On the Occasion of the International Day to End Impunity
Bayan Canada Statement
November 2011 - Canada
On November 23, 2011, it will have been two years since the massacre of 58 people including 32 journalists in the hands of the Ampatuan warlord clan, one year since the death of botanist Dr Leonard Co and his companions in the hands of the Philippine military, and one month since the murder of Italian priest and anti-mining activist, Fr. Fausto Tentorio and a farmer named Ramon Batoy. Fifty four political killings, eight enforced disappearances and a year and several months after President Aquino took power, what now comes to mind when we think of this administration? Why the creation of more paramilitary groups to protect foreign mining and the painfully slow progress in bringing to justice powerful elites like the Ampatuans and the Arroyos?
It becomes more crystal clear now that the Aquino administration is no different from the past regimes. Its policies mimic that of the past administrations, trying its best to sound original and yet managing to sound like a bad karaoke song, sung over and over again; the administration betray the same lack of political will to gain justice for the victims of human rights violations and their families and to punish the perpetrators, and this administration's state security forces continue in their attacks on unarmed civilians.
Aquino's solution to the growing unrest and popular opposition towards destructive foreign mining is to train, arm and deploy civilian militias to protect mining interests, including Canadian mining operations. This exposes how Aquino's concern for the safety and security of foreign interests override that of the safety and security of the Filipino people.
This subservient Am(erican)-boy and his government recently hosted US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and signed the Manila Declaration reaffirming the Mutual Defense Treaty (signed sixty years ago) as the “foundation for US-RP relations for the next 60 years and beyond." BAYAN Canada knows full well that the foundation of US-RP relations is one rooted in colonialism through bloody subjugation, repression and unequal treaties. All previous, present and future national security plans (Oplan Batay Laya, Oplan Bayanihan, etc...) under a subservient Philippine state will only result in further human rights violations as the mercenary Philippine army does the bidding of US imperialism.
While extra-judicial killings continue unabated, the culture of impunity can be witnessed by the state's coddling of the perpetrators and the lack of protection for civilian casualties in the State's all out war against the people (especially the war in Mindanao), which in all hypocrisy the current regime has coined as “all-out-justice.” In fact, one witness and two relatives of the victims of the gruesome Ampatuan massacre have already been killed while the other witnesses and victims’ kin either face threats to their own lives or are offered multi-million cash in exchange for withdrawing the charges against the powerful Ampatuan clan. Meanwhile, the recent arrest of former president Arroyo only came after she twice attempted to leave the country, manipulating her appointees in the Supreme Court to overturn any decision on her travel ban. We are certain that no action would have been done had there been no uproar from the people. Still, the charges of fraud falls short of holding her accountable for her role, as commander-in-chief, in the more than one thousand political killings under her administration and the various graft and corruption scandals involving her family.
This bloody, blundering business must end immediately. History shows us that our hope resides in the power of the people and not on the idle promises of powerful political elites or on the moribund system based on the extraction of wealth through exploitation, oppression and repression. We must dismantle the violent structures that plague the people and together build a society based on justice, lasting peace and true freedom. This is the dream which drives ordinary citizens in the world today to occupy, to take to the streets, organize, resist and rebel in the face of unprecedented repression. And while the peoples of the world struggle for this dream, we, the Filipino people, including those far away from home, will surely do our part to make it a reality.
Stop the political killings! Dismantle paramilitary groups in the Philippines!
End impunity now!
BAYAN Canada is a progressive alliance of Filipino groups and organizations from coast to coast and a member of the International League of Peoples Struggle (ILPS)
