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

KUNG BAKIT LAGING LUMANG BALITA ANG NAIBABAHAGI KO SA MGA MAKADADALAW NAMA'Y KUNG BAKIT HINDI DUMADALAW
Alexander Martin Remollino

Kina Axel Pinpin, Riel Custodio, Aristides Sarmiento, Enrico Ybañez, at Michael Masayes -- ang tinaguriang "Tagaytay 5"

Sa inyong katayuan ngayon,
usad-bato ang kalendaryo't mga orasan:
kahit na nagbabagu-bago ang araw at oras,
waring wala ring sandaling lumilipas.
Kaya't sa tuwing kukumustahin kayo sa akin
ng mga kasama't kaibigang
sa kung anumang kadahilanan
ay mapagpasya sa kanilang kawalan ng kapasyahang
dumalaw
ay laging lumang balita ang naitutugon ko:
"Buhay pa naman sila,
pero wala pa ring paggalaw
sa kanilang kaso."

Ganyan yata talaga ang karaniwang karanasan
ng mga nabibilanggo
sa bansa kung saan ang mga gulong ng hustisya
ay umiikot lamang nang mabilis
kapag may ginto sa timbangan.

MGA DALIT SA PAGHAHANAP NG KATOTOHANAN
Alexander Martin Remollino

1.
Di bubukol kung di ukol.
Pero ang mga komisyon
Sa kontrata'y bumubukol
Sa bulsa ng mga baboy.

2.
Ang k'wagong nasa palasyo
Nang wala nating permiso --
Matakpan lang ang totoo,
Sarili ma'y niluluko.

3.
Itong si Gloria Arroyo
Ay walang gloryang totoo.
Isa s'yang bulaang tao:
Kapatid po ni Dorobo.

4.
O Banal na Espiritu,
Obispo namin ay hilo:
Sa pagtungong Paraiso,
Dinaana'y pa-Impyerno.

5.
Ang sa totoo'y magtakip,
Kapatid ng mang-uumit:
Di man siya ang nang-umit,
Kamay rin n'ya ay marungis.

Ang unang dalit ay kabilang sa mga nagwagi ng consolation prize sa ikalawang linggo (Marso 7-14, 2008) ng "Katext Mo sa Katotohanan," isang pampanulaang patimpalak ng Filipinas Institute for Translation, Inc. (FIT).

YOUTH, STUDENTS LEAD ANTI-ARROYO RALLY IN MANILA

That it was examination week in schools throughout the country did not deter youth and students from leading a March 14 rally at the Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 7, March 16-29, 2008

That it was examination week in schools throughout the country did not deter youth and students from leading a March 14 rally at the Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila.

It was the last major demonstration against the Arroyo regime before the nation’s Christian faithful take a break for the Holy Week. It was also the third big anti-Arroyo rally in a month since former Philippine Forest Corporation president Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada came out with his exposés on the National Broadband Network (NBN) deal between the Philippine government and China’s ZTE Corporation –- for which he served as a technical consultant.

The NBN project is a $329-million contract to connect government agencies throughout the Philippines through the Internet.

Lozada revealed in Senate investigations that the NBN deal was overpriced by $130 million, and that it was “standard practice for government contracts” to be overpriced by 20 percent.

He also disclosed that presidential spouse Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo was involved in back channel negotiations on the NBN deal. He confirmed the involvement of former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos in the contract, as well as his attempt to bribe Romulo Neri –- who was director-general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) during negotiations on the project –- thus corroborating earlier allegations by businessman Jose “Joey” de Venecia III, son of ousted House Speaker Jose de Venecia, and Neri himself.

The younger De Venecia heads Amsterdam Holdings, Inc., which is one of the losing bidders in the NBN contract.

Lozada’s exposés came about a week after the elder De Venecia was ousted from the House speakership. The elder De Venecia is reported to have earned the ire of Malacañang for failing to stop his son from speaking out on the NBN deal.

Lozada’s revelations, together with previous attempts to silence him like his abduction allegedly by elements from the Presidential Security Group (PSG) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) with the assistance of airport security men upon his arrival from Hong Kong early last month, provoked public outrage and revived calls for Arroyo to resign from office.

United Opposition (UNO) spokesperson Adel Tamano, who is also the president of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM), appealed to the crowd for unity.

“The Arroyo administration is using the ‘divide and conquer’ tactic against us,” Tamano said. “The activists are pitted against the non-activists, EDSA I and EDSA II are pitted against EDSA III. This is not right. We have a common purpose, and that is to search for the truth.”

Lozada did not show up at the March 14 rally in Manila, as he was on a speaking tour in Iloilo.

But the younger De Venecia was there, echoing Joze Rizal’s description of the youth as the “hope of (the nation)” and urging them to continue fighting for truth. He also urged the Arroyo couple to “back off” from corruption and from lying to the Filipino people –- alluding to a supposed order to him by presidential spouse Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo to “back off” from the biddings on the NBN deal.

A highlight of the program was a skit performed by the University of the Philippines (UP) Repertory Company. Set in 2030, the skit depicted a girl’s travel back to the time of the Arroyo administration when, as one of the characters would say, “corruption and political killings were rife.” The main character was on a mission to get President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s mole, and her quest took her through several corruption scams involving the Arroyo administration –- including the construction of the President Diosdado Macapagal Avenue, which was overpriced by P1 billion and was one of the first corruption issues against the President.

Another highlight of the program was a performance by rapper Peter Park Her, whose song demanded that those involved in corruption be lined up at Rizal Park and shot -– in reference to the execution of Rizal, now the country’s national hero, in what was known as Bagumbayan in 1896.

Mary Grace Poe, daughter of the late actor Fernando Poe, Jr. who was Arroyo’s closest rival in the 2004 presidential elections, also spoke at the rally, urging the youth to think not only of their own futures but also the future of the nation.

Poe lost by 1.1 million votes to Arroyo in 2004 in an election marred by fraud, which repeatedly manifested itself in tampered election documents and discrepant poll figures.

The issue of fraud in the 2004 elections was revived in 2005, when presidential spokesperson Ignacio Bunye brought out into the open copies of the so-called “Hello Garci” tapes. These are a series of wiretapped and recorded conversations in which a woman with a voice similar to Arroyo’s is heard instructing an election official –- widely believed to be then Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano –- to rig the polls. The woman specifically instructs “Garci” to ensure a victory of “more than 1M” for her.

Before the youth-led program at the Liwasang Bonifacio, activists belonging to Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-National Capital Region (Bayan-NCR) staged a “Kalbaryo ng Maralita” (Calvary of the Poor), a street-theater presentation depicting the sufferings of the Filipino masses using Christianity-based imagery.

At around 2 p.m. Bayan and the Promotion of Church People’s Response (PCPR) marched to the Liwasang Bonifacio for an interfaith activity officiated by Abp. Oscar Cruz and Bp. Teodoro Bacani, both of the Catholic Church; and several Protestant pastors.

After the interfaith activity, which included the release of doves and green balloons, there were several speeches by student leaders from different schools.

