at the time of his death, a representative of a progressive party-list group in Congress. Thus was the end of life for a man who never for a moment wavered from his pursuit of the cause of freedom and justice, even as two governments –- the Marcos and Arroyo regimes -– made him pay for it with his liberty.

Therein lies the symbolism in his death. Here was a leader who literally sprang from the toiling masses, who –- to his very last breath –- lived simply, “so that others may simply live,” in the words of Mohandas K. Gandhi. He came across but rejected many opportunities to enrich himself –- which included a 2-million-peso bribe intended to win his support for a weak impeachment complaint that administration allies were trying to initiate to protect President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from a stronger one that could lead to conviction.

He was a workingman to his very last breath -– climbing a ladder to fix his own roof, something many have said he shouldn’t have done at his age of 75 years, but which he did anyway -– insisting on doing something he could very well do himself. To the end of his life, he was a “people’s (leader),” as described by the think tank Center for People Empowerment in Governance.

The kind of life he lived and the manner by which it ended struck chords in many a heart in the Philippines, where it is easy to be cynical about the possibility of integrity in public office. Transparency International has recently rated the Philippines as the eighth most corrupt country in the world and the most corrupt in Asia, but Beltran by his life –- and death -– showed that “honorable” and “congressman” need not be antonyms even in such a country.

With that, Beltran’s death moved multitudes. Profuse were the praises for him -– including from several of his political opponents who derided him in life but who clearly wanted to bask in his posthumous glory.

“Our condolences to the family of the late Congressman Beltran,” said deputy presidential spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo. “We share their grief in this time of great personal loss. While Congressman Beltran and the Armed Forces may have stood at opposite poles in the pursuit of our respective missions, we regarded him with respect. Like many of our soldier-heroes, he stood for what he believed in. And in my personal view, he is a true Filipino.”

The president -– whose issuance of Presidential Proclamation No. 1017 which declared a “state of emergency” in the country led to his arrest and prolonged detention –- sent flowers to his wake at the main chapel of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, or Philippine Independent Church.

Speaker Prospero Nograles, a staunch administration ally, said the House of Representatives was “greatly diminished” by Beltran’s death.

“Poverty did not rob him of the fortitude of his convictions to dedicate his life to the uplift of the poor,” Nograles said. “And yet, when he spoke, whether among groups of colleagues or in debates in this chamber, one cannot help but listen, because his ideas resonated with the integrity of convictions.”

In life, Beltran was often criticized by defenders of the status quo for clinging to a supposedly “outmoded” ideology. In death, he is vindicated by the fact that even his political opponents could not help but pay him the highest respects -– thus conveying a sort of message that he was one of their own even as he differed from them.

Still, the record begs to be set straight for posterity. Beltran did not belong to the ruling political clique which made the Philippines slide into having the distinction of being one of the most corrupt countries in the world. He did not belong to the big capitalists who refuse their workers the basic right of getting a decent wage. He did not belong to the big landlords who dominate the House of Representatives. He belonged, first and last, to the people -– the toiling masses from whom he sprang and for whom he fought all his life.

By this, he was a real people’s statesman.

--

(Alexander Martin Remollino is a senior writer for the online news weekly Bulatlat -– www.bulatlat.com. He is also associate editor and columnist for the opinion website Tinig.com. He is a member of the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines, and was active in the Media for Peace campaign. ©Copyright Alexander Martin Remollino)

HUWAG MONG ISIPING ANG IYONG PAGYAO'Y DI PAGLISAN NG ISANG BAYANI
Alexander Martin Remollino

Sa alaala ni Crispin "Ka Bel" Beltran, lider-manggagawa, 1933-2008

Maramot sa liwanag ang araw
at siya'y nagtatago sa likod ng mga abuhing ulap
nang ikaw ay iwan ng huli mong hininga.

