Paghahanda

Ni AXEL PINPIN

Markahan sa mga kalendaryo,
Ilagay sa reminder ng telepono,
Ikarga sa task ng PDA;
Ang wala ng mga ito –-
Magbilang ng paatras sa daliri.
Tandaan: Mula Hulyo a-kinse,
Taong dos mil siyete;
Buburahin sa lupa ang terorismo!
Kaya’t ang lahat ay maghanda.
Huwag maglakad nang nag-iisa.
Umuwi nang maaga.
Magdala ng anumang pagkakakilanlan.
Magpagupit at mag-ahit.
Magpa-manicure at pedicure.
Magpa-foot spa at derma.
Ang walang kakayanang gawin ang mga ito –-
Magsapaniki at gawing araw ang gabi.
Tandaan: Mula Hulyo a-kinse,
Taong dos mil siyete;
Lilipunin sa lupa ang kaaway ng batas!
Kaya’t ang lahat ay maghanda.
Iwasang magdala ng anumang sumasabog;
Granada, atis, abokado, kamote;
Dinamita, C4, C2, Gatorade.
Iwasang magdala ng anumang pumuputok;
Armalite, M-14, MP-5, mp3, WMA.
Iwasang magdala ng anumang sumasambulat;
Bomba, Bulgar, Toro, Abante, Inquirer.
Ang sadyang hindi gumagamit ng mga ito –-
Ni huwag magbibiro, ni huwag iimik.
Tandaan: Mula Hulyo a-kinse,
Taong dos mil siyete;
Didisarmahan ang lahat ng bandido!
Kaya’t ang lahat ay magahnda.
Iwasan ang maging kahina-hinala
Dahil ipagbabawal ang maghinala!
Iwasan ang maging kaduda-duda
Dahil ipagbabawal ang magduda!
Iwasan ang maging mareklamo
Dahil ipagbabawal ang pagrereklamo!
Ang sadyang makakati ang dila –-
Basahin t bigkasin itong aking tula!
Tandaan: Mula Hulyo a-kinse,
Taong dos mil siyete;
Bibiguin natin ang Batas Kontra-Terorismo!

Collision Course

BY THE CENTER FOR PEOPLE EMPOWERMENT IN GOVERNANCE
ISSUE ANALYSIS No. 14
July 19, 2007

This week’s human rights summit held on July 16-17 at the Manila Hotel brought together about 250 participants in search of solutions to the epidemic of summary executions and enforced disappearance that has hounded the nation since 2001. Responding to the invitation of Supreme Court (SC) Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno, the participants included lawyers, academic scholars, human rights volunteers, legislators, interfaith leaders, press freedom advocates as well as government executives and magistrates. Conspicuous in their blue and grey uniform were elements of the military and police, led by their top honchos. The presence of some members of the diplomatic corps including a representative of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) underscored the fact that this particular domestic concern has achieved an international dimension, the likes of Rwanda and other countries plagued by human rights violations.

The summit was convened to address the deteriorating state of human rights in the country but it came as a letdown to rights watchdogs, cause-oriented organizations and interfaith groups — whose members were also victims of extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances – who had to lobby hard on the eve of the event for them to participate.

Just the same, the summit has been lauded as “unprecedented” for having been initiated by the high court chief justice to address the pressing issue of political killings, with about 865 victims to date aside from hundreds other victims of frustrated murder and enforced disappearance committed allegedly by state security forces under the watch of President Gloria M. Arroyo. CJ Puno, in his keynote address, said the judiciary decided “to unsheathe its unused power to enact rules to protect the constitutional rights of our people, the first and foremost of which is the right to life itself.” Described as a “risk taker,” Puno has sought to marshal “judicial activism” to confront attacks on the rule of law the arrest of which, in his opinion, has failed to draw any action from the legislative and executive branches of government.

