Amnesty in exchange for one’s hope of heaven in the Philippines
Last week I attended a three-day seminar-workshop on the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) signed in 1998 between the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) under then president Joseph Estrada.
It was the most hopeful activity I’ve ever participated in — mapping out a society in all means and ways better than this, where there is a economic, political, cultural and justice system oriented towards serving the needs of the poor; where their rights are respected and upheld. How ugly, how dark and despairing the Philippines is right now! All the happy images one sees are either so superficial or so sad because they are all fleeting and temporary.
—
I’ve written about the CARHRIHL before in Businessworld, oh years ago. I did research and made interviews, I cited comparative laws, and it really is a remarkable achievement because it’s the only document of its kind in the entire world because it was signed by two separate, warring governments. Yes, the NDFP represents a separate, independent government and though it is not in power, it’s a government all the same.
Anyways, it’s only now that’s I’ve really internalized what the CARHRIHL means, and I am filled with much hope. Light shining through an endless pitch black night and all that. Pledge to commit to hope and fight against despair and all that lies between us and a free and prosperous country where workers and farmers do not live as slaves, where intellectuals create and pay tribute to those who give shape and form to their visions of math and science and literature and art and architecture and engineering.
—
I am outraged at what’s being done to NDFP chief political consultant Jose Ma. Sison. It’s beyond my power to describe my anger at the hypocrisy of the Macapagal-Arroyo government in saying that justice has been achieved with Prof. Sison’s arrest. Ano daw?!
Romulo Kintanar and Arturo Tabara were gangsters. They betrayed the revolutionary movement and worked with the military and the ISAFP. They were legitimate political targets of revolutionary justice — but it wasn’t Prof. Sison who ordered their assassination.
In truth, though — it’s really not as if the Arroyo government or its Dutch counterpart care about either Kintanar or Tabara. They care less about them than they do about helping bring about genuine justice and peace in the Philippines. It’s all about economic agreements and political compromises and the relentless, insurmountable level of annoyance Prof. Sison causes the US, the Philippines and the Dutch government because he remains among the most influential freedom fighters and critics of anti-people policies internationally.
The Macapagal-Arroyo government has killed some 900 political mass activists and human rights advocates in the name of its counter-insurgency program. Some 200 others are missing. What has the Dutch government have to say about this? Or the European Union? In the last five years, legislative measures of both have become more and more politically repressive in character, a sign that their economic interests are under serious threat. They want to further consolidate their wealth and establish heightened security for it, and they work with the US to do this. The attack against the NDFP in the Netherlands and Prof. Sison’s arrest is the doing of the US and the Dutch government, with both extracting more economic favors from the Philippines in exchange for the favor.
Justice, my foot.
—-
Prior to leaving for Australia, Macapagal-Arroyo signed Proclamation
1377 offering amnesty to the members and leaders of the revolutionary movement
in the Philippines.
Who is the GRP trying to fool with this offer of amnesty?
The NDFP and its allied forces are by no means taken in by this. It’s easy to
see through the motives of the Arroyo regime for offering amnesty –- it wants
to project an image of being a peace maker and a magnanimous bearer of the
olive branch, while it continues to viciously attack the civil, political and
human rights of Filipinos all over the country. The hypocrisy of the
Macapagal-Arroyo administration clearly has no limits. In the meantime, with congress joining the
fray by allocating P500 million to bankroll this racket of an amnesty program,
we can be assured that all the money will just end up in the pockets of corrupt
officials.
There’s nothing unique or different with this latest amnesty
offer of the government. Much like all amnesty programs previously offered by
past government, the recent offer is also pathetic. For the revolutionaries, it’s like being being given a small plot in hell in exchange for their living hopes of heaven in the Philippines. What — a sack of rice every month? Hindi sa minamata ko ang isang sako ng bigas, pero ano yun kumpara sa isang nayayakap na pangarap, buhay at humihingi na isang araw isisilang ang isang lipunang may tunay na katarungan at pagkakapantay-pantay?