Former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, Jr. and Reps. Satur Ocampo of Bayan Muna (People First) and Liza Maza of the Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP) were in the rally, but did not speak on stage. Former Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) Commissioner Zosimo Paredes, who ran in the 2007 senatorial elections but lost, was also spotted in the rally.

The rally had a festive atmosphere, with performances by UP-based ethnic ensemble Kontra-Gapi and rock bands The Jerks, Republika de Lata, and Datu’s Tribe among others.

Rally organizers – mostly belonging to the Youth Act Now -– estimated the crowd size at its peak at 10,000. Police estimates yielded a figure of 6,000.

Aside from the “usual suspects” UP and the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), schools like the University of Asia and the Pacific, De La Salle University, Ateneo de Manila University, University of Santo Tomas (UST), PLM, and the Philippine School of Business Administration (PSBA) were well-represented in the rally. Bulatlat

MABUBUHAY KA SA P41.25 SA ISANG ARAW, AYON SA NATIONAL STATISTICAL COORDINATION BOARD
Alexander Martin Remollino

Sampung pisong pisbol ang kainin sa almusal.
Sampung pisong pisbol ang kainin sa tanghalian.
Sampung pisong pisbol ang kainin sa hapunan.
Sa halagang P30, lubos nang matutugunan
ang pangangailangang kumain
nang tatlong beses sa isang araw.

Para naman sa "panulak,"
mabibili sa sampung piso
ang pinakamaliit na bote ng mineral water.
Matutong magtipid at kakasya sa maghapon
ang 350 ml na tubig.

'Yang matitirang P1.25 ay huwag balewalain:
kapag nagmarakulyo ang sikmura
at ayaw kang patulugin pagdating ng gabi --
lamang-tiyan din 'yan,
lamang-tiyan din 'yan.

Mababasa rin sa:

Kilometer 64
Tinig.com
Bulatlat

ISANG PAALAALA SA ATING LAHAT HINGGIL SA MGA GANITONG PANAHON
Alexander Martin Remollino

Mabuti pa raw ang kubong ang nakatira ay tao
Kaysa roon sa palasyong nakatira ay kuwago.
Ngayon, tayong taong laging nangahuhukot sa kubo
Ay nagtataboy ng k'wago mula roon sa palasyo.

Ngunit, hangga't sa 'ting bayan ay isang kaugalian
Ang pag-ayaw na lumingon sa ating pinanggalingan,
Tuluy-tuloy lamang tayong wala ring paroroonan --
Humakbang ma'y di aalis sa ating pinagsimulan.

Hangga't tayong mga tao ay hindi nangatututo,
Itong ating mga buhay ay hindi rin magbabago:
Tayong tao'y lagi't laging mangahuhukot sa kubo
At parati nang kuwago'ng malalagay sa palasyo.

NAPAKADALI ANG MAGSABING 'MAGHINTAY' KUNG...
Alexander Martin Remollino

Ngayong bumubulwak na muli ang mga panawagan para sa pagbabago sa pambansang liderato, kasunod ng mga pagbubunyag ni Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada hinggil sa mga anumalya sa kontratang National Broadband Network (NBN) sa pagitan ng gobyerno ng Pilipinas at ZTE Corp. ng Tsina, pati na sa ibang proyektong pinasukan ng pamahalaan gaya ng NorthRail at SouthRail, umeeksena rin ang ilang henyo’t nagsasabing dapat ay hintayin na lamang ng mga puwersang anti-administrasyon ang 2010 para sa pagkakataong mapalitan si Gng. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo — na diumano’y Pangulo ng Pilipinas.

Sa 2010 ang susunod na halalang pampanguluhan ng Pilipinas. Sapagkat diumano’y nakapagwagi na sa halalang pampanguluhan, ayon sa Saligang Batas ay hindi na maaaring maihalalal “na muli” si Arroyo — na ang kahina-hinalang “tagumpay” sa halalan ng 2004 ay ipinagbunyi ng gobyerno ng Estados Unidos — bilang Pangulo.

Ngunit may halos dalawang taon pa hanggang sa 2010, at sa halos dalawang taon ay napakaraming maaaring mangyari. Sa loob ng halos dalawang taon ay marami pang maanumalyang proyekto ang maaaring pasukin ng pamahalaan, malaki pa ang maaaring ilawak ng agwat ng halaga ng pamumuhay at ng kabuhayan ng nakararaming mamamayan, at marami pang paglabag sa karapatang pantao ang maaaring isagawa.

Pinatalsik si Joseph “Erap” Estrada noong 2001 sa isang pambansang pag-aaklas na sa kalakha’y laban sa katiwalian, upang pagkatapos ay palitan ni Arroyong ang panunungkula’y kinatampukan ng lalo’t lalong katiwalian — mula sa anumalya sa pagpapagawa ng President Diosdado Macapagal Avenue hanggang sa kagila-gilalas na mga kickback sa kontratang NBN. Sa ilalim ng rehimeng Arroyo nasaksihan ang mga antas ng kagutuman at karalitaan sa bansa na hindi nakita sa loob ng mahabang panahon, batay sa lahat ng kapani-paniwalang panlipunang sarbey (IBON Foundation, Social Weather Station, at Pulse Asia). Ang rehimeng ito’y nakapagtala rin ng mga paglabag sa karapatang pantao — mula sa mga ekstrahudisyal na pamamaslang at sapilitang pagkawala hanggang sa mga pagbibibilanggong pulitikal, mula sa marahas na pagtugon sa mga kilos-protesta hanggang sa pagbubusal sa pabatirang-madla — na ang dami’y hindi kayang pantayan ng alinmang rehimen, marahil, sa kasaysayan ng Pilipinas maliban sa kay Ferdinand Marcos (na malapit-lapit na nga nitong maungusan).

Napakadali ang magsabing “maghintay” para sa mga taong hindi nagtitiis na magpainiksiyon sa mga nars at duktor na gumagamit ng hiringgilyang naninilaw; o magklase sa damuhan, sa ilalim ng init ng araw, sapagkat ang salapi ng taumbayan na dapat sana’y inilalaan sa mga serbisyong panlipunan ay ipinapasok sa maanumalyang mga proyektong ang nakikinabang lamang ay iilang salanggapang na opisyal ng pamahalaan gaya ng mga Benjamin Abalos, at mga kamag-anak ng mga nasa kapangyarihan tulad ng mga Mike Arroyo.

Napakadali ang magsabing “maghintay” para sa mga taong nagtatampisaw sa salapi kahit na hindi igalaw ang mga daliri at hindi nagkakangkukuba sa pagtatrabaho sa mga pabrika’t opisina upang pagkatapos ng isang buong araw ng pagpapatulo ng pawis ay mag-uwi ng sahod na maaaring kitain sa loob lamang ng isang oras sa ibang bansa, o sa paggawa sa bukid upang pagkatapos ng bawat anihan ay maipagbili ang palay sa halagang kulang na pang-isang buwan ngunit kailangang papagkasyahin sa tatlong buwan.