Hindi ka nasawi sa larangan,
di-gaya ng siya mong nais.
Ngunit huwag mo sanang isiping ang iyong pagyao
ay hindi paglisan ng isang bayani,
sapagkat hanggang sa huli mong hininga,
may ligtas na pahingahan sa iyong puso't isip
silang nagpapagal
upang bigyan ang bansa't ang buong daigdig
ng bubong na masisilungan, kalasag
laban sa dahas ng unos at lupit ng araw.
Hanggang sa kahuli-hulihang sandali,
ang bawat tibok ng iyong puso ay laan
sa kanilang nagbabaon ng mga pako sa kahoy at kongkreto
upang itindig sa lupa ang mga tahanan.

Ikaw ay bayani,
kaya't nauukol na mabuhay nang walang hanggan
sa pambansang alaala
upang maging tanglaw sa umagang makulimlim
at sa gabing walang buwan at bituin.

REPS OF AID DONOR COUNTRIES, 13 OTHERS QUESTION RP RIGHTS RECORD IN GENEVA

Representatives of 17 countries raised questions on the Philippine human rights record as Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita delivered the government’s presentation before the 47-member UNHRC.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 10, April 13-19, 2008

Representatives of 17 countries –- including four of the country’s main aid donors -– raised questions on the Philippine government’s human rights record in Geneva, Switzerland on April 11 as Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, who also chairs the Presidential Human Rights Committee (PHRC), led a 44-man delegation in delivering a presentation on the human rights situation in the Philippines before the 47-member United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

Ermita delivered his presentation during the deliberations of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) on the Philippines.

The UPR is a new mechanism that was established under General Assembly Resolution 60/251, which established the UNHRC on March 15, 2006. The said resolution provides that the UNHRC shall “undertake a universal periodic review, based on objective and reliable information, of the fulfillment by each State of its human rights obligations and commitments in a manner which ensures universality of coverage and equal treatment with respect to all States; the review shall be a cooperative mechanism, based on an interactive dialogue, with the full involvement of the country concerned and with consideration given to its capacity-building needs; such a mechanism shall complement and not duplicate the work of treaty bodies...”

Ermita drew the material for his 38-minute presentation from the Philippine National Report (PNR) submitted to the UNHRC.

The PNR emphasizes the creation of the Commission of Human Rights under the 1987 Philippine Constitution, which Ermita noted antedates the Paris Principles on Human Rights. Ermita also stressed the creation of the Office of the Ombudsman, also under the 1987 Constitution, which is tasked to investigate high government officials. He noted that both chambers of Congress have Committees on Human Rights; and that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) all have Human Rights Offices.

Ermita also talked about the existence of inter-agency councils tackling various human rights issues. He was referring to agencies like the Inter-agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT), Inter-agency Council on Violence Against Women and Children (IAC-VAWC), Inter-agency Council on Children Involved in Armed Conflict (IAC-CIAC) and the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Council (JJWC).

“The Philippine report, presented by no less than Secretary Ermita with his extraordinarily large contingent of bureaucrats flown in from Manila, was a self-serving, selective and totally one-sided depiction of the Philippine human rights situation,” said Bayan Muna (People First) Rep. Teddy Casiño in a statement sent to media.

Casiño is a member of the six-man Philippine UPR Watch delegation observing the proceedings in Geneva –- together with Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights) secretary-general Marie Hilao-Enriquez; National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) general secretary Fr. Rex Reyes; Jonathan Sta. Rosa, brother of slain Methodist pastor Isaias Sta. Rosa; International Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL) president Edre Olalia; and Dr. Edita Burgos, mother of missing activist Jonas Burgos.

Representatives of 17 states – France, Norway, Slovenia, Japan, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Canada, Latvia, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Algeria, North Korea, Australia, Switzerland, Netherlands, Mexico, and the U.S. – questioned the 44-man team led by Ermita on the issues of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

“This sizable number of states sends a strong message that the GRP human rights record is both in the microscope and within the radar of the international community,” Olalia said in a message received by Bulatlat.

Four of these states –- Japan, Canada, Australia, and the U.S. -– are among the Philippines’ major aid donors, based on data from the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID). Also identified by AusAID as major aid donors to the Philippines are the European Union and Germany.

The questions particularly focused on the recommendations of UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary and Arbitrary Executions Philip Alston, who went on a mission to the Philippines in late 2007 to investigate extrajudicial killings and came up with a report specifically pointing to the military’s involvement in these. “In some parts of the country, the armed forces have followed a deliberate strategy of systematically hunting down the leaders of leftist organizations,” Alston, who is also a professor at New York University (NYU), said.

