PALAYAIN SINA ELY ESTROPIGAN AT DALAWANG ESTUDYANTE: MARIING TUTULAN ANG LUMALALANG PAGYURAK SA KARAPATAN NG MAMAMAYAN NG ADMINISTRASYONG ARROYO

Pahayag ng All-UP Workers Union at
All-UP Academic Employees Union
Hunyo 16, 2006

Mariing kinokondena ng All-UP Workers Union at All-UP Academic Employees Union, ang mga unyon ng mga kawani, faculty at REPS ng UP System, ang pag-aresto at pagkulong kay Ely Estropigan, Pambansang Ingat-Yaman at kagawad ng National Executive Board ng All-UP Workers Union at mga kabataang – estudyante na sina Oyo Agustin at Mark Singuenza. Ang tatlo ay bahagi ng mga estudyante, kawani at mga guro na nagdaos ng protesta laban kay Gloria Macapagal Arroyo sa bakuran ng UP Philippine General Hospital kahapon, Hunyo 15, 2006.

Inihayag ng mga nagprotesta ang pagtutol sa mga patakaran ng administrasyong Arroyo kaugnay sa patuloy na pagbabawas sa badyet para sa kalusugan at edukasyon, ang pagtaas ng tuition sa UP College of Medicine. Iginiit din ang matagal nang panawagan ng All-UP Workers Union at All-UP Academic Employees Union sa P3,000 across-the-board salary increase at pagbayad sa back-Cola sa mga kawani ng pamahalaan.

Marahas na binuwag ng mga pulis at Presidential Security Guard ang kilos protesta at inaresto ang tatlo. Ayon sa mga pahayag ng pulis, kakasuhan ng “sedition” ang mga hinuli! Kailan pa naging krimen ang mapayapang pagprotesta laban sa mga anti-mamamayan, anti-kawani at anti-estudyante na mga patakaran ng pamahalaan? Matagal na tradisyon na sa UP ang palabang tindig sa mga pambansa at lokal na mga isyu bilang pagsabuhay ng papel ng pamantasan na ”kritik ng lipunan”.

Sa bahagi ng All-UP Workers Union at All-UP Academic Employees Union, naninindigan ito sa unyonismo na militante, progresibo at makabayan bilang katiyakan sa paggigiit sa pang-ekonomiyang kagalingan at demokratikong karapatan ng mga kawani sa UP. Ang naging partisipasyon ni Ely Estropigan at iba pang kasapi ng unyon sa UP Manila sa kilos protesta kahapon ay pagsasabuhay sa ganitong tindig ng unyon at sa balangkas ng paggigiit sa mga demokratikong karapatan ng mamamayan.

Ang pagbuwag sa kilos protesta sa UP PGH at pag-aresto sa tatlo sa mga kalahok dito ay pinakahuling ebidensya ng patuloy na panunupil ng administrasyong Arroyo sa mga demokratikong karapatan ng mamamayan. Hindi masarhan-sarhan ang usapin ng pagiging lehitimo niyang halal na Pangulo bunga ng ”Hello Garci” tapes at patuloy ang oposisyon sa kanya at sa kanyang mga patakaran mula sa iba’t ibang sektor ng lipunan kabilang na ang mga obispo at iba pang taong simbahan. Patuloy ang panawagan ng mamamayan na bumaba na siya sa pwesto. Sa ganitong kalagayan, walang pakundangan ang paglabag sa ating mga karapatang sibil kabilang na ang karapatan sa mapayapang pagtitipon at pamamahayag na ginagarantiya ng Konstitusyon na nais ng administrasyong baguhin. Dumaan na tayo sa 14 na taong diktadurya at hindi tutugot ang All-UP Workers Union at All-UP Academic Employees Union sa walang pakundangang pagyurak sa ating mga demokratikong karapatan.

Palayain sina Ely Estropigan, Oyo Agustin at Mark Singuenza!Ipaglaban ang P3,000 across the board salary increase at ang ating back-COLA!

Ipaglaban ang mas mataas na badyet sa edukasyon at kalusugan!

Mariing tutulan ang pagyurak ng administrasyon Arroyo sa ating mga demokratikong karapatan!

Gloria, bumaba ka na!

