[News] It’s Time to End US Military Aid to the Philippines
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Wed Apr 10 12:25:41 EDT 2019
https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/04/10/its-time-to-end-us-military-aid-to-the-philippines/
It’s Time to End US Military Aid to the Philippines
by Amee Chew <https://www.counterpunch.org/author/7hapatebathu/> - April
10, 2019
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody “War on Drugs” has now
claimed over
<https://drugarchive.ph/post/26-the-drug-killings-who-what-%2520where-when-how-master>
27,000
<https://news.abs-cbn.com/focus/12/05/18/chr-chief-drug-war-deaths-could-be-as-high-as-27000>
lives — almost all poor and indigent people, including children,
summarily executed by police or vigilantes.
Over 140,000
<https://theaseanpost.com/article/packed-prisons-philippines> pre-trial
detainees are being held in overcrowded Philippine prisons, many on
trumped up drug charges
<https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/210516-charts-number-drug-cases-disposition-philippine-courts>;
75 percent of the total prison population still awaits their day in
court, let alone conviction. On top of this, assassinations of human
rights lawyers, journalists, labor and peasant organizers, indigenous
leaders, clergy, teachers, and activists are spiraling out of control.
Duterte has systematically silenced voices of political dissent, jailing
Senator Leila DeLima, an early drug war critic; ousting Supreme Court
Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, who opposed the imposition of
martial law in Mindanao; and now arresting Maria Ressa, internationally
renowned journalist and executive editor of the indy outlet Rappler
<https://www.rappler.com/>.
Meanwhile, less known to U.S. audiences, Duterte has dropped bombs on
Philippine soil over 368,391
<https://www.karapatan.org/2018-Karapatan-HR-Report> times — and some
450,000 <https://www.karapatan.org/2018-Karapatan-HR-Report> civilians
have been displaced by militarization. After scuttling peace talks with
the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)
<https://www.ndfp.org/>, Duterte has jailed internationally protected
peace consultants. And in January, consultant Randy Malayao was murdered
<https://www.rappler.com/nation/222301-human-rights-groups-statements-death-ndf-consultant-randy-malayao>
in cold blood by armed hit men.
Ever since the Philippines attained formal independence in 1946, the
U.S. has maintained a military presence on its former colony, guiding
and supporting “counter-insurgency” operations to put down constant
rebellions against an oligarchic government. Today, the Philippine armed
forces overwhelmingly direct violence not against outside invaders, but
at poor and marginalized people within its borders. U.S. military aid is
only making internal conflict worse.
*U.S. taxpayer funds are bankrolling the worsening human rights crisis
in the Philippines.*
Duterte’s repressive regime is the largest
<http://philippineslifestyle.com/military-aid-usa-philippines/>
recipient of U.S. military aid in Asia.
In 2016, the U.S. helped inaugurate Duterte’s drug war by giving $32
million
<http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/07/27/1607298/us-pledges-32m-philippine-law-enforcement>
to the Philippine police (supposedly for “training and services
<http://www.rappler.com/nation/147196-us-funding-philippines-law-enforcement>”
in “policing standards” and “rule of law,” besides equipment
<https://oig.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2018-11/lig-oco-opep-0918.pdf>).
In July 2018, the United States announced an additional $26.5 million
<https://ph.usembassy.gov/united-states-to-boost-counterterrorism-support-for-philippine-law-enforcement/>
in U.S. tax dollars to beef up support for Philippine police, in the
name of “counter-terrorism.”
In FY2018, the Defense Department provided roughly $100 million
<https://oig.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2019-02/OPEP_Q119_Dec2018_final.pdf>
in military aid, including equipment, weapons, and aerial surveillance
systems, to the Philippine military and police, though Operation Pacific
Eagle — a so-called “overseas contingency operation” that is exempt
<https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/R44519.pdf> from congressional limits on
spending. The amount demanded for this program will increase to $108.2
million
<https://oig.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2019-02/OPEP_Q119_Dec2018_final.pdf>
for FY2019 — even as the Defense Department has admitted
<https://oig.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2019-02/OPEP_Q119_Dec2018_final.pdf>
it lost track of transactions for 76 of 77 arms sales conducted under
bilateral agreements with the Philippines.