Karapatan has documented 902 cases of extrajudicial killings and 180 enforced disappearances from January 2001 -– when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was catapulted to power through a popular uprising –- to March 2008.

“Canada is encouraged that the Philippine authorities have expressed their commitment to end extrajudicial killings, but remains concerned that there may have been few convictions,” Canada’s Terry Cormier said.

“What is the Philippine government doing to address extrajudicial killings and ensure the prosecution and conviction of perpetrators?” asked Anna Chambers of the U.S. “How is the Philippine government ensuring human rights compliance among the police and security forces?”

Australia’s Jihan Mirza asked for specific updates on the Philippine government’s compliance with Alston’s recommendations.

The Ermita-led delegation was also questioned on the rights of migrant workers, women and children; and the Philippine government’s non-signing of international instruments against torture and enforced disappearances.

In a press statement, the members of the Philippine UPR Watch delegation said of Ermita’s presentation:

“His statement that ‘there is an open and vibrant democracy in the Philippines’ and that the government is “a human rights defender” is the height of distortion and sends a chilling indication that impunity will continue to be the policy of the Arroyo regime.

“Ermita’s statements were a callous disregard to the fact that more than a dozen countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, took the Philippine government to task for its failure to address the extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, especially in the prosecution of perpetrators. His statements ignored the fact that several countries also scored the Philippine government for its failure to address equally important issues such as the protection of migrant workers, the trafficking of women and children, and corruption. If the Philippine National Report was that good, the Philippines should be a paradise, whose people need not line up for rice, seek jobs abroad and would not be named one of the most corrupt countries in Asia. If the Report was that honest, countries would not have raised questions on the foregoing which are the core issues surrounding human rights violations in the Philippines.” Bulatlat

NEW WATCHDOG CALLS FOR TERMINATION OF RP MEMBERSHIP IN UN RIGHTS BODY

A new coalition formed to observe the upcoming Universal Periodic Review (UPR) deliberation on the Philippines is calling for the termination or suspension of the country’s membership in the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 9, April 6-12, 2008

A new coalition formed to observe the upcoming Universal Periodic Review (UPR) deliberation on the Philippines is calling for the termination or suspension of the country’s membership in the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

At the very least, the Philippine UPR Watch –- which is sending to Geneva a six-member delegation composed of National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) general secretary Fr. Rex Reyes; Bayan Muna (People First) Rep. Teddy Casiño; Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights) secretary-general Marie Hilao-Enriquez; International Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL) president Edre Olalia; Jonathan Sta. Rosa, brother of slain Methodist pastor Isaias Sta Rosa; and Dr. Edita Burgos, mother of missing activist Jonas Burgos –- is urging the UNHRC to issue a “subtle yet diplomatic” critique on the Philippine government.

The UPR is a new mechanism that was established under General Assembly Resolution 60/251, which established the UNHRC on March 15, 2006. The said resolution provides that the UNHRC shall “undertake a universal periodic review, based on objective and reliable information, of the fulfillment by each State of its human rights obligations and commitments in a manner which ensures universality of coverage and equal treatment with respect to all States; the review shall be a cooperative mechanism, based on an interactive dialogue, with the full involvement of the country concerned and with consideration given to its capacity-building needs; such a mechanism shall complement and not duplicate the work of treaty bodies...”

The 47-member UNHRC is slated to hold its UPR deliberation on the Philippines this coming April 11.

Already, the Arroyo government’s preparations for the defense of its human rights record in Geneva –- where the UNHRC is based -– are in full swing. In fact, it had reportedly sent representatives to Geneva as early as last February. Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita himself -– who also chairs the Presidential Human Rights Committee (PHRC) -– is set to head a 44-member Philippine government delegation to Geneva.

In an e-mail interview with Bulatlat, Olalia said the Philippine government’s sending a 44-man team to defend its human rights record reflects an attempt to “hoodwink the international community” and cover up its “dirty” human rights record.