Unprecedented

In that light, the summit was indeed unprecedented. But the atrocities, where most victims were unarmed civilians collectively in their tens of thousands, have persisted — fueled no less by a culture of impunity and a fear factor — over the past 35 years or since the Marcos dictatorship, then through the various presidencies that followed, and now. The high court itself had been strongly criticized for its complicit stance during martial law and also for rulings it issued after that, such as on the warrantless arrest and military checkpoints that had shades of authoritarian justice.

Under Arroyo, the failure of the country’s criminal justice system to provide succor to the victims of crimes against humanity forced their families and human rights groups to knock at the doors of the international community for intervention. Thus it took nearly 900 killings more and 50 fallen journalists and for the diplomatic and human rights community to sound the alarm before the high court’s 15 justices would be roused from their slumber to find the atrocities as constituting not only attacks against constitutional, civil and political rights but a subversion of the rule of law.

More petrifying to the magistrates, the victims and their kin have lost hope in the justice system precisely because the system –- specifically many of its investigators and adjudicators –- had been prejudicial to them. Graver injustice was being committed due to the system’s failure to uphold the victims’ rights including their right to be accorded justice. Among many prosecutors and judges, there appears to be poor competence in the field of human rights and humanitarian law let alone a compassion for the targets of political persecution. The high magistrates, benumbed by their so-called “cold neutrality,” should be the first to know: the court system is not for the poor and defenseless. The sword of justice that is now unsheathed has not only been unused –- it has long been corroded by the apathy and cold shoulder of the judiciary itself.

Oplan Bantay Laya

It appeared that many summiteers were prepared with their inputs for the agenda toward a “holistic” solution to the killings, whether in terms of strengthening the judicial power or in making sure that the victims’ constitutional rights are protected. This was not going to be easy, however. Those representing the Arroyo government’s security agencies used the occasion as yet another battlefield of their Oplan Bantay Laya: to “win the hearts and minds” of the summit, with a bag of counter-punches against the Left particularly the human rights alliance Karapatan often delivered with arrogance and chutzpah. The PowerPoint presentations during the plenary and declarations mouthed in many workshops on the second day spoke of their avowed role in defending the state against its enemies reminding participants that the killings should be seen in the context of an internal conflict. One begins to comprehend why government’s counter-insurgency is a wrong strategy because it is premised on the erroneous definition of the problem: The main problem, it was said repeatedly in the workshop skirmishes, is insurgency.

The men in uniform appeared to have missed what various presidents had admitted — after realizing they could not defeat the armed Left with guns alone — that unless fundamental problems of poverty and injustice are rooted out the armed struggle will continue. Jose Almonte, a former guerrilla hunter and national security adviser of former President Fidel V. Ramos, admonished his fellow officers in the summit that to defeat insurgency they must engage the rebels with better ideas and not with bullets. He should have also asked them to re-read Carl von Clausewitz: war is first and foremost a political war.

In the end, the cooler heads and rational minds prevailed leaving the self-anointed “security doctrinaires” sounding more like musketeers than summiteers. Among many other proposals, the summit members sought to expand the Commission on Human Rights’ (CHR) prosecution powers; adopt international laws on command responsibility and determine how the state can be held liable for damages; empower investigators to search government/private premises for victims of enforced disappearances; make killings of activists, journalists, lawyers and judges a new crime; the review of state’s military approach to the armed struggle and the resumption of peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).

Many of the proposals seemed congruent with some of the measures that CJ Puno and company had in mind in line with infusing judicial intervention in an issue that cannot be addressed by the judiciary’s co-equal branches, by reason of complicity or default. Yet, the soundness of the proposals should be measured not just in their validity but in the fruits they are expected to bear. Reform is fine where there is least resistance; in the historic struggles of the poor and victims of human rights violations, the reforms that cry out to be heard have either fallen on deaf ears or been muted with reprisals by the state’s reactionary institutions. Congress is the crafter of laws that mangle constitutionally-enshrined rights and liberties, the latest being the much-condemned Human Security Act. First to break the law, the office of the President will, come hell or high water, pre-empt any move that would place it under the doctrine of command responsibility.