In 2018, on top of the above, the U.S. sold the Philippine police
<https://oig.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2019-02/OPEP_Q119_Dec2018_final.pdf>
and military
<https://oig.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2018-11/lig-oco-opep-0918.pdf>
over $63 million worth of arms. It also donated 2,253 machine guns
<https://oig.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2019-02/OPEP_Q119_Dec2018_final.pdf>,
over 5 million
<https://ph.usembassy.gov/us-government-provides-millions-of-rounds-of-ammunition-to-the-armed-forces-of-the-philippines/>
rounds of ammunition, surveillance equipment, and other weapons.
Military aid totaled at least $193.5 million last year, /not/including
arms sales, and donated equipment of unreported worth. At least $145.6
million is already pledged for 2019.
In January, Trump authorized $1.5 billion for the Asian Pacific region,
including the Philippines, from 2019 to 2023. Although this
appropriation includes a stipulation
<https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/2736/text>
that counter-narcotics funds will /not/ go to the Philippines (“except
for drug demand reduction,” a potential loophole), it’s too little, too
late. The set-aside has no restrictions on weapons funding for the
Philippine military. And separately, the State Department already plans
to deliver $5.3 million
<https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/290302.pdf> this year to
the Philippine police for anti-narcotics activities. Worse, rampant
corruption together with a total lack of transparency means it’s hard to
ensure where military aid could actually end up.
*U.S. military equipment forms the backbone of Duterte’s “military
modernization” program.*
Although the above aid is tiny compared to the U.S.’s own bloated
military budget, this tremendous transfer of weapons and surveillance
technology is significant in propping up the Philippine armed forces’
capacity.
Duterte has embarked on an ambitious program to “modernize” the
Philippine military, massively increasing funding and pouring more money
towards this than spent in the last 15 years
<https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2018/10/21/1861787/afp-budget-biggest-ever?fbclid=IwAR0KDcJItqxS3Cr1OstUNZRG-SXtaCzJ75rlLaRy0HQ1-pIAM7S46fYFiEQ>.
(Meanwhile, he’s doubled
<https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/01/09/18/cops-soldiers-other-uniformed-personnel-to-begin-receiving-doubled-pay>
the salaries of military and police.) He could not do so without U.S.
aid and arms.
For its part, the U.S. is particularly interested in expanding
<https://oig.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2019-02/OPEP_Q119_Dec2018_final.pdf>
aerial “intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance” missions over
Mindanao, the largest island in the Southern Philippines, rich in
untapped mineral resources. Without U.S. aid, the Philippine military
would lack the airplanes and technology to perform this surveillance.
What’s more, this year’s Operation Pacific Eagle budget sets aside an
extra $3.5 million
<https://oig.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/2019-02/OPEP_Q119_Dec2018_final.pdf>
for U.S. military efforts to collect and analyze “local media in native
languages” — underscoring that the U.S. is striving for an upper hand in
directing Philippine military operations. And in winning an information
war over public opinion.
In recent years, the U.S. has had up to 5,000
<https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2018/08/09/pentagon-triples-military-spending-in-philippines/>
troops deployed in the Philippines at any one time. Officially, U.S.
troops are limited to “joint exercises” and war games. But questions
have been raised over possible U.S. personnel
<https://www.manilatimes.net/us-soldier-among-dead/159838/> involvement
in secretive missions, resulting in killings of civilians and human
rights abuses.
In the case of the 2015 Mamasapano
<https://www.rappler.com/nation/82518-milf-fatalities-maguindanao-clash>
massacre
<https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/669237/moro-group-7-civilians-killed-3-wounded-in-mamasapano-clash#ixzz3QJi1rF9KF>,
supposedly under the jurisdiction of Philippine police and military
only, hearings later uncovered
<https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2015/03/17/1434648/senate-report-confirms-us-involvement-mamasapano-operation>
U.S. guidance and surveillance support, despite U.S. denials
<https://www.mindanews.com/peace-process/2015/01/us-embassy-on-mamasapano-we-just-assisted-in-evacuation-of-dead-and-wounded/>.