“They should not pollute the clean air and surroundings and sully the elegant and imposing UN halls and buildings here in Geneva with their pack of lies and hypocrisy,” Olalia said. “Geneva is too tranquil and idyllic for them to send this big roving band. General Ermita leading the contingent with almost the same number of members as the country-members of the UNHRC is the ultimate insult to the victims of the horrors of the government's dirty war where he is a leading player.”

Civil and political rights

In the Philippine National Report submitted to the UPR, the Arroyo administration states that the government “has taken firm measures” to address the issues of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. This is among the claims which the Arroyo administration intends to put forward as proof of its supposed compliance with its obligations in the area of civil and political rights.

It cites among other supposed achievements the creation of the Melo Commission to investigate extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. Measures implemented by the Arroyo administration supposedly in response to the Melo Commission’s recommendations are cited as follows:

· The President issued A.O. 181 Creating a Task Force on Extrajudicial Killings, a special team of prosecutors from the DoJ (Department of Justice);

· Issuance of Administrative Order No. 181 (July 2007) strengthening the coordination between the National Prosecution Service and other concerned agencies of government for the successful investigation and prosecution of political and media killings;

· In October 2007, the President of the Philippines ordered the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to take active steps to prevent human rights violations by men in uniform. This includes instructions and training designed to reiterate to all PNP and AFP personnel that human rights abuses will not be tolerated;

· The President issued A.O. 211 creating a multi-agency Task Force against Political Violence, Task Force 211(November 2007) to increase coordination between the Department of Justice, the Department of National Defense, the Presidential Human Rights Committee, investigative and national security agencies, and civil society for speedier solutions to such violence.

“This is hogwash,” Olalia said when asked to comment. “The facts speak for themselves. No conviction involving any military or security forces credibly implicated. The killings and disappearances continue. Where are our colleagues, clients, friends, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters who have been taken away?”

Karapatan has documented 902 cases of extrajudicial killings and 180 enforced disappearances from January 2001 –- when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was catapulted to power through a popular uprising -– to March 2008.

UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary and Arbitrary Executions Philip Alston went on a mission to investigate extrajudicial killings in the Philippines late last year, and came up with a report specifically pointing to the military’s involvement in these. “In some parts of the country, the armed forces have followed a deliberate strategy of systematically hunting down the leaders of leftist organizations,” Alston, who is also a professor at New York University (NYU), said.

The issues of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances have brought the Arroyo administration criticisms not only from local groups but also from international organizations – among them the World Council of Churches (WCC), Amnesty International, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), the Uniting Church in Australia, and Human Rights Watch.

In its submission on the Philippines to the UPR, Amnesty International aired concern on the non-conviction of state forces involved in extrajudicial killings.

“Amnesty International is concerned that the failure to deliver justice to the victims of such killings reflects a reluctance on the part of the government to fulfill its obligation under national and international law to protect the right to life of every individual within its jurisdiction,” the Amnesty International document submitted to the UPR reads. “The organization is also concerned that these killings have played a major role in the break-down of the protracted peace process and an accompanying human rights agreement between the government and the National Democratic Front (which represents the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army).”

The London-based Nobel Prize-winning organization cited the Summit on Political Killings and Enforced Disappearances initiated by the Supreme Court last year, as well as the promulgation of the Rule on the Writ of Amparo.

But Amnesty International also voiced fears that the imposition of Administrative Order No. 197, which urges “legislation for safeguards against disclosure of military secrets and undue interference in military operations inimical to national security,” endangers the implementation of the writ of amparo. “This may be an attempt by the government to counter amparo writs by invoking national security or confidentiality of information,” Amnesty International stated.

Economic rights

In the area of economic rights, among the points emphasized in the PNR is that the Philippines has a “comparatively respectable” Gini coefficient, or Inequality of Income Index, compared with other countries in the “developing” world.

“That is ridiculous,” Olalia said. “It is like saying that we are lucky to be less miserable, despondent and hungry even if a few of our own countrymen are into ostentatious living because of massive graft and corruption, anti-people policies, and serving as willing slaves to foreign greedy interests.”

