Thursday, October 05, 2006 Editorial: Contradiction to claims
THE death of an Aglipayan prelate in Tarlac City is a serious blow not only to the peace and order situation in that area but also to the claim by the PNP leadership of its success in the resolution of murders on militant leaders and media practitioners.
It was only last Tuesday when PNP Director General Oscar Calderon visited Cagayan de Oro to attend the launching of the city police housing program that he made the claim that the PNP managed to beat the deadline given by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to resolve at least 10 cases of murders involving militant leaders and media practitioners by October 10.
As Calderon put it, they managed to solve 19 of these cases before October and so achieved more before the ordered presidential deadline came into effect.
How they managed to solve these we don't know but Calderon said they won't stop following up and resolving these cases in order to ensure that the number of murders against militants and media practitioners go down or better, eventually eliminated.
So how does the death of an Aglipayan prelate, specifically Bishop Maximo IX Alberto Romento, related to the ongoing murders done on the militant leaders and media practitioners? The church has never been in the crosshairs of these so-called "vigilantes" -- at least until now.
Well, as one local Aglipayan church official said here the church leader's death comes even as the military accuses the Aglipayan church or the Iglesia Filipiniana Independiente of harboring communists within its ranks, a charge also leveled against militant groups.
Following that line it would seem that the Aglipayan prelate's death is yet another significant indication of the national government's speculated crackdown on militant figures or groups that dared to criticize the Arroyo administration for its crimes and questioned legitimacy before the Filipino people.
The militant groups here, specifically the Promotion of Church People's Response (PCPR) which has among its ranks IFI figures, would doubtless denounce the killing as yet another example of the existence of a state policy in the crackdown on political and social opposition against the Arroyo regime.
In that light, Calderon's claim is cast in serious doubt and the resolution of cases of murders of militant leaders has not done anything to diminish, let alone discourage the incidence of these killings but only succeeded in making it worse.
This fuels further argument to the militant groups that there is a systematic, ongoing campaign to wipe out this opposition.
How the PNP can disprove that allegation remains to be seen and they have their work cut out for them in the following days.
Calderon can talk all he wants about resolving these militant killings but his claims are not being backed by solid evidence and contradicted by events like Romento's murder.
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