Arroyo/U.S. "low Intensity" State Terrorism

Philippine President Gloria Macapagati Arroyo’s
Melo Commission to investigate the killings of leftists and journalists has apparantly concluded that investigation and will submit their report in early January.

Most in the Phillippines believe the Melo Commission and its upcoming report to be part of an ongoing ruse by the Arroyo government to cover up that the government itself, in colusion with the military and state police are the actual perpetrators of the mass killings.

The ongoing killings now number 803 after the shooting death of Francisco Bantog, provincial chairman of the Bayon Muna party-list group.

Then the shooting death of Nelson Asocenor a 19 year old youth leader and member of a peasant group. Karapatan. The nation’s leading human rights group, has kept an ongoing tally along with amnasty international and the Asian Human Rights Commission. The human rights groups, particularly Karapatan have meticulously kept the name, locations, and circumstances of the murders, by contrast. The Arroyo government’s Melo Commission puts the number of dead at 136.

Others killed this past week were Gil Gujol, a human rights leader and his driver Danilo France, Jesus Servida, a Labor Leader.

According to Gabriela, a Philippine women’s organization, there have been 83 women killed and 54 children since the beginning of the Arryo government in 2001. Aside from the numbers listed above there are 206 listed as missing. The types and locations of Philippine people among the victims are widespread and diverse. All regions of the counts report dead and/or missing. Aside from journalists there are elderly couples, priests, students, social workers, peasant leaders, health workers. The common denominator among the victims is that they are all empathetic figures, people before profits minded individuals.

Recent polls in the Philliippines indicate the majority of people view themselves as poor. The Arroyo government, her right wing congressional supporters, the Armed Forces of the Philippine and the National Police are at odds with the majority.

The Arroyo government has a powerful ally that also seems to have a disregard for the lives of innocent people.

The United States, which for decades has trained the Philippine military, continues to do so through the Joint Combined Exchange Training program (JCET), which engage in small unit training, rifle marksmanship, day and night navigating, small unit killing in short. Another U.S. training program that has been training the AFP for years is the U.S. international military Education and training program (IMET) Imet graduations populate ranks and activity promote a close U.S.-Philippine military relationship. IMET has had a disastorous effect on the Philippine n eighbor to the south, Indonesia.

The U.S. supported the Violent take over of East Timor, a relatiede small island tothe south. Indonesian engaged in mass killing of about 200 thousand Timorese civilians beginning in 1975: finally in 1993 the U.S. banned I on ET funds - the killing and oppression continued with the mass supplyy of weapons and amunitionthe U.S. had supplied through IMET earlier

IMET and JCET trainees, Like the U.S. school of the Americas alumni in the western hemisphere, have a continuous string of human rights abuses. Continuing with examples from Indonesia, Kopassus also known as "red berets" recieved JCET training in "Military Operations in Urban Terrain" only to later have these trained units engage in attacks on civilian populations, a notorious attack on ethnic Chinese women and girls in 1998 and their continuous attacks in East Timor until their independence in 1999. Indonesian security forces, now known as TNI again are receiving U.S. training in the "War on Terror" as they continue to commit atrocities against civilians in West Papua, New Guinea.

The flippant attitude the Arroyo administration at times has shown towards the killings and the families and friends, and the the wider community effected by the killings is suspect. No one in the Arroyo government shows this more than Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez. Gonzalez, rather than showing an interest in getting to the truth, has from the beginning accused the NPA of all the murders even though there is no evidence leaning towards them. In another case that is indicative of his lack of common decency and his servile attitude towards the U.S. government he has chosen sides from the beginning in the U.S. Marine rape case. The case in which "Nicole", a filippina, was raped by Lance Corporal Daniel Smith, Gonzalez continuously displayed a preferential attitude towards the U.S. Marine. Even interfering after the guilty sentence was reached, trying to hand Smith back over to the U.S. and verbally attacking the Judge in the case.

The obsequious attitude displayed by the Philippine government towards the U.S. government and corporate interests is a betrayal to the people of the Philipines. The poor and the Philippine people in general deserve a system and an infrastructure that will address their needs. This will not come from the United states or in paying homage to them but in changing the structure to address the needs of the people, for real.