Pera na naman yan. Without doubt, this amnesty program is yet another
money-making scheme of the government; another ploy to extract more funds from
the national coffers and distribute it in the form of bribes to local officials
who will supposedly support and this amnesty program. Pa-forum dyan, pa-photo-op dito. Tapos there’ll be fake NPA surrenderees. Local government units
will create their respective amnesty programs and the most corrupt of these
LGUs will just use the funds to buy a new luxury care for their executives or
fund trips abroad. At the expense of all other efforts to forge a genuine and
lasting peace in the Philippines, the Arroyo regime embarks on yet another inherently corrupt endeavor.
Asa pa. None of the forces of the NDFP will participate in
this. Revolutionary forces all over the country continue to wage war against
the countless injustices Malacanang and the Armed Forces of the Philippines inflict on the Filipino poor. They are well aware of the lies Malacanang and
the likes of National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales are peddling when it
comes to offers of amnesty: they want to subdue the revolutionary movement by
offering measly and unstable livelihood programs to its members. Sino ba ang gustong maging bahagi ng gobyerno na ito? I mean, willingly? Gad. Hindi na nga ako nagtataka o nagagalit sa mga middle class na kandarapang mag-abroad at gustong magpalit ng citizenship. It’s their right — this government does make one ashamed of being Filipino.
It’s also impossible to ignore the possibility that this scheme is also meant
to justify the deportation of Prof. Sison from the Netherlands. Despite the
non-existence of an extradition treaty between the Philippines and the Netherlands, the Macapagal-Arroyo regime’s infamy and sneakiness recognize no boundaries:
it’s possible that it will use this offer of bogus amnesty to secure custody of
Prof. Sison from the hands of Danish authorities. If extradited, Prof. Sison’s
life will be in certain danger from assassins directly handpicked by the
mercenary intelligence and security henchmen of the Macapagal-Arroyo government.
Sure, Executive
Secretary Eduardo Ermita is now saying
that Prof. Sison is not covered by the amnesty offer – but they have lied many
times before about their motives when it comes to offers like this. They have
succeeded in their scheme to have Prof. Sison arrested on the preposterous
charges; there is nothing to stop them from further twisting this amnesty offer
into a ploy to expedite Prof. Sison extradition.
In the meantime, there is growing international condemnation for the Dutch government’s
brutal raid of the NDFP office and the arrest of Prof. Sison. Its continuing
political and criminal persecution of Prof. Sison will eventually prove
politically costly for the Macapagal-Arroyo regime.
No right-thinking
individual will believe that the GRP is sincere in its overtures of peace and
reconciliation. Instead of reopening the peace talks with the NDFP, the
Macapagal-Arroyo government has resorted to criminalizing the chief political
consultant of the NDFP and facilitated his arrest. Civil libertarians, human
rights advocates and international supporters of the Filipino people’s
continuing struggle for a just and lasting peace condemn what has been done to
Prof. Sison with the same vehemence and outrage that they protest against the
relentless extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.
—
The point is this: There’s a war, and so long as the root causes of this war remain unresolved, there will be no end to this war. The most than can be done is to lay down and live by the rules that will make the conduct of the war as humane as possible. Wield your weapon with respect, and never use it against civilians, non-combatants, and those who have laid down their arms in honest surrender.
Kintanar and Tabara were combatants. They remained armed up to the day revolutionary justice was laid down against them. They remained participants in the war, and they were on the side of the killer government. There.
—
Gad, I know how I must read so cold and callous when I write this; pero how else to understand all this? Just because we don’t like it, just because it does not agree with the way we view the world and how we want it to be, it will never change the fact that there is a war, and that there is killing, and that those who are being oppressed and violated and denied the fruits of their labors and their every right to live and be happy and raise their families also have the right and even the duty to fight back. International humanitarian law affirms this, the International Declaration of Human Rights recognizes this.
In choosing sides, one takes the consequences, and it will be both the people and history who will decide on whether you’re a criminal or a patriot.
Magkaiba ang sukatan ng hustisya ng mga pumapanig sa mamamayan at sa mahihirap. It’s justice with clear bias, a decided leaning towards the poor, and against those who exploit them. Hustisya ng iilan, o ang katarungan para sa nakararami.
—
Hilarious! Fashion critics dissing the Drizabone-wear of the global leaders attending the APEC meet in Australia. One said that they all looked like they blew into town for an agricultural trade fair; another said that they appear like wash ups from an estuary.