PRESS STATEMENT
June 16, 2006

Hunyo 15, 2006 ay isang makasaysayang araw para sa komunidad ng UP-PGH. Sa araw na ito nasaksihan kung paano supilin ang karapatan ng mga mamamayan na magpahayag ng kanilang saloobin. Isang opisyal ng All-UP Workers Union, si Ely Estropigan at 2 estudyante ang biglang hinuli ng mga naka-sibilyang PSG. Ang mapayapang pagkilos ay ginanap pagkatapos ng ekslusibong seremonya ng turn over ng Sentro Oftalmologico sa PGH at sa labas ng gusaling ito. Sila ay sinaktan, sinalya sa rehas, tinadyakan at dinampot papuntang WPD HQ at agad ikinulong. Ang ginawang pag-aresto na ito ay nagpapatunay ng kawalang respeto ng administrasyong Arroyo sa demokratikong karapatan ng mga manggagawang pangkalusugan, kawani, at estudyante ng UP Manila, kung saan dapat ay malakas ang academic freedom.

MARIING KONOKONDENA NG ALL U.P. WORKERS UNION MANILA ANG HINDI MAKATARUNGANG PAGHULI KAY ELY AT DALAWANG ESTUDYANTE AT ANG TAHASANG PANUNUPIL NG BATAYANG KARAPATANG PANTAO!

Naniniwala ang AUPWU Manila na legal at lehitimo ang mga isyung inihayag sa pagkilos na ito, tulad paggiit sa P 3,000.00 across-the-board salary increase at ang pagtaas ng badyet ng UP at PGH, gayundin ang pagtutol sa pakanang Charter Change. Ang kasong inciting to sedition ay malinaw na walang basihan. Ito ay paninindak sa mamamayan upang patahimikin at pigilan ang paggiit ng mga lehitimong karapatan.


References:

JOSSEL EBESATE, President, AUPWU Manila 09189276381
AMOND OLIVAR, Secretary, AUPWU Manila 09155735312BENJIE SANTOS, PRO, AUPWU Manila 09275584221

Filipino Advocates Now an Endangered Species

by: Roland G. Simbulan
Professor and Faculty Regent
May 30, 2006

State Terrorism is now a fact of life in our country. Since Gloria Macapagal Arroyo assumed power in 2001, no less than 224 Filipino advocates journalists, and activists have been assassinated by motorcycle-riding death squads in various parts of the country. The pattern of the killings is starkly clear: critics of the government who are lawyers, journalists, priests and ministers, labor leaders, peasant organizers, teachers and student leaders are being liquidated by professional hitmen. All the victims are legal opposition personalities who have been branded or tagged as "leftists" or members of what certain government, the military and police officials call "legal fronts of the CPP/NPA".

The pattern of killings is remarkably similar to "Operation Phoenix", launched by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in South Vietnam in the late 60s. Lists of suspected Communists or Communist sympathizers were given by the CIA to professional hit men, thugs and even criminals serving sentences who were released to do the dirty jobs for the military and police. As many as 40,000 suspected members or sympathizers of the South Vietnam National Liberation Front (SV-NLF) were abducted and assassinated in an attempt to physically wipe out the "political infrastructure" of the Vietnamese "insurgency".

Similar patterns of counter-insurgency and "anti-terror" tactics were also replicated in Latin America in the 60s and 70s by the CIA. The murderous rampage in Vietnam by the CIA and its local puppets was one of the most violent episodes of the Vietnam War. But it failed to accomplish its objectives. In 1975, the Vietnamese people finally defeated the U.S. military aggressors and their South Vietnamese puppets and finally liberated South Vietnam to establish the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Given the closer covert and overt coordination and cooperation of the U.S. special operations forces and Philippine military and police agencies in the "anti-terror" campaign as never seen before, it is impossible for them not to have a hand in this. The manner and pattern of killings today are even worse than the vigilante killings in the country that occurred in the late 80s against members and leaders of people's organizations and NGOs. They are meant to silence legal critics and the open opposition to the creeping dictatorship and the "Cha-Cha "locomotive train". The killings are a threat to the very existence of democracy which should guarantee freedom of speech, assembly and the right to freely organize for grievances and social change. Political killings of legal personalities will not only permanently sabotage the peace process, but well further fuel the armed insurgency as the legal option diminishes.

Advocates and social reformers are now an endangered species in this country. If the government is not really a party to this state of terror as it claims, then it should put a stop to these killings and assassinations of its citizens. The government must enforce law and order and provide protection to all its citizens, including its staunchest critics and those in the opposition. Government has no right to exist if it is inutile in carrying out the most basic duties of a state.

