Primer on the killings of activist

Since 2005, there has been a drastic leap in the number of activists killed under the Arroyo regime. Many questions have been raised on the nature, pattern, reasons and perpetrators of the killings. We are releasing this short primer based on frequently asked questions regarding the issue of political or extra-judicial killings.

1. Is there a national trend or pattern in the killing of activists under the Arroyo regime?

Yes. It is now beyond question that there is indeed a trend in the killing of activists. There have been 607 victims of extrajudicial killings documented by Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of Human Rights from January 2001 to May 30, 2006.

From January to May of this year alone, 75 have already been killed. There are also 25 victims of enforced disappearance.

Extrajudicial killings are politically-motivated killings perpetrated by state agents without the sanction of any law or court. This will include summary executions, assassinations, deaths due to strafing or indiscriminate firing and massacre. Summary execution is used when the victim is held passive before being killed (i.e. abducted then found dead). Assassination is used when the victim is killed at once. Massacre is the term used when there are three or more dead.

The Souther Tagalog region. Central Luzon, Bicol Region and Southern Mindanao except for the Eastern Visayas, are listed as priority areas in the AFP�??s Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL), an internal security plan of the government. The OBL aims to destroy the Communist Party of the Philippines�?? (CPP) alleged political infrastructure and its alleged legal fronts. Under the said military campaign, the AFP targets the leaders and members of legal organizations.

2. Who exactly are the victims of extra-judicial killings?

The victims are civilians, unarmed, who had either pursued or supported political causes. Many are ordinary people.

Of the 601 victims of extrajudicial killings, 257 have been identified as activist leaders, members and supporters of cause-oriented groups. They belong to various people�??s organizations and partylist groups who are struggling for genuine freedom and democracy. They are workers, farmers, lawyers, teachers, students, pastors, priests and even human rights advocates.

Their names are Diosdado «Ka Fort » Fortunato, leader of the union at Nestle Philippines,
gunned down in 2005, leaving a widow with six children; Bishop Alberto
Ramento, one of the hightest officials of the Philippine Independent
Church, a priest of the poor, stabbed as he slept in his church; Professor
Jose Ma. Cui, gunned down in front of his students as he supervised an
exam; Ma. Luisa Posa-Dominado and Nilo Arado, abducted by the military 12
days ago and still missing; Gracila Buya, a nine-year old girl in Grade 2,
found shot by a stream near her home. The military said she was a child
guerilla, claiming they found a 16 mm rifle beside her, a weapon the siz

A study on the means, motives and opportunity behind such killings points to the elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and/or their agents like the Civilian Armed Force Geographical Unit (Cafgu) and death squads.

The AFP, being the biggest armed group in the country, has the means of launching such offensives on a nationwide scale. It has enough resources and manpower to undertake a systematic attack on the progressive movement.

Death squads are motorcycle-riding men wearing masks and armed with high caliber pistols or rifles.

As early as 2004, Norberto Gonzales named the progressive party-list groups Bayan Muna, Anakpawis, Gabriela, Anak ng Bayan, Suara Bangsa Moro and Migrante as communist fronts.

In a Powerpoint presentation �??Knowing the Enemy�?� released by the AFP in the first quarter of 2005, more legal organizations, including church groups and journalists�?? groups, were branded as communist fronts. In the book trilogy �??Trinity of War�?�, the Northern Luzon Command (Nolcom) further identifies alleged front organizations of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the NPA.

In many incidents, state armed forces and agents also have the opportunity to carry out the �??neutralization�?? of their targets. Neutralization is the euphemism used by the military for physical elimination of killing. Pieces of circumstantial evidence to the killings prove this.

Adelina Golloso, mother of Maylene and Raymund, saw how elements of the 2nd Infantry Battalion and the 902nd Infantry Brigade of the 9th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army fired at their house on May 7, 2004.

Reaching home from some errands, Adelina shouted at the soldiers to stop. She saw her daughter Maylene, 13 and her son Raymund, 6, lying on the ground, bathed in blood.

She asked for the soldiers�?? help but the latter just walked away. The next day, military officials claim the incident at Bgy. Recto was a legitimate encounter with the NPA.


4.Who must account for these killings?

Mrs. Arroyo, being the commander in chief, is liable for the extrajudicial killings. It took her almost five years and more than 500 victims before she ordered an investigation through the formation of the Task Force Usig. The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said it correctly that the State should be responsible in protecting its people. The Arroyo administration is at the very least liable for its failure to protect its people. At the most, the Arroyo administration is liable for the killings through its tacit approval or direct involvement in these crimes.

With the scale and magnitude of the killings, it is clear that there is a national policy at work which could only emanate from a very high and powerful cabinet cluster.

It is interesting to note that during the term of General Ermita as the AFP Deputy Chief of Staff for

The Arroyo regime is waging all-out war against people�??s movement. The progressive movement is the most organized and most determined among the many forces fighting the regime. Weakening the progressive movement will also weaken the broad anti-Arroyo united front.


6.What can we do?

There is a need to step up protests to condemn these killings. All forms of protests must be undertaken to expose the state policy of repression.

Intensify protest actions against political repression. Launch widespread protests and information drives.

Hold fora and other forms of educational discussion in schools, offices and communities. Discuss the current state of human rights and the Oplan Bantay Laya.

More importantly, we must struggle for the immediate removal of the fascist US-Arroyo regime. It is her desperation to stay in power that incites this slaughter of political dissenters.

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