Bayan sustains Alston’s implication of Gloria Arroyo’s accountability on continuing political killings

Press Release

May 9, 2009

Davao City – Bayan said here today that the grounds laid by UN special rapporteur Philip Alston in his report realistically imply Gloria Arroyo’s accountability on the worsening extrajudicial killings in the country, her, being the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

“The notion that the AFP is behind the killings and abductions of political activists all over the country is a fact that has long been proven by circumstantial evidences of the crimes, actual accounts of the witnesses and of the victims themselves and their families,” Bayan-SMR spokesperson John Birondo said.

Birondo added the divulged Oplan Bantay Laya of the AFP and PNP which counterinsurgency machineries are designed to liquidate members and leaders of progressive groups whom it accuses as legal fronts of the communist revolutionary movement.

Bayan noted that in Southern Mindanao alone, only within the 2008 time-frame, Arroyo government has committed more than 300 cases of human rights violations victimizing 30,857 individuals and 4,802 families.

“It is not only necessary to demand for Gloria Arroyo’s accountability on the crimes because of the so- called chain of command. More importantly, Gloria Arroyo should be made accountable along with the leaders of the Armed Forces of the Philippines as they have deliberately and nonsensically killed and abducted innocent civilians and are relentless in committing such heinous crimes,” Birondo exclaimed.

Bayan condemned the killing of Ludinio Monson last April 29 whose anti-mining advocacy in Boston, New Bataan, caused hindrances in the operation of foreign-owned transnational mining companies in the area.

“Ludinio Monson, like any other victims of political killings in the country was killed because he was actively working for the protection of the environment, human rights, and the people’s welfare. It is always a fight against the government when what is being fought for is justice and equality,” Birondo said.

Bayan also hit the proposed reward system of the Arroyo government for informants of extrajudicial killings which would need P25 million from the congressmen’s pork barrels.

“It is blatant hypocrisy for Gloria Arroyo to say she is sincere in resolving extrajudicial killings when she cannot even act on allegations that involved the armed forces in the killings that are happening all these years. The Arroyo government has gone farther in making it possible for Jovito Palparan, a known butcher of activists, to secure a seat in Congress,” Birondo said.

“Not only the proposal sounds so poor based on propaganda value, this is yet, another scheme of the Arroyo administration to corrupt the people’s money,” Birondo added.

“The Arroyo government is bound to be faulty as it can never be a government for the people. The state will always be the people’s enemy unless genuine societal changes are done for genuine land reform and industrialization,” Birondo added.

“And for as long as there is oppression, the people will inevitably fight back. The people’s resistance against the government’s anti-people policies makes the killings, abductions, and other human rights violations more inevitable for the Arroyo government to commit for its protection and survival,” Birondo said.