Rep. Beltran to Sto. Tomas: Resign Now and Good Riddance

NEWS RELEASE
May 30, 2006
From the Office of Anakpawis Representative Crispin B. Beltran
For Reference: Rep. Crispin Beltran/Lisa C. Ito
Public Information Officer (+63)927.796.7006Tel. # (+632) 931-6615
Email: crispinbeltran@gmail.com URL: http://www.geocities.com/ap_news

"If she think she's stressed out, we can only imagine the state of health, mind and welfare of the workers whose rights she has violated by signing all those various memoranda, department orders and case decisions. How many workers have lost not only their jobs but their very lives because of her?"

This was the reaction of activist legislator Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran to reports that labor and employment secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas is mulling over resignation for health reasons.

"She should resign now, and good riddance," said Beltran. "Under her administration, the labor department has become even more anti-worker and anti-poor. She shouldn't expect any compassion from the workers, neither is there anyone willing to step forward and stop her from resigning. To leave the public service would be Sto. Tomas' gift to the hundreds of thousands of workers she helped employers and capitalists abuse, exploit, and kick out of employment."

"Actually, her exit is long overdue. Government employees, labor unions, and private sector workers have long been appealing for her resignation and the rejection of her appointment," Beltran said.

"Pat Sto. Tomas will not be missed even if she leaves the DOLE. How can one miss a labor Secretary who herself has been accused of committing unfair labor practice, violating the Constitutional rights of government employees to self-organization by directly intervening in the affairs of DOLE employees, union-busting, and grave abuse of authority?" Beltran said.

Though still incarcerated, Beltran said that he still closely monitors the developments in the labor front. "The situation of our workers is deplorable. And things keep getting worse. Sto. Tomas has done essentially nothing to help improve the lives and welfare of Filipino workers. Because of her, human rights violations against workers have shot clear through the roof, and the country's unemployment rate has remained at alarming levels. The brutal massacre of the workers and farmworkers of Hacienda Luisita is also something she remains and will always remain partly responsible for," he insisted.

Still, Beltran said that Sto. Tomas' impending resignation would not absolve her of her injustices against Filipino workers. "Sto. Tomas will still be held accountable for the various labor rights violations committed under her term, particularly the Hacienda Luisita massacre," Beltran said.
###

Numb and Numb-er

By Raul Pangalangan
First posted 01:37am (Mla time) May 26, 2006
Inquirer


BOTH Amnesty International and Commission on Human Rights Chair Purificacion Quisumbing are correct. It is not enough for the Philippine government to just say: No, our guys didn’t kill all those communists, journalists and oppositionists. It is not enough for them to say: Go ahead, punk, prove it in court. How can the victims’ families run after the suspects, unless the police find and arrest them first?

Malacañang’s arguments actually resemble the typical defense resorted to by dictatorships of two decades ago against “enforced disappearances” -- what Latin Americans called the “desaparecidos.” Anti-government activists would be abducted and tortured, and the evidence forever erased by the simple cruel expedient of executing the prisoner and hiding the corpse (hence, the Filipino term, “salvaging” -- I suppose, referring to the macabre task of unearthing the corpses).

The activists “were disappeared,” to use jargon, precisely so that the government -- when the accusing finger points its way—can simply shrug its shoulders. Indeed, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez’s quip -- “You have to be sure what is the reason -- a drinking spree or because of a woman…” -- was already a stock response by many governments even then.

Yet, in 1989, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights actually held Honduras responsible for the disappearance of a student activist, Manfredo Velasquez Rodriguez, at the National Autonomous University of Honduras. The court relied on exactly the same logic used by Amnesty and Quisumbing: that the abduction (in Honduras) -- and the killings (in the Philippines) -- fit a historical pattern.

The Court’s language was uncanny. “Those disappearances followed a similar pattern, beginning with the kidnapping of the victims by force, often in broad daylight and in public places, by armed men in civilian clothes and disguises, who acted with apparent impunity … It was public and notorious knowledge … that the kidnappings were carried out by military personnel or the police, or persons acting under their orders....The disappearances were carried out in a systematic manner [especially considering that the] victims were usually persons whom Honduran officials considered dangerous to State security.”