Meanwhile, U.S. troops who themselves commit human rights abuses,
murder, or sexual assault
<https://books.google.com/books?id=u2HvCgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA90&ots=CIuNLhDOI3&dq=nicole%20subic%20bay%20settlement&pg=PA89#v=onepage&q=nicole%20subic%20bay%20settlement&f=false>,
are insulated from being held accountable by the U.S.-Philippines
Visiting Forces Agreement.
*What are the consequences of the bonanza of military aid for Duterte? *
The bottom line is, the U.S. government is complicit in — and actively
supporting — the deepening human rights crisis in the Philippines.
Police are
<https://www.amnesty.org.uk/files/2017-04/ASA3555172017ENGLISH.PDF?9_73DdFTpveG_iJgeK0U13KUVFHKSL_X>
linked <https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37172002> to the killings
carried out by unidentified vigilantes in the War on Drugs, and their
corruption
<https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/philippines0317_web_1.pdf>
abounds
<https://www.amnesty.org.uk/files/2017-04/ASA3555172017ENGLISH.PDF?9_73DdFTpveG_iJgeK0U13KUVFHKSL_X>.
Besides tagging the unarmed people they have murdered as “fighting
back,” police have planted
<https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/philippines0317_web_1.pdf>
evidence; sexually
<https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/673124/center-for-women-s-resources-police-abuses-vs-women-involve-mostly-rape/story/>
assaulted
<https://globalvoices.org/2018/11/02/a-15-year-old-rape-victim-is-the-latest-collateral-damage-of-dutertes-drug-war/>
women
<https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/regions/646615/pregnant-mother-accuses-4-bulacan-cops-of-gang-rape/story/?fbclid=IwAR3tFeYU-dWI--I5TDv9ZBgukJmf0hYiSS1Js33ZYPbc632iQYJeu4ZuX64>
and <https://ph.theasianparent.com/pregnant-woman-raped-by-police>
children
<https://www.philstar.com/nation/2018/10/29/1864004/cop-nabbed-rape-girl-15>,
in exchange
<http://nine.cnnphilippines.com/news/2018/11/08/pnp-charged-with-rape.html>
for release or dropping drug charges; and detained people without
charges and tortured them to extract bribes, including through the use
of secret
<https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/04/27/philippine-drug-war-spawns-unlawful-secret-jail>
holding cells.
In addition to the drug war, repression is unfolding on other fronts, as
well. Twelve journalists
<https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1013357/22-journalists-killed-in-ph-under-duterte-administration-nujp>were
killed in the first two years under Duterte — the highest number of
murdered journalists in the first two years in office of any Philippine
president. At least 34 lawyers
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/11/philippines-human-rights-lawyer-shot-dead-negros-island-181107072451909.html>
have been assassinated, including Benjamin Ramos of the National Union
of People’s Lawyers, an attorney representing the Sagay 9 — peasants,
including women and minors, massacred for trying to claim land they were
legally awarded.
At least 48
<https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/07/25/18/under-duterte-philippines-ranked-asias-most-dangerous-country-for-environment-defenders>
environmental campaigners were murdered in 2017 alone, making the
Philippines the second most dangerous country for environmentalists,
after Brazil. By 2018, 14 massacres
<https://www.karapatan.org/2018-Karapatan-HR-Report>, killings mostly of
farmers who were fighting for land reform, were perpetrated by police,
military, or paramilitaries.
