Killings haunt Arroyo in Europe

Killings haunt Arroyo in Europe
 By Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.
 Philippine Daily Inquirer

 Last updated 01:35am (Mla time) 09/11/2006

 Published on page A1 of the September 11, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily
 Inquirer

 HELSINKI -- The ghosts of hundreds of political militants murdered during her
 rule have come to haunt President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during her visit to
 Europe.

 The Arroyo administration's human rights record came up in talks Ms Arroyo had
 on Saturday with Finland President Tarja Halonen and she told the Finnish leader
 of her plan to invite a delegation from the European Union to see for itself the
 human rights situation in the Philippines.

 This was disclosed to reporters by National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales,
 who was with Ms Arroyo during the bilateral meeting here.

 Gonzales said the issue was also expected to crop up on Tuesday when Ms Arroyo
 meets with top level officials of the European Union in Brussels, the second leg
 of her five-nation trip.

 "The tough questions will be asked of the President in Brussels and she is
 prepared for this," Gonzales said.

 Malacañang had raised a tempest among human rights fighters at home when it said
 on the eve of Ms Arroyo's departure for Helsinki that controversial Army Major
 General Jovito Palparan, who is to retire from the military today, would be
 named deputy for counterinsurgency operations in the National Security Council,
 which Ms Arroyo chairs.

 Nothing definite

 The announcement of Palparan's forthcoming appointment, made by Presidential
 Chief of Staff Michael Defensor, came amid rising European concern over the
 large number of unsolved killings of activists and journalists in the country.
 Leftists had accused Palparan and his men of being behind the killings, a charge
 the general scoffed at.

 In a seeming turnabout on Saturday, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said
 Malacañang's plans for Palparan had not been finalized and that there was
 nothing definite about his appointment to the NSC.

 Human rights groups in the Philippines are accusing security forces of having
 killed 752 noncombatant civilians since Ms Arroyo assumed the presidency in
 2001, and that this included 319 political activists.

 An Inquirer tally listed 250 activists and 47 journalists slain during the
 period.

 Getting to the bottom

 Gonzales said it was Ms Arroyo who brought up the subject of human rights with
 Halonen by relating that two independent bodies -- the Melo Commission and Task
 Force Usig of the Philippine National Police -- had been created to get to the
 bottom of the killings.

 Gonzales said the EU delegation that she planned to invite to the Philippines
 could be made up of private individuals from Europe.

 Ms Arroyo will present her offer when she meets with the EU officials in
 Brussels.

 Gonzales said Halonen did not press the President further on the topic.

 Harsh reality

 "She (Halonen) told the President that she did not want it to sound like Europe
 was imposing its standard on the Philippines," Gonzales said.

 Three days before Ms Arroyo arrived, Finland Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja
 said in a speech that while the European Union "warmly welcomed the abolition of
 the death penalty in the Philippines in June 2006, let me add, however, that we
 also want to see an end to the political killings which still form a harsh
 reality of that country."

 Gonzales said Ms Arroyo was aware that she had not fully addressed the questions
 on the EU's mind, considering the criticisms of her administration from
 international human rights groups, notably the London-based Amnesty
 International.

 Face-to-face

 Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, a member of the presidential delegation, said
 "the Philippines is ready to defend before any forum the earnest efforts being
 exerted by the government to resolve the extrajudicial killings."

 Bunye said the government was well aware that these cases had been a cause of
concern for the international community, which was why Ms Arroyo had made the
 effort to visit Europe to explain her side.

 "Indeed, there is no substitute for face-to-face meetings with world leaders to
 renew our commitment as a strong player for a safer and better world," Bunye
 said.

 'Like a laser beam'

 Bunye, in his newspaper column, said the government was "focused like a laser
 beam on having them (the cases) solved at the soonest possible time."

 "Our law enforcement agencies are working 24 hours a day, seven days a week to
 bring the perpetrators to justice and we have an independent commission that
 will get to the root of these killings and stop them," he said.

 Bunye said the government will make sure that there will be no "untouchables" in
 the pursuit of the killers.

 At the sidelines of the 38-nation Asia-Europe Meeting, Ms Arroyo is expected to
 hold a bilateral meeting with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

 Gonzales' choice

 When she goes to Belgium, the President is expected to meet with Belgian Prime
 Minister Guy Verhosfstadt, members of the Belgian Senate and House of
 Representatives, and with Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Union.

 Briefing reporters covering Ms Arroyo's trip, Gonzales said he had endorsed
 former Southern Luzon Command chief Maj. Gen. Pedro Cabuay to be one of his
 right-hand men to beef up his staff in the face of Ms Arroyo's order to
 eliminate the communist threat.
 Gonzales gushed about Cabuay's exploits on the field, particularly his
 performance as head of the military in charge of communist-infested Southern
 Luzon.

 When Cabuay retired on Aug. 31, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes
 Esperon Jr. credited him with keeping the communist rebels on the run.

 What a talent

 "I have been visiting the different jurisdictions that he has been commander of
 in his career and all I can say is that he is very good. I am impressed,"
 Gonzales said.