The court said that the state’s obligation under the human rights covenants is not just “to respect” human rights but “to ensure [these rights] to all individuals within its territory….” That creates the duty “to organize the governmental apparatus … so that they are capable of juridically ensuring the free and full enjoyment of human rights.”

Significantly, the court contrasted the evidentiary threshold in state responsibility versus that in individual liability. “[T]he violation can be established even if the identity of the individual perpetrator is unknown. What is decisive is whether a [human rights] violation … has occurred with the support or the acquiescence of the government, or whether the State has allowed the act to take place without taking measures to prevent it or to punish those responsible.”

Stated plainly, the charge was not that the government killed Manfredo but that it failed to give him justice. The blame thus cast, the “Who, me?” defense suddenly collapses.

What bothers me about the cold-blooded murder of Fernando “Dong” Batul, fierce critic of local politicos, radio broadcaster and former Puerto Princesa City vice mayor, is the privatization of terror and the localization of fear.

Today, even political slaughter has been devolved to private hit men and decentralized to provincial goons. Let the loyal warlords in the provinces do what they must, and find the hoodlums who meet their price. This dovetails Malacañang’s style of deciding policy on the basis of the latest behest by either a “padrino,” or political patron, or which momentary need, if answered, will sway the poll surveys.

But what bothers me even more is the lack of outrage, of indignation. Filipinos were up in arms over the spoon-and-fork incident at a Canadian school. (I saw a film clip of that boy -- he had his thumb close to the base of his spoon, an absolute no-no if you ask the Filipino etiquette police!) Many Filipino Catholics were furious at “The Da Vinci Code.” (I haven’t read the book or seen the movie, but because of you, zealous objectors, I now promise to do both!) We love to speak of the human rights revolution that was Edsa People Power I, yet we remain unmoved by grieving mothers, wives and children we see almost regularly in the headlines.

So it has worked, the strategy of decimating the Philippine Left. Isolate them, remind people of their links to armed strife and of their own killing fields. Cut them down one by one, push them back underground, and then accuse them of having turned their back on peace.

So it has worked, the strategy of going after individual critics, politically significant to attract media attention and project fear, but not too high up, like Ninoy Aquino, lest it spark the next conflagration. It’s “kill one, scare 1,000.”

So it has worked, the strategy of detaching politics from life. They who are in power tell us to avoid all talk about power: Leave it to us, and just stick to workaday concerns. This triggers a cycle: politics is drained of substance and is taken over by “trapos” [traditional politicians]. In their hands, communal politics is then robbed of its soul, we all shun it even more, and the trapos have the field all to themselves.

Clever. Far too clever. Heartless schemers, their sharp minds bereft of conscience. To defeat them, we must be shrewd before we can be compassionate. That is our curse: that to win, we risk becoming like the enemy.

* * *

Comments to passionforreason@gmail.com


©2006 www.inq7.net all rights reserved

Red Herring

by Sarah Raymundo

Presidential Proclamation 1017 was lifted by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo exactly a week after it was imposed. Along with her few rabid supporters like Mike Defensor, Norberto Gonzalez and Raul Gonzalez, GMA projected the peaceful demonstrations held on the 20th anniversary of the People Power as a conspiracy between the rebelling faction of the military and the CPP-NPA-NDF. This conspiracy, in GMA’s tall tale is designed to end in a scenario of catastrophic magnitude. Thus, Proclamation 1017 was justified on grounds of an ominous conspiracy. This, of course, was just GMA’s way of supplementing her lack of control over a situation that she herself set off. Her attempt to cling to power is palpably desperate and despicable.

What was really at stake in Proclamation 1017 is the fabrication of a state of emergency to counter the urgent demand of the Filipino people for Macapagal-Arroyo to step down from a fraudulent presidency. It was therefore imperative for the Arroyo administration to throw its weight around by displaying acts of human rights violation as when it violently dispersed the peaceful rallies at the EDSA Shrine, EDSA-Santolan and Ayala. The arrest of Representative Crispin Beltran, Professor Randy David, the House-bound party list representatives Teddy Casino, Liza Maza, Rafael Mariano, Satur Ocampo and Joel Virador, and the threat to capture forty six others are concrete instances intended to inflict imperious pressure. She wanted to convince everyone that the stakes are so high that it is no longer possible for her to be constrained by the law. Does she perhaps live in a spectral space that is sheltered from the law?

