[News] Philipinnes - Blood on Her Hands

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Lives are apparently a centavo a dozen in this society of ours.

Three nights ago, Elena Mendiola and her husband, both members of 
Bayan Muna in Isabela, were sprayed with bullets by armed men. An 
officer of Bayan Muna and a member of Kadamay, a militant urban poor 
group, were simultaneously killed in the Bicol Region on April 28. On 
April 22, Bayan Muna members Virgilio and Marilou Rubio were hogtied 
and shot in Nakar, Quezon. On March 19, League of Filipino Students 
(LFS) Regional Coordinator and Alpha Phi Omega Grand Chancellor Cris 
Hugo was shot three times in Legazpi City. A member of the militant 
youth group Anakbayan in Hacienda Luisita has been missing since late 
March 2006.

Three youth researchers of a peasant group were arrested in Quezon on 
April 30. Another group of five researchers were arrested and 
tortured in Cavite. Nine youth from Nueva Ecija were arrested by the 
military in early March, and two of them later died due to internal 
bleeding brought about by torture methods. Eleven youth backpacking 
in the Cordilleras were picked up by the military and were tortured. 
All of them were accused of being supporters of the New People's Army 
or of being members of the NPA.

The list of atrocities goes on and on.

More than six hundred people have been killed by still "unidentified" 
men since Arroyo assumed the presidency in 2001. Fact-finding 
missions launched by the human rights group Karapatan, the church-led 
International Solidarity Mission and the labor-led International 
Labor Solidarity Mission all point to what seemed to be a nationwide 
systematic crackdown on political activists perpetrated by the Armed 
Forces of the Philippines and condoned by the government.

What is more noteworthy is that the government has been eerily silent 
on the issue of the killings all over the country. On the contrary, 
it has even declared Bayan Muna, Anakpawis, Gabriela, LFS and other 
progressive organizations as fronts of the Communist Party of the 
Philippines, thereby virtually signing their death warrants as 
enemies of the state and making them legitimate targets of the 
military. The Department of Justice under Raul Gonzalez has even gone 
so far as to file rebellion charges against progressive organizations 
for being "Communist Party fronts."

Even more insulting is the fact that Arroyo has been routinely 
promoting generals to juicy posts in the government in return for the 
lives of those who were killed. For example, from being a major in 
2001, Jovito Palparan, called by activists as the "Berdugo ng 
Mindoro" for killing more than eighty people in the island of 
Mindoro, was promoted to colonel and then brigadier general in just 
four years for a "job well done."

That the Arroyo government has continued to keep mum on the issue 
speaks of the stand it has taken. The political killings can only 
benefit the Arroyo administration, as its critics disappear from the 
scene one by one through wholesale murder.

That Arroyo is engaging in mass murder does not bode well for the 
country. A government that has no conscience will never understand 
the real plight of the people. A government that disregards the basic 
rights of the people will definitely trample on them. A government 
that sees itself as God's gift to the Filipino people will stop at 
nothing to perpetuate itself in power.

But leaders of various people's organizations have vowed to continue 
organizing despite the dangers they are facing. It is important that 
we give credit to the efforts of people's organizations to achieve 
genuine social transformation through mass actions and other forms of protest.

That the killings are happening in the midst of widespread poverty 
and misery will only serve as additional fuel for protests and mass 
actions. Arroyo's stay in power will end sooner or later, because a 
government that serves only its own interests has no business governing.

And a government that has blood on its hands has no business staying in power.


"...only through militant struggle can the best in the youth emerge..."

League of Filipino Students
# 715 Matimyas St., Sampaloc, Manila, Philippines 1100
Mobile Number: +63.919.341.9441
<mailto:lfsphils at yahoo.com>lfsphils at yahoo.com
www.lfs.kilusan.net

The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
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