Based on the UN’s Human Development Report 2007/2008, the Philippines has a Gini coefficient of 44.5 –- with 0 representing absolute equality and 100 representing absolute inequality. This was cited in the PNR.

Among the 177 countries ranked in the Human Development Report 2007/2008, there are only 37 countries with higher Gini coefficients, meaning having more inequality, than the Philippines: Argentina, Panama, Chile, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, Malaysia, Venezuela, Colombia, Dominican Republic, China, Peru, Ecuador, Paraguay, Jamaica, Honduras, Bolivia, Guatemala, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Nepal, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, Haiti, Zimbabwe, Togo, Uganda, Cote d'loivre, Central African Republic, Mozambique, Niger, Guinea-Bissau, and Sierra Leone.

Arroyo has made much of the economic growth posted by the country under her administration. In a speech on Jan. 11, she said:

“Today, the Philippines is on a path to permanent economic growth and stability. We’ve created seven million new jobs in seven years... We’ve achieved 28 consecutive quarters of economic growth in the last seven years. And that’s something that even our neighbors cannot say. There were times during this 28 quarters that the… Singapore for instance, experienced negative growth and many of our neighbors and even the United States, there were quarters when they experienced negative growth.

“And in the last, in the three quarters of 2007 for which we have had our accounting completed, our economy rose 7.3 percent and this is the fastest growth in more than a decade, in a very, very long time.”

This economic growth, however, has been criticized by no less than the Asian Development Bank (ADB) as “among the most inequitable” in Southeast Asia. The ADB also noted that the Philippines has one of the highest Gini coefficients in Southeast Asia.

The ADB’s findings on inequality of income distribution are bolstered by data recently released by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), which show that the number of poor Filipinos increased by 3.8 million from 2003 to 2006. Even with its low poverty threshold of P41.25 ($0.988 at an exchange rate of $1:P41.76) for each individual Filipino –- which is much lower than the living wage estimates of the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) –- the rise in poverty rates from 2003 to 2006 is visible.

Based on February 2008 data from the NWPC, the national average family living wage stands at P767 ($18.37) a day.

The highest regional minimum wage at present is P362 ($8.67) for the National Capital Region (NCR), which has a regional daily family living wage of P853 ($20.43). The region with the lowest minimum wage rate is the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), with only P200 ($4.79) even as it has a regional daily family living wage of P1,185 ($28.38). Bulatlat

DISGUISING THEMSELVES
Alexander Martin Remollino

Guilt and shame --
particularly the types that tower --
are virtuosos at coming up with ways
to conceal their identities.
So a conversation about how visits
to certain friends of yours languishing in jail
are becoming rare as cases speedily tried
could jump to what is labeled
"the primary task of those behind bars"
without you knowing why or how.
Such things do take place
without bothering to explain themselves,
because guilt and shame --
especially of the colossal kind --
are geniuses at coming up with ways
to disguise themselves.

GOV'T, AFP CLAIMS OF NPA WEAKENING ARE LIES -- KA ROGER

CPP spokesperson Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal has belied claims by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the AFP that the strength of the CPP's armed component, the NPA, has been halved in the last two years and that it will certainly face defeat by 2010.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 8, March 30-April 5, 2008

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) spokesperson Gregorio “Ka Roger” Rosal has belied claims by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) that the strength of the CPP's armed component, the New People's Army (NPA), has been halved in the last two years and that it will certainly face defeat by 2010.

According to AFP chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, the NPA's total strength is now down to some 5,000-6,000 fighters from more than 10,000 in 2005 and 2006.

The New People's Army (NPA), the armed component of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), turns 39 this March 29. Its founding took place just a little over three months after Jose Maria Sison led a group that broke away from the Lava leadership of the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) over ideological differences and reestablished the Party as the CPP.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the CPP quickly grew in strength and, together with the NPA, developed into one of the most effective organized forces fighting the U.S-Marcos dictatorship.

The NPA has weathered ideological rifts within the CPP, particularly in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and has remained a force to reckon with on the national scene.

But the NPA now faces claims by the Arroyo government and the AFP that it is a spent force and is pretty much on the way out.

In this interview with Bulatlat, Rosal provides the CPP-NPA's side on the issue.