Napakadali ang magsabing “maghintay” para sa mga taong walang kamag-anak, kaibigan o kakilala man lamang na kabilang sa mahigit na 900 na ngayong biktima ng ekstrahudisyal na pamamaslang at mahigit sa 180 biktima ng sapilitang pagkawala, o sa mahigit sa 200 bilanggong pulitikal — batay sa pinakahuling mga tala ng Karapatan — na kaya humantong sa gayon ay sapagkat nangahas na ipaglaban ang karapatan ng mga manggagawa sa nakabubuhay na sahod, ang karapatan ng mga magsasaka na pakinabangang lubos ang mga bunga ng lupang sinasaka, at ang karapatan ng mga mamamayan sa mga serbisyong tulad ng kalusugan at edukasyon — mga karapatang dapat ay tinatamasa ng lahat sa alinmang bansang tulad ng Pilipinas na namamaraling siya’y isang demokrasya.

Dahil sa ang alinmang pamahalaan ay lubhang nakapangyayari sa kalakhan ng buhay ng mga mamamayan, ang pag-iral nito ay dapat na nakabatay sa kapakanan ng tanang nasasakupan. Kung hindi ganito ang batayan ng pag-iral ng isang pamahalaan, karapatan ng mga mamamayan ang ito’y lansagin.

At sapagkat karapatan ito ng mga mamamayan, hindi nila kailangang maghintay ng pagkakataong gawin ito, kundi karapatan nilang likhain ang ganitong pagkakataon.

Hintayin ang 2010? Hayaan ang mga hunghang at hangal na maghintay kung siya nilang ibig.

AT KAHIT NA NINGNING AY WALA SA IYO
Alexander Martin Remollino

Ikaw na ngayo'y nasa pinakamataas na luklukan
ng aming bayan: luwalhati -- liwanag --
ang ibinabandila ng iyong pangalan.

Ngunit anong luwalhati ang mababanaag
sa isang magnanakaw na sa araw,
hindi man lamang sa gabi, nagnanakaw?
At anong luwalhati ang mababanaag
sa isang mamamatay-taong ang mga kamay
ay hindi matuyuan ng dugo ng bayan?

Luwalhati ang ibinabandila ng iyong pangalan,
ngunit isang silahis man lamang ng liwanag
ay wala ka --
at kahit na ningning ay wala sa iyo.

BALIKATAN 2008 RAISES FEARS OF RAPES, OTHER ATROCITIES BY U.S. TROOPS

This year’s RP-U.S. Balikatan military “exercises” in Sulu, Basilan, Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, and North Cotabato start just shortly after two sexual assaults by U.S. troops in Okinawa, Japan –- in which one of the victims was a Filipina. They also come less than three years after a Filipina was raped by U.S. troops participating in joint military “exercises” in Subic, Zambales.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 4, February 24-March 1, 2008

The arrival of U.S. troops in several Mindanao provinces and in Sulu for the 2008 Balikatan military “exercises” has triggered fears of rapes and other atrocities by U.S. soldiers against Filipinos.

This year’s RP-U.S. Balikatan military “exercises” in Sulu, Basilan, Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, and North Cotabato started just shortly after two sexual assaults by U.S. troops in Okinawa, Japan –- in which one of the victims was a Filipina. They also come less than three years after a Filipina was raped by U.S. troops participating in joint military “exercises” in Subic, Zambales.

Last week, the Kyodo News Agency repoted that the U.S. military had taken into custody earlier this month a U.S. soldier who sexually assaulted a Filipina in Okinawa, where the U.S. government maintains a military base.

Also last week, U.S. Marine soldier Tyrone Hadnott, 38, was arrested for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl also in Okinawa. This incident is reminiscent of the rape of a 12-year-old girl by a U.S. solider also in Okinawa in 1995 – an incident that sparked a wave of protests that threatened to banish U.S. troops from the island.

In October last year, four U.S. soldiers were also arrested in Okinawa for allegedly raping a young woman. They are being investigated and could face court martial proceedings.

In the Philippines, L/Cpl Daniel Smith of the U.S. Marines was convicted in December 2006 for raping a young woman in Subic in November 2005. Judge Benjamin Pozon of the Makati City Regional Trial Court ordered him detained at the Makati City Jail, but he was secretly transferred to the U.S. Embassy in Manila at the behest of the U.S. government, which invoked the RP-U.S. Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA). His case is still on appeal.

Mindanao: Balikatan 2008

U.S. and Philippine troops began this year’s Balikatan military “exercises” on Feb. 19 amid protest actions all over Mindanao. This year’s joint military “exercises are scheduled to last until March 3.

In a Feb. 14 statement, the Sisters’ Association of Mindanao (SAMIN) asked, “Will U.S. troops participate in actual military operations against our people as they did in other places? Will there be another Nicole, and will our women and children again be made ‘objects’ for the U.S. soldiers’ rest and recreation?”

In the Lanao provinces, a broad multi-sectoral alliance has been formed to oppose the Balikatan military “exercises.” The alliance, called RACABE (Ranao Crescent Against Balikatan Exercises), stressed in a statement:

“The presence of U.S. troops in Lanao will be a serious threat to the ongoing peace process in Mindanao since the U.S. troops...help organize counterinsurgency groups.... On the one hand, it will awaken painful memories of the past American invasions of the Ranao areas such as the massacres in Padang Karbala of Bayang, Lanao del Sur (during the first decade of the 20th century) that almost wiped out all the able-bodied men in the said municipality except for seven who were either minors or infirm, in Tugaya, Lanao del Sur and Pantar, Lanao del Norte that may trigger violent retaliatory actions against U.S. troops.”

Sittie Rajabia Sundang, secretary-general of the Kawagib Moro Human Rights organization, cited in a Feb. 19 press statement the following atrocities by U.S. troops against civilians since the first Balikatan military “exercises” were held in Basilan in 2002:

· Farmer Buyung-Buyung Isnijal was shot by an American soldier identified by witnesses as Sgt. Reggie Lane, who was accused of participating in a military operation on July 27, 2002 in Tuburan, Basilan.

· In Zamboanga, U.S. soldiers accidentally fired at civilians in the community while on their testing missions. One case was the shooting and wounding of Arsid Baharun in Zamboanga City while soldiers were conducting a marksmanship practice in 2004.

· In August 2004, Sardiya Abu Calderon, 54, died of a heart attack when a helicopter carrying two U.S. soldiers landed on their farm during the clearing operation conducted by U.S. and Philippine troops in August 2004.

· In September 2006, shrapnels from a misfired bomb hit the back of a 50-year-old Bizma Juhan in Indanan, Sulu.

· In Zamboanga City, passengers of a tricycle complained in a radio station about U.S. soldiers who accidentally bumped the tricycle they were riding in Calarian village on Dec. 15, 2007. Instead of assisting the victims, U.S. soldiers alighted from their vehicle brandishing high-powered guns.

· On Feb. 4, 2008, one of the survivors of the Maimbung, Sulu massacre Rawina Wahid revealed that when the soldiers who attacked their village brought her and the body of her husband, Pfc. Ibnul Wahid, into a Navy boat she saw four U.S. soldiers inside.