Macapagal-Arroyo’s acts are far from whimsical. Thus, some remarks on the political and ethical dimension of her action are in order. Proclamation 1017 unduly empowered the police and the military in a way that was quite vague. It is precisely this vagueness that lent an omnipotent ring to Proclamation 1017. Mrs. Arroyo meant to be vague and forceful at the same time. The efficacy of force, after all, lies in the suspension of questioning and not in the gaining of consent. As usual, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo feigned composure as she ignored the overwhelming protests coming from various sectors including the Senate. Without the slightest training in the performing arts, Mrs. Arroyo made a fool of herself on national TV, as always. Her failure in acting out her pretend act is a slippage that must not escape analysis.

Mrs. Arroyo’s failed pretend act is revealed by her iron-fisted proclamation, on the one hand, and her paranoid attitude towards the activists and her critics on the other. Furthermore, this failure is a symptom of Arroyo’s over-identification with that entity called the State. She neither has the intellectual nor the politico-ethical acumen to tell the difference between her own dubious interests and the appropriate function of the various institutions that comprise the State. No wonder she dismisses the efforts of the mass movement to bring about progressive change by challenging existing institutional dysfunctions as an anarchic challenge to the government. She is too ill-equipped to understand that the mass movement’s clamor for her ouster is part of its genuine efforts to reform and transform existing institutions like the government to make it function for the interest of the majority. Whenever the people decry electoral fraud, corruption and foreign plunder, they actually want to save our institutions from people like Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. But Arroyo’s over-identification with the State can only make her label hopeful citizens as “Enemies of the State” whose actions deserve her suspension of the ethical dimension of leadership. No doubt, Arroyo’s over-identification with the State has turned her into the personification of the system’s excess that threatens the system itself.

Meanwhile, the imposition of Proclamation 1017 and its subsequent lifting bears within itself an ideological lie: that a cold-blooded leader like Macapagal-Arroyo had to do the dirty job of suspending our civil liberties for a moment in order to preserve it for a lifetime.

The lie does not stop there. What are we to make of Arroyo’s crackdown on suspected communists? What is new in this operation is that the Arroyo regime is now more open about its plan for its communist suspects. What Zizek asks of the conduct of the U.S.War on Terror, specifically its less hypocritical behavior towards terrorist suspects, must be asked of GMA’s modified behavior towards her communists suspects. If Gloria Macapagal Arroyo means only to conduct a crackdown on the left, why is she telling us so? Why doesn’t she go on arresting and even killing her suspects as she has been doing? Zizek explains that “what is proper to human speech is the gap between the enunciated content and its act of enunciation. Imagine a couple who have a tacit agreement that they can have discreet extramarital affairs; if, all of a sudden, the husband openly tells the wife about an affair, she would have good reason to wonder why he was telling her. The act of publicly revealing something is not neutral; it affects the reported content itself.”

But what is really at stake in GMA’s publicized anti-communist crackdown? Are we perhaps witnessing a change in the post-national constellation of the political forces in contemporary society? Is the triumphalist claim that the socialist project failed and that the only possible world is one that is structured by the capitalist mode of production is fast becoming obsolete? This seems to be what Macapagal-Arroyo implies in her frantic communist witch-hunt.

What is there in the statement of a crackdown on suspected communists that made the Arroyo regime enunciate it publicly? The problem is not so much the content of the statement. After all, killings of trade union leaders and activists have been conducted way before proclamation 1017.

The problem with Mrs. Arroyo is that she makes threatening statements for all of us to hear in thecontext of a democratic republic. Isn’t this lamentable? In a democracy, nobody is supposed to beincriminated by virtue of his/her political beliefs, may this be an adherence to religious fundamentalism, liberalism or even communism. The exercise of free thought and action is vital in the continued functioning of a democratic society.

The real wager in Arroyo’s game is the construction of a bogey, an’ other’ to which a particular identity like her administration may turn every time it fails. The usefulness of the communist crackdown for the Arroyo regime lies not in it’s a actual accomplishment but in its mere public announcement. It seems to say that if “covert communist activities” cannot escape the panoptic gaze of Mrs. Arroyo, then non-communists who criticize her openly are automatically an open target for state repression and violence. Interestingly, the Arroyo regime has come up with a comprehensive propaganda that documents the alleged alliance between the “renegade” officers of the military and the CPP-NPA-NDF. In the light of the aborted withdrawal of the majority of the military, it is easy to understand why Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo resorts to a preposterous narrative such as this. In identifying the defiant members of the military with the CPP-NPA-NDF she is able to construct a singularity that otherwise does not exist considering the contrasting principles that those involved adhere to. Arroyo’s emphasis on the “singularity of evil” is a tactical move for her to deny the fact that the discontent with her administration is now diffused and widespread.