Institutional collision course

Given these circumstances, can CJ Puno steer the course of judicial activism aware that this will put the high tribunal on an institutional collision course with the President and the oligarchs in Congress? Can he rally the entire criminal justice system, along with its prosecutors and magistrates, to help bring coherence to this crusade? Can he put real substance and momentum to his “holistic” strategy against the sadistic violence of the state –- of which the judiciary is part?

On a positive note, the first step taken by the judiciary toward the search for justice and redress has been done. It is a good enough move that warrants a shove by all non-state institutions and organizations struggling for a just and humane society. There is no room, however, for entertaining any illusion that the work can bear meaningful results in this generation. More arduous steps need to be taken.

For reference:

Prof. Bobby Tuazon
PSPA / CenPEG

Bawiin ang Laya

Ni AXEL PINPIN

Kayong itinanikala sa mga pabrika
At iginatong ang pawis sa makina;
Mangaghulagpos –- bawiin ang laya!

Kayong inilibing sa mga parang
At iniaabono ang sipag sa linang;
Mangagbangon –- bawiin ang laya!

Kayong iniupo sa mga tanggapan
At inaagiw ang dunong sa aklatan;
Mangagsitindig –- bawiin ang laya!

Kayong mga tagapamalita ng sining
At binusala’t mayroong piring;
Humiyaw –- bawiin ang laya!

Kayong inarmasan laban sa Bayan
At sinususiang tulad ng tau-tauhan;
Magsibaligtad –- bawiin ang laya!

Tayong mga tinurang Malayang Pilipino –-
Mag-aklas –- PALAYAIN ANG KASAYSAYAN!

Human Security Act

NI GELACIO GUILLERMO
Inilathala ng Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 23, July 15-21, 2007

Titina, my Titina
Buksan mo ang pamana
Upang aming makita
Ang tunay mong ganda

Ay, lintek! Human Security Act pala!

Tito-tita, my Titina
Burat ni Bush ang pamana
Fighting 69 sa pambobomba
Ang bombero’t bomberita

Kilig sa durian si Titina!

Patigasin mga bugaw ni Titina
Pero mas matigas ang sa The Great White Fatha’
Kaya coupling for Christ na sila
Coupling pa rin bilang terorista

Sabay himod sa tumbong ni Santitong Papa!

Kung makapagsasalita sana
Ang pekpek ni Titina
Ano ang ibubuga nito/niya
Bilang kanyang pamana?

Anito/aniya:  “Hoy, mga ineng, mga chico
Magpakantot, magpachupa na kayo
That is the Great American Shock and Awe
Hindi ba’t 75% ng mga Pilipino
Atat maging little brown Amerikano?
Kung hindi, kakanyunin ko kayo!”

Hanggang Pacquiao lang ang kiri ng kanyang kultura!

Kinanyon de rapido ni Bush si Titina
Nang hawiin niya ang kortina
Ikinaway ang panyong nanggigitata
Sa dambuhalang tamod ni Dubya

Unprotected sex ang pagkanyod nila!

Iyon ang huling pagpapampam ni Titina
Nang muling makita, siya’y botoboto na
Ibinaon sa kangkungan ng herstorya
Pandagan ang kanyang pamana

They never learn, taksyapo, di ba?

(Salamat po, G. Antonio Calipjo Go – Ang May-akda)

(Unang binasa sa gabi ng awit at tula para sa depensa ng campus press freedom, 11 Hulyo 2007 sa 70s Bistro na itinaguyod ng College Editors Guild of the Philippines)

Inilathala ng Bulatlat

HSA

NI NOEL SALES BARCELONA
Inilathala ng Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 23, July 15-23, 2007

Bayan, huwag matakot na lumaban
Ngayong laya mo’y saklot ng halimaw.

Ang nananahimik —
Ngayon ay sisigaw:

Sa kanyang nasa trono
Ihampas ang sariling baston!

Sa kanya ipalulon
Ang sariling lason!

Ang sariling uto s—
Sa iyo ang hambalos!

(Human Security Act?
O kanyang kawalang seguridad?)