U.S. troops in RP: 2002-present

The first RP-U.S. Balikatan military “exercises” were held in 2002 in Basilan, then known as a stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), which, according to different sources, was formed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to justify the intensive military operations against Moro communities and the continuing presence of U.S. troops in the region.

As then Col. David Maxwell wrote in an article for the Military Review in 2004, the Balikatan “exercises” in Basilan were a guise for counter-“terrorist” operations under the auspices of Operation Enduring Freedom-Philippines.

Operation Enduring Freedom is the official name given to the U.S. government’s military response to the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001 in New York City. It entails a series of anti-“terrorism” activities in Afghanistan, the Philippines, the Horn of Africa, Trans-Sahara, and Pakinsi Gorge.

“The mission in Basilan was to conduct unconventional warfare operations in the Southern Philippines through, by, and with the AFP to help the Philippine government separate the population from and to destroy terrorist organizations,” Maxwell, who was the commander of the U.S. troops deployed for Balikatan 2002, wrote. “The plan’s intent was to provide all SF (Special Forces) elements in Basilan with unifying guidance that would help harmonize counterterrorist and counterinsurgency operations in the Southern Philippines with initial focus on Basilan.”

Maxwell included among the Special Forces’ tasks “supporting operations by the AFP ‘strike force’ (LRC or Light Reaction Company)” in their areas of responsibility.

Areas covered

This year’s Balikatan military “exercises” cover Basilan, the Lanao provinces, Sulu, and North Cotabato.

North Cotabato is one of the provinces straddled by the oil-rich Liguasan Marsh, together with Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat. Basilan, the Lanao provinces, and North Cotabato are strongholds of the revolutionary Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), whose peace talks with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) are currently at a standstill over ancestral domain issues.

Sulu is also currently the site of oil exploration operations involving several foreign companies including a U.S. corporation.

In 2005, the Department of Energy (DoE) awarded Service Contract 56 to Australia’s BHP Billiton Petroleum PTY Ltd., Amerada Hess Ltd., Unocal Sulu Ltd., and Sandakan Oil II, LCC. Amerada Hess Ltd. is a unit of Hess Ltd., a U.S.-based oil and gas exploration company.

Based on a 2005 news item published by the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), Service Contract 56 covers some 8,620 hectares offshore Sulu Sea, an area described as “one of the most prospective areas for oil and gas exploration as indicated by the previous drilling activities conducted in the area.”

These provinces are covered by this year’s Balikatan military “exercises,” which have raised among other fears the possibility of other women suffering the plight of “Nicole” (the court-assigned name for the Subic rape victim of 2005) -– not an unjustified fear considering the latest series of rapes by U.S. troops stationed in Okinawa. Bulatlat

I READ THIS LINE IN BOLD LETTERS ON YOUR FOREHEAD
Alexander Martin Remollino

What did they say about the young Maceda --
"so young and so corrupt"?
I read this line in bold letters on your forehead
whenever I hear your drumbeating
for that thief and tyrant in Malacañang
who holds a gold-plated scepter.

For Lorelei Fajardo, deputy presidential spokesperson

WHY YOU'RE ON THE RUN
Alexander Martin Remollino

"Papa, if it is true that you did well for the country, why is it we are on the run?"

-- Rodolfo "Jun" Lozada, National Broadband Network (NBN) scam whistleblower, quoting one of his children in a Feb. 18 speech

You are all on the run
even as your father did good for the country --
because this is a land where, for the longest time,
those who do good for others
have been looked upon like rotten eggs.
Yes, for ages we've been throwing out the good stuff
and feasting on that which is rotten to the core.

At times we throw up the moldy food
that we have grown to love gobbling up.
But, as we have all too often seen,
it is a prevalent habit in this part of the world
to swallow your own vomit.

Until that habit is licked,
no one can tell how long you'll be on the run
in this country --
for which your father did good.

IN WAKE OF LOZADA EXPOSÉS: PROTESTS EXPECTED TO LEAD TO LEADERSHIP CHANGE

For Joey de Venecia, the series of anti-government rallies by various groups following Jun Lozada’s testimonies on the NBN deal and other corruption cases can and should lead to Arroyo’s ouster.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 3, February 17-23, 2008

For businessman Jose “Joey” de Venecia III, son of ousted House Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., the series of anti-government rallies that has been started by various groups in the wake of Engr. Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada’s testimonies on the National Broadband Network (NBN) deal and other corruption cases can and should lead to the ouster of the Arroyo regime -- at the soonest possible.

He shared to reporters, who interviewed him after he spoke at the Feb. 15 rally organized by various groups at Ayala Avenue in Makati City, that attending anti-government rallies was not very new to him. “I was here in 1983, during the rallies for the late Ninoy Aquino,” he shared, referring to the series of broad anti-Marcos rallies that was sparked by the assassination of Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, whom many considered an opposition stalwart during the Marcos years.

“We waited for three years (to oust the Marcos dictatorship),” he added. “I hope we wouldn’t have to wait that long.”

Atty. Adel Tamano, spokesman of the United Opposition (UNO) which along with the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), the Concerned Citizens Group, the Black & White Movement, and Laban ng Masa (The Masses’ Fight) was among the initiators of the Feb. 15 rally, was not as pointed about where he expected the new series of anti-Arroyo protests to lead. “It’s up to the people,” he said in a brief interview with Bulatlat.

But when asked what he thought of the possibility that it would lead to leadership change, he said it would be well as long as the change is not unlawful or violent.

“It must be a constitutional and peaceful leadership change, he said. “Otherwise, we will not support it.”

Flashback: NBN deal

The younger De Venecia heads one of the companies that lost the bidding for the allegedly rigged and overpriced NBN deal between the Philippine government and China’s ZTE Corp.

The NBN project is a $329-million contract that aims to connect government agencies throughout the Philippines through the Internet.

The deal was signed in Boao, China on April 21, 2007 -- when the government was not allowed to sign contracts because of the then-upcoming senatorial and local elections. It has become controversial for allegedly being overpriced and for supposedly having been signed without going through the proper bidding process. It was also deemed disadvantageous to the country because it was to be financed through a loan from China when, in fact, it could have been done at no cost to the government through a “Build-Operate-Transfer” scheme.

The younger De Venecia, co-founder of Amsterdam Holdings, Inc. which is one of the losing bidders in the NBN deal, accused former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin Abalos of offering him $10 million in exchange for backing out of the NBN deal - an accusation the former Comelec chief has denied.

In a privileged speech on Aug. 29, 2007, Nueva Vizcaya Rep. Carlos Padilla said it was Abalos who brokered the deal between the Philippine government and ZTE Corp. Padilla also said Abalos was seen playing golf with ZTE officials in Manila and Shenzen. He also accused Abalos of receiving money and women in exchange for brokering the NBN deal.

As controversy built up over the NBN deal, reports also went rife that Abalos had bribed or tried to bribe a number of government officials -- including Commission on Higher Education (CHED) chairman and former National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) director-general Romulo Neri -- in exchange for approving or supporting the approval of the project.

Neri, in a Senate investigation, confirmed that Abalos had offered him P200 million ($4.33 million at last year’s average exchange rate of $1:P46.15) -- a revelation that provoked public indignation leading the latter to resign from his Comelec post.

