No one is too old to escape the massacres in the Philippine countryside

"The sound of gunfire, off in the distance,
I'm getting used to it now"
Talking Heads, Life During Wartime

We woke yesterday morning to this on the front page of the Inquirer:

The seven men had arrived in a van and the family of militant leader Dalmacio Gandinao thought they were dropping in for a visit.

Then bursts of gunfire followed and the 73-year-old Bayan Muna coordinator for Misamis Oriental fell dead, the latest victim in a wave of assassinations of political activists in the country that has gone unchecked despite international outrage.

Apparently these seven courageous men murdered Gandinao in front of his wife and three grandchildren as they ate their evening meal.

I have a couple of observations arising from this latest atrocity, the 272nd death of a “militant” since President Arroyo took office according to the Inquirer (Bayan Muna’s own figure is much higher) and the 11th such killing in the Philippines this year (i.e., two a week).

First, it is often claimed that these killings reflect “local” politics and are not directed from Manila. Still, it seems rather strange that, at the same time, local goons and strongmen from Ilocos to Misamis have suddenly decided they hate Bayan Muna so much that they have to assassinate all its local members. I wonder whether anyone who holds this view can explain this amazing piece of synchronicity?

Second, the Inquirer article quoted above talks about “international outrage”. Fine, but where is the “outrage” in the Philippines? I may have missed it, but I can’t recall one major political figure coming out strongly against this terrible tide of targeted killing in a country that prides itself on its democratic traditions and respect for freedom of expression.

Comments

[cvj]

Yes, the lack of outrage from the major politicians (and our citizenry) is itself an outrage. What's worse is the apologia that comes from otherwise decent people. Last year, I commented in Ricky's blog (now deleted), that the Left are our very own canaries in the mineshaft. Sadly, it looks like the mainstream sectors of society will not wake up until one of the more mainstream personalities becomes a victim of this dirty war.

[torn]

Hi cvj — Thanks for commenting — I get a bit depressed when few people respond to these posts of mine, repetitive though they are.

To be fair to the “citizenry”, I think this out-of-sight-out-of-mind mentality is common everywhere. Nevertheless, I hate the fact that the deaths are becoming “normal”—“I'm getting used to it now”, in the words of the song I quoted at the beginning. In that respect, I applaud the Inquirer, which usually (but not always) puts news of the murders on the front page.

That had occurred to me too — that only if a “big man” stops a bullet will people be galvanized into action (Ninoy’s death in 1983 comes to mind).

I think it is up to opinion formers—whether those are political figures, journalists, celebrities, “wise men”, or Filipino bloggers— to alert people to this creeping violence. I wonder how the PCIJ plans to cover it.

The other chilling fact is the number of prosecutions for these 272 murders (zero?). Don't we have a criminal justice system any more?

[Carla]

There's a post in the PCIJ blog about the Melo report. Apparently, the full results have not been released. Another "investigation" that leads nowhere.

People don't care about the killings because the victims are "communists" anyway. The Philippines must be the last country on earth where the political leadership still gets mileage out of red scares.

It also doesn't help that the CPP-NPA-NDF and its allied organizations have a credibility problem when it comes to violence and human rights. This ought to be a separate issue and should have no bearing on the fact that *unarmed* people are being exterminated. However, it is one factor that helps inure people to violence, whether committed by the state or by the extreme left.

[Mila]

It's a massacre, and people aren't responding to the political genocide. Whether it's due to the political leanings or the provincial location of the killings (although I remember reading of several taking place in Manila), most people are not taking notice. Don't they realize that they are just as likely to be killed if they don't act to prevent this from happening to other people? I've had people tell me that the Holocaust can't take place in a country like the Philippines ("we're too nice or fun loving a population"), but what the heck do they call this zombie like behaviour in light of all the "discriminate" murders? Why has the normally loud-mouthed legal community avoided addressing this injustice head on? And what will shame the administration and military into taking responsibility for this?

[torn]

Mila – Good to see someone speaking with real passion. You’ve asked some very important questions I think.

Carla — True, but this it is an angle that is very
over-played (in my view) and non-specific — all I hear are generalized smears, often related to purges that took place a long time ago. There is seldom or never any “evidence” that a particular victim of the purge was engaged in illegal activity.

Bayan Muna is not the NPA or the CPP. It is a
legitimate political party with members in the House
of Representatives. As is obvious from the warrants
issued last year for Satur Ocampo and Crispin Beltran,
as well as the harassment of Bayan Muna in the
countryside, the government sees Bayan Muna as a threat and would like nothing better than to outlaw it. If the government had evidence of Bayan Muna’s involvement in violence I don’t think it would keep it to itself-—since no such evidence has been produced, I assume it does not exist.

