MANILA — The umbrella group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan today slammed the Armed Forces of the Philippines for the ?barefaced and shameless lying it has done to cover up the murder of another activist.?
Bayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr. said that claim of the AFP spokesman that the latest casualty, Siche Gandinao of Bayan Muna, was a victim of a communist purge is ?patently stupid.?
In its testimony to the US Senate yesterday, Amnesty International cited the Philippine government’s weak responses to the political killings, the ineffective investigations, the McCarthyist mentality in the military and the government, the abuses of Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan. It made several recommendations, among them that the human rights laws and agreements, among them the Comprehensive Agreement for the Respect of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law that the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front signed, be respected. It also asked Washington to send a “strong and clear message” to Manila that U.S.?Philippines relations “will suffer if the current trend in political killings continues and if Philippine authorities fail to bring past abusers to justice.”
Renato “Ka Atong” Pacaide, who was shot dead on March 2 by suspected military agents in Digos City, was laid to rest on Friday. Before the burial in Digos City, his family, friends and colleagues paid tribute to the slain peasant leader through testimonies, songs and prayer. They then marched around the city denouncing the continuing killings of political activists and the government’s campaign against leftist groups. Click here for more pictures. (Photos courtesy of Karapatan-Southern Mindanao)
All throughout his life, Renato Pacaide was firmly committed to activism and social justice. Then last week, somebody pumped four bullets into his body.
The US State Department released today its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – 2006, which looks at the human-rights situation in countries around the world. The report, prepared by the department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, was released in Washington DC today by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The report has this to say about the Philippines: “During the year there were a number of arbitrary, unlawful, and extrajudicial killings apparently by elements of the security services and of political killings, including killings of journalists, by a variety of actors. Many of these killings went unsolved and unpunished, contributing to a climate of impunity, despite intensified government efforts during the year to investigate and prosecute these cases.”
It blamed state security forces and insurgents, mainly the New People’s Army, for these attacks.