What makes Arroyo’s measure even more detrimental to the construction of a genuine democracy is its patent dualistic spin on the forces that constitute the present situation: the good/her friends and evil/”enemies of the state.” This postulation is dangerous because “the justification of oppression,” as Hodge suitably puts it, “depends on the view that people can be measured on a scale of good and evil.” People like Arroyo who seem convinced that she can measure other people “on the scale of good and evil assume that the measurement can be done objectively and that it is justifiable to place restriction to those judged to be less good or more evil than themselves. After all, evil is something we would be better off without. So too for the people judged as more evil. In extreme cases, they should be killed; in other instances, they should at least be controlled and their power of rights reduced. The objective result is oppression of the people consistently so viewed and treated, although to the oppressors this result is nothing more than the furtherance of good through the suppression of evil. Without the framework of dualism, these justifications have no moral foundation on which to rest (1992:104).”

It is the duty of every responsible citizen to protect the ethical and political standards that guide our engagement in social life. And it is only through the urgent call for Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to step down that we can raise our political and ethical standards which plummeted upon her acts of terror. Only when these standards are properly laid down can we, as a people, construct concrete steps towards the elimination of poverty and the practice of genuine freedom and social justice.

Analysis: A Test For Democracy

The Arroyo administration has a recipe for dictatorship – calibrated pre-emptive response, Executive Order No. 464, the proposed amendments to the 1987 Constitution and the Anti-Terrorism Bill pending before Congress. Proclamation No. 1017 was a test case. The declaration of the state of emergency shows what President Arroyo is capable of.

BY BENJIE OLIVEROS
Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly newsmagazine
(www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org)
Vol. VI, No. 5, March 5-11, 2006

When President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Proclamation No. 1017 placing the country under a “state of national emergency,” she drew a lot of flak from different sectors of society. Some called it an act of desperation to silence her critics. Others called it an act of betrayal to the spirit of EDSA coming as it is on the 20th commemoration of People Power 1, when the Filipino people toppled a dictatorship. It has been also called an attempt to impose martial law once more.

Proclamation No. 1017 itself was vague. Lawyers said it was merely a description of a situation. It referred to a conspiracy of “some elements of the political opposition with the extreme left, represented by the NDF-CPP-NPA and the extreme right, represented by the military adventurists,” who seek to bring down the government…is hindering the growth of the economy and sabotaging the people's confidence in government and their faith in the future of this country.” It also mentioned that “the claims of these elements have been recklessly magnified by certain segments of the national media.” It ended with President Arroyo calling on the Armed Forces of the Philippines “to maintain law and order throughout the Philippines, prevent or suppress all forms of lawless violence as well any act of insurrection or rebellion and to enforce obedience to all the laws and to all decrees, orders and regulations promulgated by (Arroyo) personally or upon (her) direction.”

Even as the government was hard put at explaining that it merely intended to save the republic from the “unholy alliance” of the left and the right, nobody seemed to believe it. The Arroyo administration immediately cancelled all EDSA celebrations and rally permits issued for February 24. Consequently, it attempted to disperse all rallies on that day even if these were conducted peacefully.

To lend credence to the administration’s claims, it immediately arrested former Philippine Constabulary Chief Ramon Montaño and Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) Party-list Rep. Crispin Beltran. It also tried to arrest Bayan Muna (People First) Rep. Satur Ocampo, Teddy Casino and Joel Virador; Anakpawis Representative Rafael Mariano and Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Liza Maza who are all now under the “protective custody” (read: detention) of the House of Representatives.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) raided the printing press and office of the The Daily Tribune and stationed soldiers to guard Channels 2 and 7.

Subsequently, it filed a case of rebellion against 15 people including those mentioned above, Magdalo officers, and other personalities associated with Bayan Muna. It came out with a list of 50 persons it accused of being connected with the CPP-NPA-NDFP with pending arrest warrants.

PNP Director General Arturo Lomibao also issued a warning against media agencies to abide by a set of guidelines to be issued by the PNP. He warned that the police would be monitoring media broadcast and publications and would not hesitate to take over media agencies that violate these guidelines.