The picture is muddy I agree, but that’s Philippine politics. There are individuals on the left who regularly cross the line between
legitimate and illegitimate activity, but the same is true of “official
political life” — just look at Mayor Atienza’s former aide Noli Sugay. If you were to bump off anyone with known criminal associates, there wouldn’t be many left (and no bad thing, I hear you mutter).

[Carla]

Oh don't get me wrong--I'm not saying that it's okay to bump off Bayan Muna members because they have connections to the CPP. What I'm saying is that the CPP-NPA-NDF's history of violence within its own ranks has affected its moral authority when it comes to human rights.

The purges, sadly, were real. They were sustained internal campaigns that occurred as late the early 1990s, not a one-off event "a long time ago". I am friends with people who survived them, as well as people whose graves we are looking for to this day. Excuse me if I don't think the angle overplayed at all.

I know the military uses every occasion to trot this out to justify its brutality . On the other hand, the CPP plays it down to justify its own. Who is more brutal, I don't know. "The picture is muddy", alright.

Bayan MUna is not the NPA, sure. Not technically. That's the difficulty with the "front" strategy. Those unarmed BM members are paying the cost of that strategy: they're "legal" and vulnerable, so the killers go after them, not after the armed cadres. Again, this is wrong in any language and must be condemned and punished. No one should be killed for their political beliefs. NO one should be *tortured* for any reason. Those are principles that I hope the CPP-NPA-NDF would also respect. But anyone who calls them on their human rights record gets branded a "military agent" and a "counter-revolutionary".
And those are okay to kill, apparently.

Justice is not served by sweeping this issue under the carpet.

[torn]

>> The purges, sadly, were real.

I agree that they were real, but my point was are they relevant? As you said: “This ought to be a separate issue and should have no bearing on the fact that unarmed people are being exterminated.”

>> What I'm saying is that the CPP-NPA-NDF's history of violence within its own ranks has affected its moral authority when it comes to human rights.

Again no problem with that, but I don't think it is the moral authority of the NPA that is at issue. To the extent that it can be held responsible (either through neglect or possibly through direct participation) the current murders are a stain on the moral authority of the state, which must be held to a higher standard than murdering thugs.

[torn]

I just read this excellent piece by Joel Rocamora on the PCIJ site (http://pcij.org/i-report/2007/political-violence.html). In it he talks about “subcontracted political violence”, referencing a work a few years ago by one of my former teachers:

"Control over police is crucial for control over illegal economic activity. Since these activities are conducted almost openly (hundreds, even thousands, in larger towns place illegal gambling bets), police have to look the other way or protect illegal products such as smuggled goods from poachers. Police also serve as “bodyguards” (read: goons) of politicians, for intimidating opponents and, if necessary, eliminating them. Influence over judges helps to deal with victims who seek judicial recourse. This has deep historical roots that go back to the American colonial rule. As political scientists Eva-Lotta E. Hedman and John T. Sidel write in their 2000 book Philippine Politics and Society in the Twentieth Century: “(The) enduring structures of 'Philippine colonial democracy' contributed to the marked decentralization and privatization of coercive state apparatuses which, in turn, prefigured a recurring pattern of subcontracted political violence.”

I agree with his closing point.

"The problem, precisely, with “equal-opportunity violence” is that everyone is into it. This is not just a question of “state capacity” — one that, over time, will be corrected. State capacity is built up with specific political decisions. The killings of national democratic activists will continue as long as the Arroyo administration continues to make excuses for it."

[Carla]

Small world. Joel, by the way, is on the NPA's hitlist, accused of being a CIA agent because he disagrees with them.

The relevance of the purges: When will they be relevant?
Is there some order of priority as to which killings should be addressed first? I said they were a separate issue in the sense
that they neither caused nor justified the recent wave of BM killings. The AFP has a long tradition of butchery--they kill "communists" regardless, purges or no purges.

They are relevant because when we condemn those who slaughter others for their political beliefs, we have to be consistent. Bayan Muna campaigns on a platform of human rights. Those human rights belong to all, not just to their members.

Anyway I cannot post more thoughts on this because it is hugely complicated and very personal to me. Besides, it's just a matter of time before some BM activist reads this and accuses me of being Palparan's agent. It's a twisted, twisted world.

[torn]

OK, happy to leave it there.

[Wowee]

Bayan Muna = Merchantilist

Merchantilism = Obsolete

[Jack B.]

At the end of the day, they are still Communists. What need do we have for these Commies? Have not the destruction of the USSR and China's recent shift to Capitalism proven that Communism has failed? So why should I care if a bunch of people trying to sell a dead ideology are getting killed off?

[James]

I think the last comments left by Carla and yourself answer your question.