Following is the full text of the interview:

What can you say about government claims that the AFP through its counter-“insurgency” campaign has been able to reduce the NPA’s total forces by half, and about President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s claim that the “insurgency” will be defeated by 2010?

They keep on prating that they are winning the war against the revolutionary forces. They claim that they have been cutting down the strength of the NPA to some 5,000 and that they have been destroying scores of revolutionary guerrilla fronts during the past few years. Again and again, as in many other things that the ruling regime has been confronted with, these are nothing but lies.

It is the demoralized fascist mercenary armed forces of the Arroyo regime that keeps suffering one defeat after another from the tactical offensives of the NPA. There have been over 500 major and minor tactical offensives from a year ago. Quite the opposite to what the Arroyo regime and the AFP are making it appear to be, the NPA is riding high with victories and continues to grow with additional recruits.

The Arroyo regime has inflicted severe sufferings on the people as a result of its gargantuan plunder and bribery, its treasonous sell out of the country’s patrimony, and its worsening of the people’s poverty, joblessness and hunger. There is also the brutality of the intensified fascist and terrorist acts of its armed forces. Because of all this the Arroyo regime has even become the Number One recruiter for the NPA.

The regime is covering up its failures against the revolutionary armed forces by carrying out an unprecedented spate of extrajudicial killings, abductions and other fascist terrorist acts against unarmed activist forces and suspected supporters in the legal arena.

How has the NPA survived and resisted the onslaughts of Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL) I and II?

OBL concentrates enemy forces and applies fascist deception and atrocities on the “centers of gravity” of a score of priority guerrilla fronts. However this leaves the enemy forces thinly dispersed in much greater scores of others. The NPA takes advantage of this and shifts its forces to these other fronts. It steps up its mass work and its military operations against the isolated and weak enemy forces there.

Like other earlier “counter-insurgency” strategies applied by the enemy, OBL cannot succeed against a revolutionary movement and its people’s army that is led by the Communist Party, fights for the people’s interest, closely links with the masses, pursues the strategic line of protracted people’s war, and applies guerrilla tactics to fight the momentarily bigger enemy.

Grasping fully the excellent current revolutionary situation, the revolutionary forces systematize and speed up the arousal, education, organizing and mobilizing of the mass of the Filipino people. The revolutionary forces do not just launch tactical offensives and other military work in expanding and consolidating its guerrilla fronts and mass base. Side by side with these, they also launch anti-feudal struggles and other political, socio-economic and cultural campaigns in the interest of the people.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) only admits falling short of its targets but in reality it has utterly failed to live up to any of its bragging. Arroyo’s OBL I failed miserably and its current second version is also failing.

In how many provinces, towns and villages does the NPA have a presence now?

The revolutionary forces are solidly entrenched in 9,000 barangays (villages) in more than 70 provinces and 800 municipalities, and are advancing day by day. The enemy forces haven’t been able to dismantle even a single one of the well over a hundred revolutionary guerrilla fronts. These are the solid building blocks of relatively more stable base areas.

How close is the NPA to its objective of moving to the middle phase of the strategic defensive?

Under the leadership of the CPP, the NPA and other revolutionary forces are forging ahead with the people’s war and other forms of struggle. Its present objective is to complete the middle stage of the strategic defensive and proceed to the strategic stalemate of the protracted people’s war towards the completion of the national democratic revolution and the start of the socialist revolution right after.

Is the NPA contributing to or in any way involved in the campaign to oust the Arroyo regime?

Alongside their waging of armed struggle, the revolutionary forces welcome and support the complementary people’s open and legal struggles and mass uprisings and the withdrawal of support of enlightened and disgruntled military and police forces. The brewing upsurge of mass protests and the imminent possibility of another people power uprising to topple the extremely hated and isolated Arroyo regime will be a big boost to the advance of the revolutionary struggle as it serves the attainment of immediate relief for the suffering Filipino people.

Yet Gloria Arroyo is blinded by her own lying, criminality and megalomania. She refuses to see the handwriting on the wall and tries to ignore the people’s seething anger and their resounding demand for the immediate ouster of her rotten reactionary, puppet regime. Bulatlat