Labor leaders are being slaughtered using tactics similar to those in
the drug war. Edilberto Miralles, president of R&E Taxi Transport union,
was shot in broad daylight
<https://www.philstar.com/metro/2016/09/24/1626784/union-leader-gunned-down>
in front of the National Labor Relations Commission in 2016. Linus
Cubol, chair of Kilusang Mayo Uno in Caraga, was murdered
<https://www.rappler.com/nation/217768-labor-leader-agusan-del-norte-killed-november-27-2018>
in November by vigilantes riding in tandem. Police brutally beat
<https://www.rappler.com/nation/208497-nutriasia-guards-violent-dispersal-protesters-july-30-2018>
peacefully picketing NutriAsia workers on strike and their supporters,
wounding
<https://www.bulatlat.com/2018/08/06/nanay-leti-grandmother-stood-solidarity-nutriasia-workers/>
scores
<https://www.bulatlat.com/2018/06/14/20-arrested-scores-wounded-violent-dispersal-nutriasia-strike/>;
then they charged the picketers with assault, planted weapons
<https://news.abs-cbn.com/video/news/08/02/18/man-with-gun-drugs-allegedly-planted-among-nutriasia-protesters>,
and attempted to suppress journalists’ coverage of the dispersal.
Under Duterte, over 134
<https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/222796-human-rights-defenders-killed-under-duterte-administration>
human rights defenders have been killed. In just one case, in 2017,
Elisa Badayos and Eleuterio Moises were murdered
<https://www.philstar.com/nation/2017/11/29/1763667/2-members-fact-finding-mission-negros-killed-1-injured>
while serving on a fact-finding team investigating human rights
violations due to militarization in Negros Oriental.
Since 2017, Duterte has imposed martial law on Mindanao. Increasing
militarization is resulting in rampant abuses against indigenous and
Moro people. Aerial “surveillance” missions already make up the bulk of
U.S. aid to the Philippine military. Most likely in direct relation,
bombings in Mindanao have escalated — particularly over indigenous
lands, causing mass evacuations. Simultaneously, reminiscent of
U.S.-sponsored tactics in Latin America resulting in indigenous
genocide, the Philippine military, together with paramilitary groups
<https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/09/23/philippines-paramilitaries-attack-tribal-villages-schools>
it arms
<https://www.icj.org/the-philippines-must-get-rid-of-its-militias-now/>
and guides
<https://www.karapatan.org/AFP%2C+DND+asks+for+bigger+budget+to+fund+its+paramilitaries>,
are terrorizing indigenous communities. The military has recruited and
even forced indigenous people to become paramilitaries as a means of
divide-and-conquer.
Indigenous groups’ resistance is at the forefront of the struggle
against climate change, both in the Philippines and globally. Now, their
lands, such as those in Mindanao’s Pantaron Range, are some of the few
remaining to be opened up to extractive logging and mining by
multinational corporations. The militarization of indigenous lands,
purportedly in the name of counterinsurgency, seeks to quell this
organized community opposition
<https://intercontinentalcry.org/thousands-march-killings-indigenous-peoples-philippine-mining-capital/>
to corporate land-grabbing and environmental degradation.
Education is a center
<https://www.bulatlat.com/2014/12/01/the-lumad-school-on-pantaron-range/>
of community
<https://www.bulatlat.com/2015/10/21/alcadev-the-school-that-feeds-minds-and-communities/>
resistance
<https://www.bulatlat.com/2018/12/01/context-of-talaingod-incident-the-decades-old-struggle-of-lumad-in-pantaron-mountain-range-for-ancestral-land-right-to-self-determination/>
— and now
<http://ibon.org/2017/03/lumad-schools-under-attack-in-mineral-rich-mindanao/>
repression
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/scary-indigenous-schools-feel-heat-restive-mindanao-181211031536969.html>
as well.
The military and paramilitaries are targeting indigenous community
<https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/07/11/1831716/lumad-schools-even-holding-class-struggle>
schools
<http://ibon.org/2017/03/lumad-schools-under-attack-in-mineral-rich-mindanao/>
— turning their grounds into military encampments, shooting teachers and
students, bombing the schools – to force their closure. Indigenous
children and their teachers are the victims of this campaign.
In September 2017, Obello Bay-ao, a student at Salugpongan’s school in
Dulyan, Talaingod, was killed
<https://www.karapatan.org/Two+members+of+paramilitary+group+charged+with+murder+of+Lumad+student+>
by Alamara paramilitaries while walking home from farming. He was shot
24 times in the back. In the same community, another 15-year-old student
was gunned down
<https://news.abs-cbn.com/nation/regions/01/19/16/lumad-student-allegedly-killed-by-paramilitary-member>
by Alamara in 2016, while a 14-year-old girl reported being gang raped
<https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/719073/3-soldiers-tagged-in-rape-of-manobo-girl>
by soldiers in 2015.