Hulyo 12, 2007
Lungsod Quezon

Inilathala ng Bulatlat

Nostos

BY MARK ANGELES
Posted by Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 23, July 15-21, 2007

This is a place for the lost.
In this place there are only pictures of them
as in a memorial for the dead.
Though they are not dead. Only presumed.
Since the last of them – eyes, arms, limb,
hairstrand, even the smoke of their breath –
had been snatched away by the shadows.
In these days, people don’t die of old age
or cancer or mishap. People die of bullets
or were hauled from their ordinary places:
while they are eating lunch, waiting in line
for the next jeepney ride, while buying milk.
The shadows execute their modus operandi
at broad daylight. What amulet can give
the power to erase the tracks of their feet?
What endowment can strike witnesses blind?
In this place for the lost,
pictures had ceased existing as souvenirs.
They are now as dear as names;
now as priceless as memories.
For in this place, longing is juvenile
and teardrops fall not for the departed
but neither for those who stayed behind.
The candles had flickered and christened
the last ounce of blood in the skulls:
It is Justice that needed to be found.

Posted by Bulatlat

July 13 protest rally

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) leads  marches and joins various for a and roundatable discussions against the Anti-Terror Act, July 13, 2007

photo from arkibongbayan

Bayan Presses on with Protests vs Terror Law: ‘We’re Prepared for Intense Legal and Political Battle’

News Release
July 13, 2007

The umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan today held a demonstration in the city of Manila as it called on “freedom loving Filipinos to rise up against the tyranny embodied in the anti-terror act.” The protest was held just two days before the scheduled effectivity of the new law.

The protesters marched from the University of Sto. Tomas to the historic Plaza Miranda, a freedom park, where they held a short program before going to the communities of Quiapo and Sampaloc. In the communities, the activists gave out pamphlets and flyers with information on the new terror law.

Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr. said that the impending implementation of the new law sans any implementing rules and regulations “underscores the arrogance and impunity by which the Arroyo government wishes to exercise its power.”

“The nation must unite during this very crucial period when civil liberties and our basic freedoms are being assailed by a tyrannical regime. We must make a stand against this patently unjust terror law. We must make a stand against a government that wishes to terrorize the nation into submission,” Reyes said.

“It’s bad enough that the law is vague and overbroad. Without any clear implementing guidelines, the chances of abuses are multiplied ten fold. There are now a million ways to interpret and implement the law,” Reyes said.

Challenge to the Senate

Bayan also said that it supported moves for the repeal of the terror law even as it is preparing to challenge the new law before the Supreme Court.

“We call on the Opposition inside the Senate to get its act together, put aside squabbles and unite behind the bill to repeal the terror law filed by Sen. Jamby Madrigal. It is important that they get the ball rolling in this important piece of legislation,” Reyes said.

“The bill to repeal the terror law is the first real and urgent challenge to the Opposition-dominated Senate. Were hoping they do not fail the people in this regard,” the Bayan leader added.

Bayan also announced that a “barrage of suits” awaits Malacañang when the terror law takes effect. “We calculate that there will be more oppositors to the terror law compared to Proclamation 1017, calibrated preemptive response, EO 464 and the people’s initiative to change the constitution. The legal and political challenge will be intense,” Reyes said.

HSA: Terorismo ng Estado

               