The selection of targets of the Arroyo administration revealed its intention to silence its most consistent critics. The legal left proves to be a thorn on the side of the administration. But its proposition that the legal and underground left are the same is both absurd and dangerous. This is the very reason for the killing of leaders and members of progressive party-list groups in areas outside the National Capital Region (NCR).

The legal left was a convenient scapegoat, a warning sample and a test case. With the arrest of individuals identified with the left, the Arroyo administration thought that it had proven its conspiracy theory; and it had sent a signal to its critics that it would not tolerate dissent.

The Arroyo administration tried to gauge the reaction of the public to these arrests. It did not arrest former President Cory Aquino, although it warned that it would arrest her if she joined the rally last February 24. It also did not arrest former Vice-President Teofisto Guingona and other personalities of the opposition for it would have projected an image that it was similar to the Marcos dictatorship, which might not sit well with the general public.

The case of The Daily Tribune was likewise the same. It served as a warning sample and a test case. There were also reports that all television programs of Bro. Eddie Villanueva of Bangon (Rise up) and the award-winning radio program Ngayon Na, Bayan! (Now, People!) of Kodao Productions were taken off the air. It did not raid the big ones such as the Philippine Daily Inquirer. It also did not close down all media agencies like Marcos did since doing so could backfire on the Arroyo administration.

But the manner by which the raids and arrests were made indicated that the Arroyo administration is capable of running roughshod over civil liberties and the people’s rights. Although there was no suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, the arrests were made on the basis of old or trumped-up cases. New charges of sedition and rebellion were subsequently filed in court. But these did not pass the proper procedure of preliminary investigation to determine probable cause. It was a case of “arrest first, seek evidence later.”

The Arroyo administration has lifted the state of national emergency a week after declaring it. The business community and foreign investors, including the American Chamber of Commerce, were persistent in their call for its lifting saying that the proclamation is bad for business. Likewise, Proclamation No. 1017 generated protests from a broad sector of people, including those in government such as the Senate and its employees.

However, the Arroyo administration, through Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Raul Gonzales, announced that the guidelines for media coverage will still be enforced and that they will continue monitoring the media. It is preparing charges of inciting to sedition against Tribune publisher Niñez Cacho-Olivares and columnists Ike Señeres and Herman Tiu-Laurel.

Also, it had already made a mockery of the justice system by its policy of “arrest first, seek evidence later”. It is expected that the government will still use this illegal method as Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita admitted that the “crackdown” on government opponents and critics will continue even after the lifting of Proclamation No. 1017.

It has its calibrated pre-emptive response and Executive Order No. 464 in place. Its proposed amendments to the 1987 Constitution and its Anti-Terrorism Bill pending before Congress will further constrict civil liberties and people’s rights. Its recipe for a dictatorship is ready and the mechanisms are being put in place.

The only obstacle to the Arroyo administration’s plans of imposing its will is the people’s dissent. Proclamation No. 1017 could have been harsher, been imposed longer, and it could have been a formal declaration of martial law had the Arroyo administration not fear the people’s reaction. The Arroyo administration was right to hesitate.

The initial reaction of the different groups holding a rally when Proclamation No. 1017 was announced was not to call off its activities but to assert the freedom of assembly by converging at Ayala.

The reaction of the party-list representatives being hunted down by government was not to go into hiding but to assert their rights.

The raid at The Daily Tribune and the warnings of the PNP did not deter media from doing its coverage. Media people gathered at Newsdesk Café on February 26 to render a collective voice against these attacks on press freedom.

Proclamation No. 1017 was not able to successfully generate a “chilling effect” as intended by the government. Rather it galvanized the people into action.

In this respect, People Power 1 or EDSA 1 was not a total failure. The militant reactions to Proclamation No. 1017 and the collective shouts of “Never Again to Martial Law” manifested the most valuable lesson and gain of People Power 1.

But all freedom-loving Filipinos must not stop even as Proclamation No. 1017 was lifted.

The declaration of the state of emergency shows what President Arroyo is capable of. Currently, its spin doctors are continuously raising the coup bogey and it warned that it may again declare a state of national emergency anytime.

To confront this continuing challenge to civil liberties and people’s rights, freedom-loving Filipinos must be able to collectively show its will and muster its capabilities to fight for democracy and effect genuine change. Bulatlat

© 2006 Bulatlat ■ Alipato Publications