In May 2018, Beverly Geronimo, a teacher of indigenous children, was
gunned
<https://www.bulatlat.com/2018/05/27/suspected-elements-25th-ibpa-murder-mother-misfi-student/>
down
<http://davaotoday.com/main/human-rights/lumad-school-student-wounded-mother-shot-dead-in-agusan-del-sur/>
in Trento, Agusan del Sur while buying school supplies. In November
2018, four teachers, Tema Namatidong, Julius Torregosa, Ariel Barluado,
and Giovanni Solomon, were abducted
<http://www.chrp.org.uk/2018/two-weeks-in-mindanao-two-farmers-shot-four-teachers-abducted-five-students-tortured-and-a-family-assaulted-2/>
by the military in Lanao del Sur.
The list <https://www.karapatan.org/2018-Karapatan-HR-Report> of
atrocities
<http://www.chrp.org.uk/2018/two-weeks-in-mindanao-two-farmers-shot-four-teachers-abducted-five-students-tortured-and-a-family-assaulted-2/>
continues. In June 2018, 72
<https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/07/11/1831716/lumad-schools-even-holding-class-struggle>
schools were unable to hold classes because of military harassment. Over
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/scary-indigenous-schools-feel-heat-restive-mindanao-181211031536969.html>
2,000
<https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/07/11/1831716/lumad-schools-even-holding-class-struggle>
indigenous students could not attend school because of nearby military
encampments.
The schools under attack are part of a movement
<https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/07/11/1831716/lumad-schools-even-holding-class-struggle>
led by indigenous groups, together with NGOs and church partners, to
provide relevant education for their youth, a service largely neglected
by the government. Ninety percent
<https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2017/03/18/1679995/lumads-sustain-fight-save-their-schools>
of indigenous children lack access to formal education. In the 2000s,
indigenous communities established
<https://www.bulatlat.com/2014/12/01/the-lumad-school-on-pantaron-range/>
schools
<https://www.bulatlat.com/2015/10/21/alcadev-the-school-that-feeds-minds-and-communities/>
in conjunction
<https://www.bulatlat.com/2018/12/01/context-of-talaingod-incident-the-decades-old-struggle-of-lumad-in-pantaron-mountain-range-for-ancestral-land-right-to-self-determination/>
with their struggles for self-determination, in hopes that education
would help protect them from land-grabbing. The military has sought to
brand community schools as “training camps” for communist insurgents,
recently launching Facebook campaigns towards this purpose.
U.S. military aid is intensifying the conflict in Mindanao, exacerbating
its impact on civilians. U.S. investment in aerial surveillance will
escalate an air war that has a brutal and indiscriminate effect on
people as well as the environment. The integration of “intelligence”
activity in counter-terrorism is dangerous. It will likely worsen
repression against anyone organizing for indigenous, labor, and human
rights — feeding a growing bloodbath as paramilitaries are employed to
undermine these local struggles, while providing cover for government
troops to escape accountability.
Today’s violence is inseparable from the U.S.’s imperial shadow. The
drug war is a purge of humans deemed worthless in a society where social
safety nets were never allowed to be developed, where the failure of
neoliberal economic reforms now plays into the hands of despotism, and
where U.S.-backed elites regularly employ state-paid goons to undermine
democracy.
Placed in historical context, Mindanao, and those lands of indigenous
communities under attack, were some of the last outposts resisting
Spanish and U.S. rule. The islands — dubbed by Trump
<https://www.newsweek.com/prime-piece-real-estate-trumps-verdict-philippines-711040>
“a prime piece of real estate from a military standpoint” — have long
served as a stepping stone towards U.S. aspirations of dominance in the
Asia-Pacific. U.S. military aid continues a long process of
“pacification” — and colonial conquest, now unfolding in neocolonial forms.