 "It would be a waste of such big talent if we don't get him back in the fold."

 He was initially miffed when asked about Palparan's possible appointment as
 deputy national security adviser.

 "I am not aware of that," said Gonzales. He noted that Ermita had already
 clarified that Malacañang had not yet made up its mind on what position to give
 Palparan upon his retirement from the military.

 Gonzales claimed that while he was seriously considering Cabuay for the post, he
 was unaware that Palparan was set to retire today. He stressed that he did not
 want to make comparisons between Cabuay and Palparan, but he pointed out that
 Cabuay was "head of an entire division."

 Perfect for the job

 Gonzales said he knew both Cabuay and Palparan had been accused by the
 communist-led National Democratic Front of human rights violations but that Ms
 Arroyo had lionized both as heroes in her all-out war against the communists.

 Gonzales said he already had two senior deputies under his wing and he thought
 Cabuay was perfect for the new deputy post he planned to create. With a report
 from Christine O. Avendaño and Inquirer Research

 ANALYSIS
 Europeans rebuke Arroyo on killings

 By Amando Doronila
 Inquirer
 Last updated 02:43am (Mla time) 09/11/2006

 Published on page A1 of the September 11, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily
 Inquirer

 PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ran into sharp rebuke of the human rights
 records of her administration from Europeans on her arrival in Helsinki for the
 Asia-Europe Meeting (Asem), which has been convened to examine interregional
 cooperation, including security, political and economic relations.

 The summit was the first leg of the President's extensive nine-day tour that
 cuts a wide arc, circumnavigating the globe, touching the Scandinavian countries
 near the Arctic Circle, Belgium in the heart of Western Europe, Britain, Cuba in
 Central America, and ending in Hawaii in the Pacific.

 Leaders of the 25-nation European Union (EU) and of the 10-member Association of
 Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), together with China, Japan and South Korea, are
 attending the summit.

 As a dialogue mechanism designed to strengthen European and Asian political,
economic and political ties, Asem was established in Bangkok 10 years ago,
 pointedly excluding the superpower, the United States.

 Highly valued concept

 Human rights stole the focus of the Asem agenda from the start of Ms Arroyo's
 visit to Helsinki, souring the atmosphere of her trip. It was an issue she would
 have preferred had not been mentioned at all.

 But the host country did not want her to forget that, among Europeans, human
 rights and democracy are highly valued concepts, equally important as trade, aid
 and economic prosperity.

 Taking the first opportunity to emphasize the issue, even before the summit
 officially started, Finland's Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja gave notice, at
 the opening of the Asia-Europe People's Forum (AEPF), of the Europeans'
 disapproval of the appalling extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.

 Tuomioja could not have been more emphatic when he said that while the European
 Union "warmly welcomed the abolition of the death penalty in the Philippines in
 June 2006, let me add, however, that we also want to see an end to the political
 killings which still form a harsh reality of that country."

 Alongside Burma

 He said that open and informal dialogue was one of Asem's prime aims and it was
 very important that the meeting provide for an opportunity for a direct exchange
 about sensitive and difficult issues, such as human rights and democracy in some
 Asem partner-states.

 This put the Philippines in the same category as Burma (Myanmar), an ASEAN
 member, against which the European Union has applied economic sanctions over the
 repressive political rule of a military junta that has put under house arrest
 for 17 years opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

 Although the AEPF was a forum of NGOs and civil society groups, there can't be a
 mistake that the foreign minister of the host country was speaking with
 authority and reflecting EU concerns over the unabated killings in the
 Philippines.

 Concern about Palparan

 This indicates that the Philippine representation in the summit will have to do
 a lot of explaining about the killings, and that would be embarrassing to Ms
 Arroyo.

 The Finnish foreign minister made the scathing speech shortly after the
 presidential office announced that Major General Jovito Palparan would be
 appointed deputy national security adviser on counterinsurgency after he retires
 from military service as commander of the 7th Infantry Division in Central
 Luzon.

 This appointment, especially its timing on the eve of Ms Arroyo's departure for
 the summit, could not have escaped the notice of the Europeans, and could have
 been easily understood as flaunting the issue to their faces.

 International dimension

 While his retirement today effectively removes Palparan from command of
 counterinsurgency actions in areas where most of the extralegal executions of
 political dissidents have taken place, his new position would give him a wider
 scope in influencing the crackdown on leftists in the President's "all-out war"
 on insurgency.

 He would also share compatible company with National Security Adviser Norberto
 Gonzales.

 Palparan's appointment has, of course, been criticized in the Philippines as a
 continuity of the government's repressive domestic policies on political
 dissent. But its international dimension is clearly damaging to the
 administration.

 He can be sacrificed

 While it shows that Ms Arroyo is stubborn in her loyalty to officers overzealous
 in executing her counterinsurgency policy, the decision at once sends wrong
 signals to Philippine partner-states in the European Union and undercuts other
 aspects of Philippine relations with the Europeans.

 Ms Arroyo likes to believe that foreign policy is her strong suit, as it was for
 her father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal, who, in my view, was one of
 the most foreign policy literate Filipino presidents.

