NEW YORK
Philippine struggle featured at forum
Published Dec 23, 2009 1:59 PM
The following excerpts are from a Nov. 27 talk entitled “The
structure of reactionary violence and human rights violations in the
Philippines” written by Professor Jose Maria Sison, chairperson of the
International League of Peoples’ Struggle. Sison’s remarks were
read by Bernadette Ellorin, chair of BAYAN-USA, at a Dec. 18 Workers World
Party forum in New York. Gary Labao, also a BAYAN-USA member, narrated a slide
show on the history of U.S. imperialist domination of the Philippines and mass
resistance to it. View Ellorin and Labao’s remarks at
www.workers.tv.
The International Coordinating Committee and all member-organizations of
the International League of Peoples’ Struggle condemn with all their
moral conviction and strength the monstrous massacre of at least 57 people,
including many women and children, 29 journalists and two human rights lawyers,
in Ampatuan, Maguindanao, last 23 November 2009.
The abominable crime against humanity was perpetrated by the private army of
the Ampatuan ruling clan in collaboration with units of the Philippine National
Police and the Philippine Army.
The Ampatuans are governors of both Maguindanao and the Autonomous Region of
Muslim Mindanao and include a cabinet undersecretary, congressmen and several
town mayors. They have maintained their dominant warlord status because they
are aligned with the Arroyo regime and have delivered to it large numbers of
fraudulent votes in the 2004 and 2007 reactionary elections. Thus, they are
allowed to oppress and exploit the people and crush with armed force any
opposition.
But it is not enough to see only the relationship of the Arroyo ruling clique
and the Ampatuan ruling clan in Maguindanao or even the rotten and violent
character of the entire oppressive ruling system in the Philippines. The
official designation and government financing of the Ampatuan private army as
CVO and CAFGU paramilitary auxiliaries of the PNP and PA are in line with the
national internal security plan called Oplan Bantay Laya. This has been
designed and directed by the U.S. under its global war of terror policy.
The structure of reactionary violence and human rights violations in the
Philippines has several levels, including those of the U.S., the puppet
Manila-based government and the local tyrants like the Ampatuans. The U.S. has
been the most culpable for whipping up state terrorism and vigilantism by local
tyrants and by army and police commanders under the pretext of combating
communists and Muslims who are unjustly labeled as terrorists.
The U.S. is the imperialist master that has dictated upon the Arroyo regime to
adopt and implement Oplan Bantay Laya and use the regular armed forces, the
police and the paramilitary forces of the Ampatuan type to suppress the
national and democratic rights of the people. Along the way, the puppets use
their armed power to intimidate and kill their intrasystemic political
rivals.
The U.S. has provided the doctrine of warfare against the people and supplied
the military equipment and training and other wherewithals of the reign of
terror. It has embedded advisors, trainers and operatives within the
reactionary armed forces and has deployed its own units in Mindanao and
elsewhere to ensure puppet obedience to its imperialist dictates.
Together with the Manila-based puppet government, local tyrants like the
Ampatuans and all their military, police and paramilitary minions, the U.S. is
culpable and condemnable for pushing state terrorism and the gross and
systematic human rights violations and emboldening the human rights violators
to commit their crimes with impunity under the pretext of combating
terrorism.
Further information on the Ampatuan massacre
In a land familiar to violence by foreign aggressors and local tyrants, the
recent massacre still managed to shock and outrage the Filipino people as well
as the rest of the world.
A convoy of journalists, lawyers and women relatives of Esmael Mangudadatu, a
local politician contesting the governorship of Maguindanao Province, was en
route to file registration papers for the May 2010 elections when they were
abducted and executed by over 100 gunmen.
Twenty-four of the victims were women, some of whose bodies were later found
mutilated. At least 28 journalists were also killed in the attack which the
Reporters without Borders described as the worst loss of life in the history of
journalism.
The perpetrators were allegedly led by Andal Ampatuan Jr., the mayor of a
nearby town and son of the incumbent governor of Maguindanao, who was being
groomed to take over his father’s position. He was assisted by senior
police officials, local police and paramilitary forces that function as a
private army of the Ampatuan clan. A backhoe registered to the provincial
government was even on hand to bury the victims in pre-dug common graves.
Clearly the Ampatuans consider themselves untouchable because of their loyal
ties to the incumbent President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who has deliberately
created a climate of impunity for human rights violators and mass murderers in
the Philippines. Since her ascent to power in 2001, over 800 extrajudicial
killings have been committed in the country, including 51 incidents of
massacres victimizing a total of 255 persons. Not one person has been punished
for these vilest of crimes.
In the case of the Ampatuan massacre, it took four days before the principal
suspect was taken into custody and only after intense public outcry for
justice. The Arroyo government’s initial response was to declare a state
of emergency in the province which would be enforced, of course, by the local
state apparatus controlled by the Ampatuans.
The Ampatuans are among the most loyal vassals of the Arroyo ruling clique and
responsible for orchestrating the electoral fraud in the region through which
Arroyo has kept herself in power.
It was Arroyo who gave the Ampatuan clan the authority to recruit and arm
civilians to assist in fighting “insurgents” in the region. As a
result, the Ampatuans now have a 500-strong army, which includes 200 special
armed civilian auxiliary forces, as well as entire regular military and police
units assigned to ensure the security of the clan members.
These local warlords and their “armies,” particularly in Mindanao,
are not only interwoven with the national security apparatus of the ruling
classes, they are also backed by the U.S. imperialist state, which has a
special interest in Mindanao. The U.S. military considers Mindanao strategic
for its force projection in this part of the world. It maintains military
facilities in the island in direct violation of the Philippine Constitution. It
has conducted at least seven military exercises in Mindanao since 2001, poured
in millions of dollars in military aid and has trained local security forces to
enhance “inter-operability” with U.S. troops.
The USAID has funded tens of millions of dollars worth of infrastructure
projects throughout the region to support U.S. military operations and U.S.
investors in the region. To accomplish their objective of securing strategic
resources, facilities and suppressing revolutionary and democratic challenges
to U.S. interests in the region, the U.S. necessarily works with the local
state apparatus and allies with feudal-fascist rulers such as the
Ampatuans.
Given the intimate ties of the Ampatuans and other fascist criminals with the
U.S.-Arroyo regime, there is no reason to expect that any fact-finding body or
investigation initiated by the corrupt, oppressive and brutal government will
be credible or will bring justice to the victims of massacres and other human
rights violations in the Philippines.
The ILPS calls on all freedom-loving peoples of the world to denounce the
Ampatuan Massacre and all other extrajudicial killings in the Philippines; to
demand an independent probe of these killings; and condemn the Arroyo
government for coddling mass murderers and human rights violators.
Stop the killings! End impunity!
Justice now!
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