SA ISANG bansang may malalabnaw na utak ang mga namumuno sa gobyerno at parang mga garapatang hindi makahiwalay sa puklo ng imperyalismong Amerikano, hindi na katakatakang paratangan agad na subersibo at terorista na ang sinumang tao o grupong nagtataguyod ng makabayan, makatao at progresibong mga adhikain, lalo na laban sa sugapa sa kapangyarihang pambansang liderato at mapandambong at mapaghari-hariang interes ng Estados Unidos dito. Napatunayan na ito, sa maraming pagkakataon, noon pa mang nagdaang mga rehimen at, lumilitaw, nagiging grabe pa ang lahat sa administrasyon ni Presidente Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Unang-una, hindi pa rin masugpo, at walang nalulutas, sa serye ng mga pagdukot at pagpatay na pampulitika na karaniwang mga biktima’y miyembro ng mga organisasyong itinuturing na maka-Komunista o lantarang mga kritiko kaya ng kasalukuyang liderato’t sistema ng gobyernong mapanikil sa mga karapatang sibil ng sambayanan o mapanalaula sa demokratikong mga proseso mapangalagaan lamang ang pansariling mga interes at ambisyon sa kapangyarihan. Ikalawa, bilang pangangayupapa sa dikta ni Presidente George W. Bush ng Amerika kaugnay ng inimbento nitong giyera kontra diumano sa global na terorismo, igigilgil na nga sa Hulyo 15 ang diktatoryal, despotiko’t mapang-abusong mala-batas militar na HSA (Human Security Act) o batas kontra-terorismo.

Batay na rin sa pahayag kamakailan ng dalawang pangunahing anghel de la guwardiya ng Malakanyang, malamang kaysa hindi na abusuhin ng mga kinauukulan at gawing instrumento pa ng terorismo ng Estado laban sa sambayanan ang HSA. Ipinangalandakan na nga ni Sekretaryo Norberto Gonzales, tagapayo ni La Gloria sa pambansang seguridad, na maaaring gamitin ang nasabing batas upang ituring na terorista ang mga kalaban lamang sa pulitika. Walang kagatul-gatol at arogante namang sinabi ni Sekretaryo Raul Gonzalez ng Katarungan na, sa pamamagitan ng HSA, maaari nang pakinggan ang usapan sa telepono (wiretapping) ng mga peryodista at iba pang hinihinala pa lamang na mga terorista.

Bagaman sinasabi ng mga tambolero ng rehimen na may ilalatag na mga regulasyon at mekanismo upang hindi maabuso, lalo na ng mga pulis at militar, ang HSA, napakalabo naman dito ang depinisyon o kahulugan ng pagiging terorista. Depende na sa mga diyus-diyosan sa gobyerno, batay sa dispalinghado nilang lohika, kung ituturing nilang terorista o hindi ang sinuman at kung labag sa batas o hindi ang kanilang mga kahingian. Halimbawa, maaari nang ituring na terorista ang mga humihinging umalis na sa poder si La Gloria o baguhin kaya ang napakabalintunang sistema ng lipunang naghahari sa pulitika’t ekonomiya at naglulublob sa grasya’t pribilehiyo ang iilang elitista’t uring mapagsamantala habang, sa kabilang banda, nananatiling nagdaralita’t dayukdok ang malawak na sektor ng sambayanan.

Sa ilalim ng HSA, terorismo na ang “paghahasik ng takot at kalituhan” at “pamimilit sa gobyernong ipagkaloob ang mga kahingiang labag sa batas.” Samakatuwid, mga hakbang na ng terorismo maging ang mapayapang mga demonstrasyon at kilos-protestang tumutuligsa sa balintunang mga patakaran ng gobyerno na, kung tutuusin, sagrado itong karapatan ng mga mamamayan na ginagarantiyahan ng umiiral na Konstitusyon kaugnay ng mga karapatang sibil at pantao (Bill of Rights). Sapagkat masusugid na basalyos ni La Gloria — tulad nina Ermita, Gonzales at Gonzalez, at kung sino pa – ang bubuo ng Konseho Kontra-Terorismo na papapel bilang imbestigador, hukom at taga-bitay sa ilalim ng naturang batas, tiyak, kaysa hindi, na walang habas na gamitin ng mga nasa poder ang HSA laban sa itinuturing nilang mga kalaban sa pulitika at, gayundin, sa sambayanang patuloy na humihingi ng lantay na mga pagbabagong pampulitika, pang-ekonomiya’t panlipunan sa bansa.