Lozada

Enter Lozada, a telecommunications engineer and former president of the Philippine Forest Corporation, who served as Neri’s technical consultant for the NBN deal. He not only confirmed that the NBN contract was overpriced by $130 billion: he also confirmed Abalos’ involvement as a supposed broker in the deal, as well as the bribe attempt on Neri. He went a step further and disclosed that Abalos was frequently calling up presidential spouse Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo in the course of the bidding and deliberations on the NBN project.

Besides these, Lozada said, it was standard practice to overprice government projects by 20 percent. The overprice on the NBN deal is so far the biggest under the Arroyo administration, whose list of overpriced projects includes the Call Centers in State Universities project (P575 million, or $12.46 million based on last year’s average exchange rate, in “unaccounted” funds), the President Diosdado Macapagal Avenue project (overpriced by P536 million or $10.51 million at the 2001 average exchange rate of $1:P50.99), the Cyber Education project, the IMPSA deal, and the Comelec counting machines.

Lozada’s testimonies came in the same week that the elder De Venecia was ousted from the House Speakership and replaced by staunch Malacañang ally Davao Rep. Prospero Nograles. The elder De Venecia is said to have earned Malacañang’s ire for failing to stop his son from testifying on the NBN scam.

Calls for resignation, removal

Lozada’s exposés on corruption has revived calls for the resignation or removal of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who has reaped condemnation for the spate of extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations, electoral fraud, and large-scale corruption under her watch. The rally last Feb. 15 in Makati City -- which yielded an estimated turnout of 15,000-20,000 - is the first in what is intended to be a new series of protests launched as a response to corruption under the Arroyo regime.

Lozada and the younger De Venecia have the support of Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, president of the influential Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), who has called for “communal action” for truth. Said Lagdameo in a Feb. 10 statement:

“Truth hurts. Truth liberates. But the truth must be served. The truth will set our country free...

“Only the truth, not lies and deceits, will set our country free. This truth challenges us now to communal action.”

Lagdameo had previously signed a joint statement calling for a rejection of “morally bankrupt” government.

The Makati Business Club (MBC), another influential group, has also expressed support for a possible people-power uprising similar to those that ousted Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada in 1986 and 2001, respectively; but stated it would not favor a military takeover.

Vice President Noli de Castro has, in television interviews, expressed willingness to take over the reins of government as constitutional successor should Arroyo be removed from power or forced to resign from office.

Meanwhile, National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison, in a Feb. 15 statement e-mailed to media from his base in the Netherlands where he has been seeking asylum since the cancellation of his passport in 1988, said Arroyo is “ripe for ouster” by the broad mass movement.

“The sheer growth of the legal and peaceful mass actions in the national capital region and on a national scale in the coming days, weeks and months can encourage the military and police to withdraw support from the Arroyo ruling clique and can suffice to cause the resignation, impeachment or outright ouster of the illegitimate and morally bankrupt president,” Sison said.

The younger De Venecia said he certainly hopes the mass actions would lead to Arroyo’s resignation.

“This is too much already,” he said on corruption under the Arroyo government. “The Filipino masses can no longer take it. The middle classes can no longer take it...”

“My call is for her to step down,” he said of Arroyo. Bulatlat

BLACK SWAN
Alexander Martin Remollino

And the black swan let itself be found.
In so doing, it shocked into their senses a people
long accustomed to thinking of thievery
as something to be met simply
with a shrug of the shoulders.

That could all be very well.
But until when will this nation be waiting
for black swans?

U.S. TROOPS SIGHTED IN SULU MASSACRE

U.S. troops were present during the Feb. 4 assault by combined Army and Navy elite forces on Barangay (village) Ipil, Maimbung, Sulu that killed eight non-combatants, including an Army soldier on vacation. Worse, they tolerated what had taken place.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 2, February 10-16, 2008

Soldiers from the Army’s Light Reaction Company (LRC) -– a unit composed of Philippine soldiers who had received training from U.S. troops during the RP-U.S. joint military exercises –- and the Navy’s Special Weapons Group (Swag) attacked Brgy. Ipil early morning, while most villagers were still sleeping, on Feb. 4, said Concerned Citizens of Sulu convener and former Jolo councilor Temogen “Cocoy” Tulawie in an interview with Bulatlat.

Killed in the attack were Marisa Payian, 4; Wedme Lahim, 9; Alnalyn Lahim, 15; Sulayman Hakob, 17; Kirah Lahim, 45; Eldisim Lahim, 43; Narcia Abon, 24 -– all civilians. Also killed was Pfc. Ibnul Wahid of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, who was then on vacation.

“Wahid’s hands were even tied behind his back,” Tulawie said, citing an account by Sandrawina Wahid, the slain soldier’s wife. “He was forced to lie face down on the ground and they stepped on his back. His wife ran into their hut and back out, showing the soldiers his Army ID and bag, begging them to not hurt him. But still, they shot him.”

One of the victims, Kirah Lahim, was even mutilated. “They took out his eyes and cut off his fingers and ears,” Tulawie said.

Military officials have given varying explanations of the incident. One explanation was that the non-combatants were killed in a firefight between soldiers and “terrorists,” while another points to a “family feud” as having triggered the killings.

One Army general said what happened on Feb. 4 was a “legitimate encounter,” claiming that troops searching for kidnapped trader Rosalie Lao clashed with Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) bandits and members of the terrorist Jema’ah Islamiyah.

The military did not say whether Lao, who was kidnapped on Jan. 28 while on the way home from her store, was being held in Sulu.

Maj. Gen. Ruben Rafael, commander of an anti-“terrorist” task force in Sulu, said two soldiers and three bandits -– including ASG leader Abu Muktadil – were killed in the “encounter.”

“It was a legitimate encounter,” Rafael told media. “As far as we are concerned, troops clashed with the Abu Sayyaf and Jema’ah Islamiyah. We have recovered the bodies of Muktadil, but soldiers also found eight more bodies in the area and we are trying to find out whether they were caught in the crossfire or slain by terrorists.”

Tulawie, however, said this was not true.

“That’s a lie,” Tulawie said. “Most of these people (who were killed) are just seaweed farmers. There is no ASG there. In the case of Wahid, they killed their own fellow soldier.”

“They were quiet people who had no enemies,” Tulawie said of the victims.

Meanwhile, Maj. Eugene Batara, spokesman of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom), said authorities are presently investigating reports that the killings were sparked by a family feud.

As the killings were taking place, there were U.S. troops nearby. Tulawie said Sandrawina was taken into a Navy boat, where she saw four U.S. soldiers.

“They were just nearby and they tolerated what was happening,” Tulawie said. “There was only one who was heard shouting, ‘Hold your fire!’ but that was all. They tolerated these human rights violations committed by the soldiers they had trained.”

Westmincom chief Maj. Gen. Nelson Allaga said there were no U.S. troops involved in the operation.

“There was no direct involvement of the Americans,” Allaga said. “It is strictly prohibited.”

