Stop the killings! October 3, 2006

(This is an abbreviated version of the remarks I made at the 4th Global Filipino Networking Convention 7th NaFFAA Empowerment Conference. My topic was what the Filipino journalists abroad might do to stop the killings in the Philippines.)

I’LL GET straight to the point: How bad are the killings?

There are two groups of victims: the journalists and the activists.

The killings of journalists began not long after Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took office in 2001 and have reached alarming levels today. By May last year, two important international media organizations were already railing at the mounting body count of Filipino journalists. The US Committee to Protect Journalists ranked the Philippines the second most dangerous country for journalists, next only to Iraq. Reporters Sans Frontiers for its part noted that: “A culture of impunity reigns, for which the highest government authorities are responsible, that has allowed killers and those who send them to murder so many journalists in every corner of the country.”

Conditions did not improve after May 2005 -- they deteriorated, frighteningly rapidly. These are the figures today, according to the National Union of Students of the Philippines, which has been monitoring this: Some 86 journalists have been killed from 1986 to the present. From 2001 to the present alone, which is Arroyo’s term, 46 were killed. That is more than half the number of journalists killed since the country toppled down a dictatorship and restored democracy.

The killings of activists are far more alarming. Indeed, the numbers are mind-boggling. According to the rights group Karapatan, the political killings from January 2001 to Sept. 16, 2006 number 755. That is a veritable bloodbath. The sheer number alone must suggest method in the madness. This is no sporadic killing, this is systematic mayhem.

The “war against the New People’s Army,” which Arroyo unleashed some months ago, has added still new dimensions to it. Last month, the newspapers were reporting one murder per day, for the most part of suspected New People’s Army (NPA) members and sympathizers, both concepts -- NPA member and NPA sympathizer -- expanding in meaning by the day as fast as the number of dead. Alongside this, government and military officials have been far more open and combative in their advocacy of murder as a method in winning, if not hearts and minds since the dead are left with neither, at least at all costs.

Is government indictable for the killings of the journalists? Yes. Indirectly so, but yes.

At the very least a slaughter of this scale of one of the most precious assets of a democratic community constitutes criminal negligence. I don’t know that any American official, not to speak of American president, can continue to hold office with this monkey on his back.

At the very most, there is nothing in government’s attitude toward journalists to encourage warlords, drug and gambling lords, and overbearing lords in government to respect journalists, or even just fear not being able to get away with murder. Indeed, there is everything in government’s attitude toward journalists to encourage warlords to think they will meet only with indifference or even silent applause for ridding the world of infuriating pests. The killings send a dark message to journalists in general, which government itself, whether it is directly involved in them or not, is not loath to spread. That message is: You’re critical of government, you may not expect government to lift a hand to prevent your disappearance from earth, or heaven forbid lament it.

Is government indictable for the killings of the activists? Yes. Directly, immediately, and implacably so.

This isn’t just a case of omission, this is a case of commission. This isn’t just police negligence, this is a policy environment.

At the very least, there is the principle of command responsibility. That was the principle Judge Manuel Real of Honolulu invoked in finding Ferdinand Marcos guilty of the torture and killing of several thousands of Filipinos in the class suit brought against him by 3,000 of those victims or their kin. His judgment was affirmed by the Pasadena Court of Appeals. It cited the case of General Yamashita who was found guilty of the atrocities wreaked by his troops for his failure to “take such measures as were within his power and appropriate in the circumstances to protect prisoners of war and the civilian population.”

And those were conditions of war, when atrocity was rife. Ferdinand Marcos’ -- and Arroyo’s -- conditions were and are conditions of peace, when respect for life should be rife.

At the very most, there is Arroyo’s repeated promotion and commendation of the minor-league Yamashita, Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, the last publicly and loudly during her State of the Nation Address. She singled out Palparan for a job well done, proposing his fellows find inspiration in his example. She did not tell Palparan that in a democracy people are presumed innocent until proven guilty; she told Palparan to keep up the good work. She did not tell Palparan that in a democracy there is a distinction between combatant and non-combatant, between soldier and civilian, between people who believe in Marx and people who take up arms; she told Palparan he had exceeded expectations. She did not tell Palparan that in a democracy it is wrong to murder first and say “I … am … sorry” later; she told him to stand up and bask in the applause.

That isn’t just elevating mayhem into policy, that is elevating mayhem into virtue. (To be concluded)

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Tonight is “Stop the Killings” Night at Conspiracy Café and Garden, Visayas Avenue in front of Sanville (landmark, Shell Station). Gary Granada, Bayang Barrios and Cynthia Alexander play. Who knows who else might decide to jam -- those things have a way of attracting jamming. Be there. Stop the killings and your Tuesday night blues: Listen to some great music.

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