 Ms Arroyo does not synchronize her domestic policy objectives with her foreign
 policy initiatives. Palparan can be sacrificed with no loss to national
 interests.

 Measure of success

 The Europeans are putting on notice in Helsinki that they will not allow her to
go unscathed at Asem.

 If Ms Arroyo passed muster in her last European visit, when she had an audience
 with Pope Benedict XVI, who praised her for the abolition of the death penalty,
 that is not sufficient to meet the Europeans' exacting standards of democracy
 and of respecting human rights.

 On that score alone, Ms Arroyo's success of her trip must have to be judged --
 not for any claimed economic dividends, of which there is little promise.

 [courtesy]

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nyc indymedia

http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2006/08/75376.html

 August 29, 2006 10:21PM EDT [general.addtranslation] Download Article (PDF) [ insert language bar ]

 Filipinas in Lebanon treated like 'modern-day slaves'

 By Internat'l Civil Society Mission to Lebanon

 FINDINGS OF INTERNATIONAL MISSION TO LEBANON:

 Filipina overseas workers in Lebanon are being treated like "modern-day slaves," this was the main finding of Filipinos who had just arrived from Lebanon as part of an international civil society and parliamentary delegation.

 Keywords: Global, Human Rights, Globalization, Labor, Poverty, Women, Immigration, Repression, Civil Rights,

 "The working conditions of Filipinos in Lebanon are terrible," said Rep. Mujiv Hataman, Anak Mindanao party-list representative.

 "They are promised $200-a-month salary when they are in Manila but they get only $150 when they arrive in Lebanon. They work from 5am to 12 midnight everyday without any day-off. Some of them are even made to work in factories, after working at their employers' households," Hataman said, summarizing their interviews with dozens of Filipinas in the Philippine evacuation center in Beirut.

 "Their situation approaches that of indentured labor, even white slavery," observed Dr Walden Bello, a professor at the University of the Philippines, who also took part in the mission.

 The mission demands that the deployment of Filipinos to work as domestic workers abroad is rendered unnecessary through the creation of employment opportunities at home. Meanwhile, the mission denounced the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration for its failure to protect the welfare of Filipinos abroad.

 In particular, they recommend the banning of and the filing of charges against Filipino and Lebanese employment agencies that are found to have abused workers. They also recommend studying the possibility of totally doing away with employment agencies and transferring their role of finding jobs, recruiting workers, and dealing with employers to the government.

 "The employment agencies are like modern-day slave traders who are getting rich on the back of Filipinos. They automatically deduct the first three-months of salary from the workers. They promise $200 a month to workers who end up receiving only $150 a month. In case of emergencies like this war, they care less about the welfare of the workers than about minimizing costs," said Herbert Docena, a representative of the Stop the War Coalition-Philippines. "The government, for its part, condones this arrangement."

 Despite the bad treatment Filipinas receive from their Lebanese agencies and employers, the mission stressed that the Lebanese people do not deserve to be bombed by Israel.

 "Ultimately, the bombs that were falling on Lebanon and putting the Filipinos in danger came from Israel. Their decision to initiate the aggression is unjustifiable; their decision to put Filipinos, along with the Lebanese, under "collective punishment", is a violation of international law," says Docena, whose group Stop the War Coalition-Philippines, has been calling for the withdrawal of the Philippine ambassador from Israel and the cut ting of diplomatic ties with the country until it ends its occupation of Palestine.

 Contrary to most media reports, the Hezbollah is not seen as a "terrorist" organisation by the vast majority of the Lebanese people, the mission found. It is part of what the Lebanese call the "national resistance" that includes not just the Hezbollah but other Christian and secular groups.

 18 August 2006

 International Civil Society and Parlimentary Peace Mission to Lebanon (from India, the Philippines and Brazil)

 MISSION MEMBERS:

 Walden Bello, Focus on the Global South;

 Kjeld Jakobsen, CUT Brazil and Hemispheric Social Alliance;

 Gérard Durand, Confédération Paysanne, France, La Via Campesina;

 Kari Kobberoed Brustad, Norsk Bonde - Og Smabrukarlag, Norway, La Via Campesina;

 Mujiv Hataman, Member of Parliament, Anak Mindanao, Philippines;

 Herbert Docena, Focus on the Global South;

 Seema Mustafa, Resident Editor, Asian Age, India;

 Feroze Mithiborwala, Forum Against War and Terror, Mumbai, India;

 Kamal Chenoy, All India Peace and Solidarity Organisation, Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP),India;

 Mohammed Salim, Member of Parliament, Communist Party of India (Marxist), India;

 Vijaya Chauhan, Rashtra Seva Dal, India (Youth Organization);

 Germán Guillot, interpreter (French/Spanish/English/Arabic).

----------------------------------------------------------------

courtesy
http://peaceandjustice2005.blogspot.com/

Thursday, September 14, 2006

\ Killings haunt Arroyo in Europe / Filipinas in Lebanon treated like 'modern-day slaves'

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