Not the first time

Sulu Gov. Abdulsakur Tan said this was not the first time that U.S. troops were reported to have taken part in Philippine military operations in Sulu. With this, he corroborated what Tulawie had said in an earlier interview with Bulatlat.

When an encounter between the AFP and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) broke out in Brgy. Buansa, Indanan, Sulu in early 2007, U.S. troops who were a few kilometers away were seen running toward the direction of the gunfire. They were carrying their guns.

Military spokespersons said the attack was brought about by reports that members of the ASG were in the MNLF camp. The MNLF –- with which the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) signed a Final Peace Agreement in 1996 -– has repeatedly denied that it coddles ASG members.

During that same period, U.S. troops were busy with a road construction project in Brgy. Bato-Bato, Indanan. At that time, the area was the center of Philippine military operations in Sulu.

These were gathered by Bulatlat in its interview with Tulawie in March last year.

This, Tulawie said, is just part of a larger picture that has been developing in Sulu since 2004.

“Military operations always take place not far from where U.S. troops are,” said Tulawie. “The presence of U.S. troops has been visible in areas where military operations have taken place.”

While Tulawie says there is yet no evidence that U.S. troops have actually participated in combat operations, their visibility in areas where AFP operations have been conducted raises questions on the real reasons behind their presence in the country’s southernmost province.

U.S. military presence in Sulu

The presence of U.S. troops in Sulu started in 2004 and has been continuous since then.

U.S. troops would have entered Sulu as early as February 2003. The AFP and the U.S. Armed Forces had both announced that the Balikatan military exercises for that year would be held in Sulu.

This provoked a wave of protest from the people of Sulu, who had not yet forgotten what has come to be known as the Bud Dajo Massacre.

The Bud Dajo massacre, which took place in 1906, is described in some history texts as the “First Battle of Bud Dajo.” It was an operation against Moro fighters resisting the American occupation.

The description of the incident as a “battle,” however, is disputed considering the sheer mismatch in firepower between U.S. forces and the Moro resistance fighters. The 790 U.S. troops who assaulted Bud Dajo used naval cannons against the 800-1,000 Moro resistance fighters who were mostly armed only with melee weapons.

In the end, only six of the hundreds of Moro resistance fighters holding Bud Dajo as a stronghold survived, while there were 15-20 casualties among the U.S. troops.

The announcement in February 2003 that the year’s Balikatan military exercises would be held in Sulu summoned bitter memories of the Bud Dajo Massacre and led to protest actions where thousands of Sulu residents participated.

The next year, however, U.S. troops came up with ingenious ways to find their way into Sulu – coming in small groups and bringing relief goods. This “neutralized” the residents’ resistance to their presence.

“Unconventional warfare”

The U.S. troops in Sulu are part of the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P). Based on several news items from the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), the JSOTF-P are in Sulu to train the AFP’s Southern Command (Southcom) and to conduct civic actions.

However, an article written by Command Sgt. Maj. William Eckert of the JSOTF-P, “Defeating the Idea: Unconventional Warfare in Southern Philippines,” hints that there is more to the task force’s work than training AFP troops and embarking on “humanitarian actions.” Wrote Eckert:

“Working in close coordination with the U.S. Embassy, JSOTF-P uses Special Forces, Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations forces to conduct deliberate intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in very focused areas, and based on collection plans, to perform tasks to prepare the environment and obtain critical information requirements. The information is used to determine the capabilities, intentions and activities of threat groups that exist within the local population and to focus U.S. forces –- and the AFP -– on providing security to the local populace. It is truly a joint operation, in which Navy SEALs and SOF aviators work with their AFP counterparts to enhance the AFP’s capacities.”

These U.S. troops have always been seen near the sites of Philippine military operations in Sulu. The latest sighting was during the Feb. 4 attack on Brgy. Ipil, Maimbung where seven civilians and one Army soldier on vacation were killed. Bulatlat

PEACE TALKS NEARING DEAD END, SAYS MILF PANEL CHIEF

Real movement in the peace talks is possible only if both parties–especially the GRP–can find “a way forward,” MILF Negotiating Panel chairman Mohagher Iqbal said.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VIII, No. 1, February 3-6, 2008

The peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic (GRP) of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are nearing a dead end, if we ask MILF Negotiating Panel chairman Mohagher Iqbal. Real movement in the peace talks is possible only if both parties -– especially the GRP -– can find “a way forward,” Iqbal said in an e-mail interview with Bulatlat.

Last December, the GRP-MILF peace 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 that would be based on an ancestral domain claim of the Bangsa Moro people over Mindanao, Sulu, and Palawan.

The GRP had insisted that areas to be covered by the Bangsamoro Juridical Entity 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 Bangsamoro Juridical Entity.

Things seemed to be looking up after that, causing 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, Iqbal said, had been inserted into the agreement without their consent.

“The constitutional process properly belongs to the implementing phase, not in the discussion of the ancestral domain aspect and this is unilateral to the government,” Iqbal said. “We do not understand why the government is raising this issue.”

The government side has denied that the original agreement had been modified. “There was no change from the original proposal,” GRP Negotiating Panel chief Rodolfo Garcia told media on Jan. 15.

Chacha?

The deadlock over the ancestral domain issue in the GRP-MILF peace talks has prompted legal scholar Fr. Joaquin Bernas, who teaches at the Ateneo Law School, to propose what he calls a “surgical constitutional change” to address the conflict in Mindanao.

In his Jan. 21 column for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Bernas proposed a constitutional amendment that has the sole purpose of effecting “significant changes” in the structure of government in Mindanao.

“In my view, the search for a solution to the Mindanao problem can be approached through this ‘surgical’ method,” Bernas wrote. “More specifically the goal can be either a reformulation of the powers that can be given to the Autonomous Region or the formation of a federated state for Mindanao. I believe that a limited constitutional change can be achieved by Congress under the present constitutional provision without disturbing the rest.”

Bernas’ proposal was praised by Sec. Jesus Dureza, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process. “I strongly commend the views expressed by Father Bernas in his column pushing for a surgical constitutional change that would eventually benefit the Mindanao peace process, particularly the negotiations with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, for lasting peace in the south,” Dureza said on Jan. 23.

“I am reiterating my earlier proposal to install a Bangsamoro federal governance unit as the only item in any move to change the charter, in order to ensure that it would pass with bipartisan congressional support and enjoy smooth sailing in both chambers of Congress,” Dureza added.

Iqbal, when asked to comment on Bernas’ proposal, acknowledged it but expressed apprehension on the government’s capacity to push it through.

“It is an opening to formulate a new formula for the negotiated political settlement,” Iqbal said of Bernas’ proposal. “Much depends, however, on how much political capital the President has to push it to a concrete constitutional amendment without derogating the text of the GRP-MILF agreement.”

Land problem

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.

The inclusion of Mindnaao and Sulu in the scope of the 1946 “independence” grant 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 Bangsa Moro people’s struggle

The marginalization of the Moros in their own land led to the formation of the Muslim Independence Movement (MIM) in the 1950s. The MIM struggle, however, would fizzle out before long as many of its leaders, usually from Mindanao’s elite classes, would be coopted by the government.

