Manila, 3 Oct. (AKI) - Family members of activists and left-wing politicians killed or reported missing in the Philippines blame the administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for the crimes and call for justice and an end to the killings. "I believe my father is already dead," said Glenda Macario, 30, of Tondo, Manila, in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI). "But please show him to us, so that we can have peace of mind."
MacarioÂ’s father, Leopoldo Ancheta, 58, disappeared in June. His wife, Carmen, 50, told AKI that she learned that he was a staff of one of the consultants of the National Democratic Front (NDF), only after his disappearance. The NDF is the political arm of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Manila is currently engaged in an all-out war with the New PeopleÂ’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the CPP. | The "deniable" wing, all the best revolutionary groups have one. |
"Prior to his disappearance, he told me that if something bad happened to him, the military should be blamed," Carmen said while calling for justice.
Also calling for an end to the killings is Constancio Claver, whose wife Alyce, was killed in an crossfire ambush he barely survived in Tabuk, Kalinga, 315 kilometres north of Manila on July 31. Claver, a doctor by profession, is the chairperson of Bayan Muna-Kalinga, a left-wing militant organization of which his wife was also a member. The organization is deemed by certain government sectors as a ‘legal’ front for the CPP. | Name being changed to protect the guilty |
Claver believed the ambush was politically motivated and that the bullets were meant for him. "I hoped the death of my wife would be the last. I hoped there would be no more additions in the list of the victims of extrajudicial killings," Claver told AKI.
According to some non-government organizations (NGOs), since Arroyo assumed the presidency through a military-backed uprising in 2001, her government has the highest record of extra-judicial killings allegedly perpetrated by the police and the military. "ArroyoÂ’s administration is even worst compared to the time of Marcos," Ruth Cervantes, public information officer of the Karapatan Alliance for the Advancement of PeopleÂ’s Rights told AKI referring to late president and dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who ruled the Philippines for two decades.
The organisation claimed that 184 activists or perceived revolutionaries have disappeared and 762 have been killed since 2001. | We may have to open a Philippines branch office of the "Crossfire Gazette™ |
The London-based rights group Amnesty International, said the murders of political and community activists in the Philippines – mostly associated with leftist or left-oriented groups - were increasing for the second year, with at least 51 killings in the first six months of 2006 compared with 66 for the entire 2005. | Hummmm, kind of like how members of the Purba Banglar Communist Party keep falling in front of shutter guns |
The Arroyo government denies any involvement and has created a five-man commission to investigate these incidents. Yet, militant groups have labeled the commission as a creation of the president and said that it might not serve the purpose of bringing justice. The Philippines Armed Forces blame an internal purge within the CPP as the cause of the killings. | "Wasn't us. Have you checked with the RAB?" |
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