Press Statement
March 9, 2006

CORDILLERA POLITICAL ACTIVISTS TARGETED FOR LIQUIDATION

Condemn the killing spree of the GMA regime!

Even with the lifting of Presidential Proclamation 1017, the reign of terror and de facto martial rule of the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo regime persists. The open attack against political activists, members and leaders of militant organizations and partylists still prevails.

We have received reliable information that leaders of partylists and people’s organizations in the Cordillera are being targeted for liquidation by the military’s death squads which have so far claimed three innocent lives last year in this part of the country.

Included in the military’s hitlist are Ms. Joan Carling, chairperson of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA), Windel Bolinget, CPA secretary general; Fernando Mangili, CPA vice chair and secretary general of the Alyansa Dagiti Pesante iti Taeng Kordilyera (APIT TAKO), Bayan Muna leaders Manuel Loste and Jose Cawiding; APIT TAKO Chairperson Julian Gayumba, and Xavier Akien, secretary general of the Mankayan-Quirino-Tadian-Cervantes Danggayan a Gunglo (MAQUITACDG). The MAQUITACDG is an inter-municipality alliance protesting the mining activities of Lepanto Mining in Mankayan.

These people are not criminals. They are freedom loving people and servants of the people.
They are leaders of the Cordillera mass movement and are peace-loving, committed citizens fighting for social justice, peace, human rights and democracy. They have selflessly devoted their time and energy to the peoples’ movement for fundamental social transformation. They have been exposing the wanton violation of human rights and indigenous peoples’ rights, as well the economic and political policies of the Arroyo regime.

The GMA regime’s killing spree is not incidental. It is a national policy of political repression and political assassination. It is planned and systematic, as it has definite targets and clear objectives, and carried within a certain timeframe. Such is the desperation of this crumbling regime that has embarked on a murder campaign to keep itself in power. This is being carried out under the AFP’s OPLAN BANTAY LAYA, whose avowed purpose is to destroy armed groups (Abu Sayaff, CPP-NPA) which the regime perceives as threats to national security. But it also targets leaders and members of people’s organizations and partylists which the regime brands as “communist fronts”.

To set up the intended targets for the kill, the government has been conducting a demonization campaign against them. For instance, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales has been accusing Bayan Muna of channeling government money to the NPA. But he does not go to court or to the COMELEC to present his case as required by the laws of the land because his so-called evidence is actually a figment of his imagination.

Meanwhile, the military intelligence units, particularly the Intelligence Services of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) and the military intelligence groups (MIG) prepare the ground for their death squads by intensive surveillance and casing of the intended victims. Then they send in the killers to finish the job. The patterns of assassination of activists belonging to legal organizations are the same nationwide. They are shot near their houses, offices, or while going to and from these places, which implies that surveillance was conducted prior to the actual assassination. The killings occur over a one to 2 month period, with a lull of two to 3 months, then the killing spree resumes, showing that these are centrally directed with chosen targets nationwide and with specific places and timetables.

The security agencies of the government are not bothered by the niceties of the law. Inspired by US President Bush’s fake “war on terror”— avidly adopted by GMA in exchange for Bush’s support for her regime — the military and its death squads have gone on a killing rampage from one region of the country to another. Under OPLAN BANTAY LAYA, they have become accuser, judge and executioner rolled into one, arrogating upon themselves God-like powers, deciding who will live and who will die by the assassin’s bullet.

Meanwhile, the stealing, cheating, lying and smuggling in high places continues. The freedom to loot the coffers of government and debase the moral life of the country is assured because there is OPLAN BANTAY LAYA.

It is no wonder that patriotic elements in the police and military that have retained their idealism and sense of duty are disgusted by the rampant greed and criminality taking place under GMA’s administration. Many have expessed their desire to withdraw support for the regime because they see their officers and men being turned into monsters killing the very people they are supposed to serve and protect.

But the deafening silence from Malacañang and the AFP headquarters on the issue of political killings could only mean that extra-judicial executions of political activists will continue. More lives will be sacrificed in the alter of GMA’s political survival; more blood will be spilled so the mercenaries in the AFP will get their promotion.

This diabolic state of affairs cries to high heavens for justice. The tears of widows and the cries of orphans of the victims demand an end to this scourge laying waste to our land and people.

PP 1017 may have been lifted but only in name, as the curtailment of press freedom and the people’s civil liberties and basic freedoms continue. GMA has implemented once fascist policy to another to execute such self-serving interest of staying in power, from the Calibrated Preemptive Response (CPR), EO 464, and recently, PP 1017.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms the killings of innocent and unarmed activists who have done nothing wrong against their fellowmen except to serve them the best way they can; and we hold the GMA regime responsible for these dastardly crimes against the people.

Stop political repression and political killings!
Make the GMA regime pay for its blood debts against the people!
Oust Gloria Macapagal Arroyo!

Cordillera Peoples Alliance
Bayan Muna-Cordillera
Alyansa dagiti Pesante iti Taeng Kordilyera
March 9, 2006