During the presidency of Diosdado Macapagal (1961-1965), Sabah, an island near Mindanao to which the Philippines has a historic claim, ended up in the hands of the Malaysian government.

During his first presidential term, Ferdinand Marcos conceived of a scheme that involved the recruitment of between 28 and 64 Moro fighters to occupy Sabah. The recruits were, subsequently, summarily executed by their military superiors in 1968, in what is now known as the infamous Jabidah Massacre. According to Jubair, this was because they had refused to follow orders.

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. Bulatlat

‘I TURN A BAD THING INTO A GOOD THING’ –- SISON

NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison’s listing as a “foreign terrorist” in 2002 brought about the suspension of his benefits and pension, and restrictions on his right to travel. “But I turn a bad thing into a good thing,” he said.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 50, January 27-February 2, 2008

For Jose Maria Sison, chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), coping with the day-to-day-demands of life and work has in the last five years remained possible largely by getting personal loans from friends.

“My living conditions are extremely difficult,” Sison shared in an e-mail interview with Bulatlat.

The e-mail interview between Sison and Bulatlat was conducted following a Jan. 21 global press conference held by the NDFP International Office. Philippine media were able to attend the press conference through Internet audio-video patch facilitated by the NDFP-nominated section of the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC).

As an asylum seeker, Sison is entitled to social benefits and old-age pension in the Netherlands but is not allowed to seek employment there. But even these -– his only source of “livelihood” –- have been withheld since 2002, when he was listed by the U.S. Department of State and the Council of the European Union as a “foreign terrorist.”

Aside from these, his listing as a “foreign terrorist” also brought about restrictions on his right to travel.

“But I turn a bad thing into a good thing,” Sison said. “Because I have no money to go places and to go on holidays and because I am also explicitly restricted from traveling, I have more time to read and write and I have ample opportunity to think and exercise my freedom of thought and expression in the interest of the Filipino people and other peoples.”

A poet and revolutionary

Sison –- a poet, essayist, and political analyst -– taught English and Social Science courses at his alma mater, the University of the Philippines (UP), and the Lyceum of the Philippines in the 1960s, after graduating with honors in 1959.

He founded the progressive organizations Student Cultural Association of the University of the Philippines (SCAUP) and Kabataang Makabayan (KM). He was later also involved in the workers’ and peasant movements through the Lapiang Manggagawa (Workers Party) and the Malayang Samahan ng Magsasaka (MASAKA or Free Association of Peasants). He became secretary-general of the Socialist Party of the Philippines (SPP) and, later, the Movement for the Advancement of Nationalism (MAN).

But he is best known as the founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

In 1968 he led a group that broke away from the leadership of the Lava brothers in the old Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP) due to ideological differences, and re-established the party as the CPP.

Under Sison’s leadership, the CPP rapidly gained strength and together with the NPA, its armed component, which was founded in 1969, it developed into one of the strongest organized forces opposed to the U.S.-Marcos regime during the martial law years.

He was the CPP’s highest-ranking leader from its reestablishment until he was arrested by the Marcos dictatorship in 1977.

Released in 1986 by virtue of then President Corazon Aquino’s general amnesty proclamation for political prisoners, Sison got involved in a number of legal political activities and even delivered a series of lectures at his alma mater, the University of the Philippines (UP).

In 1988, he found himself having to apply for political asylum after the Aquino government cancelled his passport while he was in Europe on a speaking tour. He has since lived in the Netherlands as an asylum seeker.

“Terror” listing

In 2002, the CPP-NPA was included by the U.S. Department of State in its list of “foreign terrorist organizations.” Sison was also listed as a “foreign terrorist.” The Dutch government listed the CPP-NPA and Sison in its own terror list a day after the U.S. listing.

According to Jan Fermon, one of Sison’s lawyers, the Dutch Foreign Ministry admitted in its website that the inclusion of the CPP-NPA and Sison in its list of terrorists was done to comply with the request of the U.S. government. It likewise stated that 150 Dutch companies have investments in the Philippines and that Holland is one of the major investors now in the country. It added that the only burden in the relationship between Holland and the Philippines is the presence of what they called the communist leadership in Utrecht.

The Netherlands is at present one of the leading U.S. allies in Europe – next only to the United Kingdom.

The Council of the European Union followed suit in listing Sison as a “terrorist” later that year.

On May 29, 2007 the Council of the European Union decided to retain Sison in its “terrorist” list. This decision was annulled by the July 11 verdict of the European Court of First Instance (ECFI).

On Aug. 28 that same year, Sison was arrested by Dutch police in Utrecht for allegedly ordering the murders of former CPP-NPA leaders Kintanar and Tabara in 2003 and 2004, respectively – an accusation he has denied. His apartment, the homes of a few other NDFP negotiators, and the NDFP International Office were raided and several important items like computers, hard disks, and files related to the NDFP’s peace negotiations with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) were taken.

The CPP-NPA leadership in the Philippines has owned up to the killings of both Kintanar and Tabara, citing them for “crimes against the Revolution.”

On Sept. 13, the District Court of The Hague ordered Sison’s release due to lack of direct and sufficient evidence against him. Part of the decision reads thus:

“The police files submitted to the court include many indications for the point of view that the accused has been involved in the CC (Central Committee) of the CPP and her military branch, the (NPA). There are also indications that the accused is still playing a leading role in the (underground) activities of the CC, the CPP and the NPA.

“Without prejudice to the justified suspicion that the accused during the period described in the charges played a leading role in the aforementioned organizations, the files nevertheless do not provide a sufficient basis for the suspicion that the accused, while staying in the Netherlands, committed the offenses he is charged with in deliberate and close cooperation with the perpetrators in the Philippines.”

Last Jan. 18, however, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service announced that it would continue its investigation of Sison’s alleged involvement in the killings of Kintanar and Tabara up to the middle of this year. This development was the subject of the Jan. 21 global press conference.

Confident

Despite all these, Sison remains in a fighting stance and throwing in the towel is the farthest thing from his mind.

“After consultations with my lawyer, I let him do the work in my legal defense,” he said.

“I am not at all mentally and physically weighed down by the further investigation announced by the prosecutor. I am confident about winning my case completely because the charge is patently false and politically motivated and because so far I have won several court decisions pertaining to it.”

He admits, however, that the “ceaseless persecution” and prolonged suspension of his benefits and pension “adversely affect” his living conditions.

“They expose the brutal character of imperialist states like the U.S. and the Netherlands,” he said. Bulatlat

ON EDSA II ANNIVERSARY: EDSA II FORCES, ERAP GROUPS UNITE IN ANTI-GMA PROTEST

The seventh anniversary of what is now known as the EDSA II or People Power II uprising was marked by a coming together of political blocs that were not and could not have been seen talking to each other seven years ago: the EDSA II forces, on the one hand; and the pro-Estrada forces, on the other.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 49, January 20-26, 2008

The seventh anniversary of what is now known as the EDSA II or People Power II uprising was marked by a coming together of political blocs that were not and could not have been seen talking to each other seven years ago: the EDSA II forces, on the one hand; and the pro-Estrada forces, on the other.