Ano pa nga ba ang demokratikong mga proseso kung, sa ilalim ng naturang batas, maaari nang hulihin at bulukin sa bilangguan ang sinuman – batay lamang sa kapritso’t baluktot na lohika ng Konseho Kontra-Terorismo – kahit walang kaukulang “mandamiento de arresto” o wala pang matibay na ebidensiya at “pinaghihinalaan” lamang ang kinauukulan? Ano pa ang saysay ng demokratikong mga proseso kung maaaring basta na lamang kumpiskahin ng gobyerno ang deposito sa bangko at iba pang ari-arian ng sinumang “hinihinalang” terorista? Ano pa ang kahihinatnan ng isinusulong ng gobyernong usapang pangkapayapaan sa CPP-NPA at MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) kung, sa ilalim ng HSA, terorista nang itinuturing ang dalawang grupong ito?

Saanmang punto tingnan ngayon, higit pang mga problema – sa halip na malutas ang napapanaginipang terorismo – ang tiyak na idudulot sa bansa’t sambayanan ng HSA, unang-una na ang nakaugalian at tumitinding paglabag ng umiiral na rehimen sa mga karapatang pantao at ang lalong pagsalaula pa, sa isang banda, sa Konstitusyon at demokratikong mga proseso. Sa ilalim ng isang sibilisadong lipunang nagmamahal diumano sa demokrasya, hindi dapat magkapuwang at umiral ang isang batas na gaya ng HSA. Sa halip na mapangalagaan nito ang mga mamamayan laban sa sinasabing terorismo, isusulong lamang nito ang terorismo ng Estado laban sa makabayan at progresibong mga mamamayan – lalo na nga’t ipatutupad ito ng isang iresponsableng liderato. Sa ano’t anuman, lagi at lagi namang isinusumpa ng kasaysayan ang mga diktador at mapang-abuso sa kapangyarihan. – RLO

/pinoyweekly

A Dire Portent of Things to Come for Media under Anti-Terrorism Law

BY THE NATIONAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS OF THE PHILIPPINES
Posted by Bulatlat
Democratic Space
Vol. VII, No. 22, July 8-14, 2007

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) treats as a serious threat to press freedom and the people’s right to know Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez’s statement that, under the Human Security Act, he may recommend wiretapping journalists who government believes to be “co-mingling” with terror suspects.

In interviews with reporters, Gonzalez made much of the supposed safeguards in the anti-terrorism law and the principle that media’s sources of information are “sacred.”

Yet, in the same breath, he added: “Of course, unless there is sufficient basis or if they are being suspected of co-mingling with terror suspects.”

This is a statement as vague and as fraught with danger as many of the Anti-Terrorism Law’s provisions, especially those that supposedly define what terrorism is and who terrorists are, provisions so open-ended they could actually lead to anyone and everyone who government deems fit being tagged a terrorist.

What, we ask, constitutes “co-mingling with terror suspects?” Interviewing them? Meeting with them in pursuit of stories?

And, we stress, Gonzalez does not even talk of legally proscribed terrorists but “suspected terrorists” and of journalists being “suspected” of “co-mingling” with these terror suspects.

Gonzalez alludes to the ostensible “safeguards” the law provides against abuse.

Alas, as we have seen all too often, and not only in the case of media, such safeguards too sadly become a recourse after the fact, when rights have been trampled and freedoms ran roughshod over.

Just as disconcerting is the fact that it is Gonzalez himself who can recommend who “are being suspected of co-mingling with terror suspects” and thus fair game for wiretapping.

We still remember Gonzalez’ snide dismissal of the murder of journalists as the probable offshoot of drunken sprees or extramarital affairs, or his derisive challenge to those protesting his oftentimes inane interpretations of the law he is supposed to uphold to go to court.

Indeed, given this administration’s general apathy to the continued assaults on press freedom and the people’s right to know, as seen in its continued inaction on media killings and the continued failure of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to issue a categorical order to end the bloodshed, Gonzalez’ latest pronouncement can be nothing but a dire portent of things to come.

We call on the 14th Congress to act posthaste on this potential threat not just to press freedom but to democracy itself by reviewing or, better still, repealing altogether this law that is worse than the disease it purports to cure.

Posted by Bulatlat