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Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Speak out: Gloria's Sona
By Leny G. Ocasiones
Voices of Women for Human Rights
Something in the way President Arroyo stated her position on the political killings, now numbering around 700 throughout the country, made us uncomfortable during her State of the Nation Address (Sona) last July 24.
She claimed to condemn the political killings but at the same time glorified the number one suspect of the killings—Maj. Gen.l Jovito Palparan of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division.
What made us more suspicious is that Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, shortly after attending the Sona, acknowledged on national TV that she met with all the barangay captains of Cebu province and “persuaded” them to support her total war campaign against insurgency. A nationwide pattern is thus very evident in the way the total war strategy is being crafted.
The Voices of Women for Human Rights strongly believes that these developments are alarming for the several reasons.
No effort
Not a single case of political killings throughout the country has been solved. While the military and police are quick to deny their involvement in the killings, there seems to be no serious effort to investigate and punish the perpetrators.
Most of those who are killed belong to legitimate people’s organizations. They were unarmed and were not able to defend themselves.
But what is more alarming is the absence of a sense of history of our woman president, who is blindly followed by her loyal supporters, such as Governor Garcia.
Former president Ferdinand Marcos also used force in his fight against insurgency. Twenty years in fact of martial rule was spent for this and it proved to be a failure as the number of insurgents doubled.
Meanwhile, the roots of insurgency — poverty, landlessness, unemployment, graft and corruption remain. It must be easier to buy bombs and guns rather than lift a finger to address the roots of insurgency.
It must be easier to give funds to bishops and build a megadome for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit than spend money for overseas Filipino workers caught in the Israel-Hezbollah war.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 1, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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