*People’s movements in the Philippines are calling for international
solidarity, to end the U.S.-backed militarization of their communities. *
They demand also peace with justice — a peace process that adopts
structural reforms like those outlined in CASER
<https://www.ndfp.org/sayt/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/NDFP-CASER-2017-Web-version-Ver2.0.pdf>,
a program the NDFP sought to reach agreement on implementing via peace
talks, that includes land reform, rescinding neoliberal economic
policies, and respecting indigenous land and self-determination.
In 2016, Sandugo <http://sandugo.org/>, a historic alliance of
indigenous and Moro groups from across the Philippines, formed, uniting
for self-determination and a just peace. Three thousand delegates met in
Manila, and protesters converged on the U.S. embassy
<https://truthout.org/articles/moro-and-indigenous-peoples-forge-historic-alliance-for-self-determination/>,
under a banner calling for an end to U.S. intervention and
militarization. At the gates of the U.S. embassy, the Philippine police
responded by beating people indiscriminately, and a police van ran over
the crowd
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/19/philippines-police-van-rams-protesters-outside-us-embassy-in-manila>,
injuring dozens.
Three years later, the call to end U.S. military aid and lift martial
law continues.
In terms of the drug war, one of the first groups to come out in vocal
opposition was Kadamay <https://www.facebook.com/kadamaynational/>, a
mass-based organization of urban poor people. Instead of killings,
Kadamay has called for addressing poverty and the root causes of the
drug problem — in short, for drug addiction to be treated as a health,
not criminal, issue. More recently, an organization of family members of
those killed in the drug war has formed, Rise Up For Life and Rights
<https://www.facebook.com/Rise-Up-for-Life-and-for-Rights-363258137385786/>.
*When the Philippine Senate tried to **restrict funding*
<https://www.rappler.com/nation/189915-philippine-senate-approves-2018-national-budget>*for
Duterte’s drug war in late 2017, the U.S. **stepped in*
<https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/07/20/1835100/philippines-receive-27-million-counterterror-aid-us>*to
provide funds that filled the shortfall.*
To evade accountability, Duterte has shifted
<http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2017/11/30/Senate-2018-budget-slashes-drug-war-funds-from-PNP-DILG.html>
drug war operations from under the Philippine National Police (PNP) to
the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and back
<https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/12/05/1765784/pnp-back-drug-war-pdea-still-lead-agency>
to the PNP’s general operation funds. Recently, he eliminated
<http://nine.cnnphilippines.com/news/2018/08/30/PNP-drug-war-Oplan-Double-Barrel-budget.html>
keeping a separate budget item for the drug war — obscuring how much
money is being expended on it. The Philippine Congress has not been able
to provide effective oversight.
The continuing drug war killings and rampant human rights abuses only
underscore that there is no way to ensure U.S. military aid to the
Duterte regime does /not /enable human rights violations. For its part,
U.S. military spending is not only overblown, but also often
untraceable, secretive, and unaccountable. From Central America to
Palestine to the Philippines, U.S. military aid has a sordid legacy of
fueling atrocities.
*A growing movement is calling on Congress to cut military aid, arms
gifts, and arm sales to the Philippines — **as well as to end support
for the Duterte regime.*
The Leahy Law, which stipulates no funding shall be furnished to foreign
security forces if the U.S. knows they have committed “a gross violation
of human rights,” needs upheld with regard to the Philippines. (For more
information on this campaign, please visit: ichrpus.org.
<https://ichrpus.org/>
In 2007
<https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-110shrg40811/html/CHRG-110shrg40811.htm>,
due to movement pressure, Congress held a hearing on rising
<https://www.thenation.com/article/how-us-aid-fosters-human-rights-violations-philippines/>
extrajudicial killings in the Philippines under Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo’s regime. Legislation was passed placing restrictions on military
aid. The next year, killings decreased significantly.
Our time to act is now.
/*Amee Chew* has a Ph.D. in American Studies & Ethnicity, and is a
Mellon-ACLS Public Fellow./
/A version of this article first appeared on Foreign Policy in Focus
<https://fpif.org/>./
--
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