Seeing them together was unimaginable seven years ago, because EDSA II had for its aim the ouster of then President Joseph Estrada. But on the seventh anniversary of EDSA II, which was marked Jan. 18 with an indoor activity at the La Salle Greenhills School (LSGH) and a march to the EDSA Shrine, the two political blocs that had clashed in 2001 were gathered for the common purpose of delivering the statement that: “Seven years is enough! Gloria must go!”

Estrada has always taken pride in the fact that he won in the 1998 presidential elections by a plurality of 10 million –- which is said to be the largest plurality ever to propel a candidate to Malacañang. He assumed the presidency on the basis of a populist “platform” and a professed love for the “Filipino masses.”

But early on in his term he had been criticized for his closeness to the Marcoses and their political allies –- remnants of a dictatorship that was toppled in 1986, in what is now known as the EDSA I uprising. He would later on be under more fire for graft and corruption –- which would constitute one of the grounds for impeachment charges lodged against him in 2000 together with bribery, betrayal of public trust, and culpable violation of the Constitution.

The refusal of his Senate allies to allow the opening of the second of two envelopes containing evidence relevant to the impeachment proceedings triggered a walkout by the prosecution panel and the audience, as well as an evening noise barrage, on Jan. 16, 2001 – signaling the start of a four-day popular uprising that would bring down the Estrada regime.

All through these, Estrada insisted he was the “real president of the Philippines,” pointing out that he had not resigned but merely stepped down.

His arrest in late April, 2001 provoked what his supporters called the “EDSA III uprising.”

Estrada was tried for plunder in a trial that would drag on for more than six years. He would be convicted, but pardoned, in the end.

In a statement after his release following the grant of executive clemency, Estrada said:

“I believe I can best continue to repay our people the blessings that God has so graciously given me by supporting from hereon the programs of Mrs. Arroyo that are intended to attack generational poverty and hunger. We must now as a nation attend to our people’s continuing clamor for food on their tables, roofs above their heads, and better education and health care for their children.”

Seven years of “deceit”

On the seventh anniversary of the EDSA II uprising, Estrada’s supporters and the groups that ousted him in 2001 were together in sending the message that seven years of the Arroyo administration are enough.

“This government has been deceiving us for seven years,” said Bro. Armin Luistro, president of the De La Salle University (DLSU) System, during the indoor activity at LSGH.

“A government that bases its false claims to victory on an election that has legitimacy problems of its own has no right to govern us,” he also said.

Erning Ofracio, an urban poor leader from the Kilusan para sa Makatarungang Lipunan at Gobyerno (KMLG or Movement for a Just Society and Government), told about a text joke he had earlier received, in which a man told his daughter that liars do not grow tall, and get protruding teeth and moles on their faces.

“Anak daw po ‘yon ni Presidente Diosdado Macapagal” (That girl is said to be the daughter of President Diosdado Macapagal), Ofracio said. “Pero ang batang ‘yon ay Presidente na ng Pilipinas” (But that girl is now President of the Philippines.)

Danilo Ramos, chairman of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or Peasant Movement of the Philippines), talked about the peasantry’s worsening poverty and hunger under the Arroyo administration, and reminded the audience about the Fertilizer Funds scam of 2004. “Y’ong pondo para sa abono, iniabono sa kampanya” (Funds meant for fertilizers to fatten the soil were used for fattening campaign funds), he said.

Josie Lichauco, convener of the Concerned Citizens Group and former Transportation and Communication Secretary, discussed the various corruption scandals under the Arroyo regime.

Vergel Santos, editor of Business World and a board member of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), talked about the Arroyo regime’s repressive measures: the “Strong Republic” policy, Presidential Proclamation No. 1017, and the Human Security Act.

When Arroyo was sworn in on Jan. 20, 2001 she promised, among other things, “government by example.”

But early on in her continuation of Estrada’s term (2001-2004), Arroyo had come under fire from people’s organizations for her government’s refusal to address long-standing economic demands such as a P125 legislated wage increase for private-sector workers; and for inaction amid relentless increases in the prices of basic commodities like water, power, and petroleum products due to the policies of privatization and liberalization imposed by the Bretton Woods Twins. Human rights violations especially extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances also started to escalate early on.

By 2003, Arroyo’s name had been enmeshed in no less than ten large-scale corruption scandals.

Having spent only three years continuing her predecessor’s term, Arroyo was constitutionally allowed to run for the 2004 presidential elections –- where she won amid allegations of massive fraud.

Discrepant figures in the election returns and certificates of canvass cast doubts on the credibility of the 2004 presidential elections. In the end, however, she was proclaimed winner by more than 1 million votes against her closest rival, the actor Fernando Poe, Jr. who died without seeing the conclusion of his electoral protest.

In mid-2005, Arroyo faced a major challenge to her government following the surfacing of the so-called “Hello Garci” tapes.

The “Hello Garci” tapes were a series of wiretapped and recorded conversations in which a voice similar to Arroyo’s is heard instructing an election official –- widely believed to be former Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano -– to rig the presidential polls. There is a specific instruction that a victory of “more than 1 M” be ensured for the woman.

Both Arroyo and Garcillano were forced to admit that they talked to each other during the counting period following the 2004 polls. They have however denied rigging the said elections.

The surfacing of the “Hello Garci” tapes triggered widespread demands for Arroyo’s resignation or removal from office. Here the EDSA II forces and the pro-Estrada groups found a common cause.

Human rights violations would become rampant from 2004 –- underscored by present figures from Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights) pointing to more than 880 extrajudicial killings and more than 180 enforced disappearances since 2001. Likewise corruption would also worsen –- with the latest cases being the National Broadband Network (NBN) deal between the Philippine government and China’s ZTE Corp., and the distribution of “cash gifts” to congressmen and governors in a Malacañang meeting last October.

Arroyo has been the subject of three impeachment complaints citing her for bribery, graft and corrupt practices, betrayal of public trust, and culpable violation of the Constitution –- the same charges against Estrada. All impeachment complaints were thrown out through the sheer tyranny of numbers at the House of Representatives.

Jan. 20, 2008 marks Arroyo’s seventh year in office –- making her the longest-serving Philippine President since the late Ferdinand Marcos.

March to EDSA Shrine

The participants in the Jan. 18 commemoration –- Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance), Black & White Movement, KMLG, Union of the Masses for Democracy and Justice (UMDJ), Concerned Citizens Group, Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino (Filipino Masses’ Forces), and Kubol ng Pag-asa -– marched to the EDSA Shrine after the indoor activity at LSGH.

They intended to light candles at the EDSA Shrine -– the site of the People Power II uprising where seven years ago, policemen trooped after then Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Panfilo Lacson was forced by his officers to withdraw support from Estrada. This time, however, the ralliers were stopped by the police from going near the shrine.

“We were the ones who put Arroyo in Malacañang, but now we are prohibited from setting foot (at the EDSA Shrine),” said Bayan Muna (People First) Rep. Satur Ocampo.

The ralliers settled for lighting candles along the sidewalk. Bulatlat