‘MP Week for Peace,’ a travesty

LETTERS

BONTOC, Mountain Province -- There is hubbub in town of a show made especially for the folks of Mountain Province, and perhaps a treat for the kids. It will be fun, we’ve heard, with bicycles and all, and the military playing a lead role in this travesty of peace.

On the first week of December, human rights activists around the world launched activities culminating with the celebration of International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10. The Armed Forces of the Philippines saw this as another opportunity to ride the bandwagon of the worthy struggle for peace by staging its own little trick show.

In their week-long gimmick with the silly title “MP Week for Peace,” the AFP again tried its luck to fool the people of Mountain Province with its pretensions of being a bearer of peace and goodwill.

The program, under a Capt. Suganon, featured a cycling event, sports festival, and a trade fair. And believe it or not, these superficial activities were supposed to culminate in the signing of a covenant for peace.

It appears that Capt. Suganon and his colleagues in the Armed Forces of the Philippines have run out of tricks. The pathetic and uninspired design of this program was obviously meant to hide the human rights violations committed by the AFP under the Arroyo regime and even now under the Aquino administration.

It was a trick show that portrayed the military taking the lead in the quest for peace and development, and to lure in the support of true peace advocates in people’s organizations, non-government organizations and the church.

While Capt. Suganon and his gang of clowns invited potential participants and an audience to their charade, the rest of the military units in the Mountain Province were gearing for war. They were building fortifications right in front of the high school compound in Sacasacan, Sadanga.

The same set of defenses were being built in the villages of Tonglayan, Butac and Alunugan in the municipality of Natonin. The AFP claimed its presence in the province was not for combat operations. Why then would it have to waste manpower and resources building fortifications?

Why would it deploy about two platoons in Mainit, Bontoc and aggressively patrol the area daily? And if the AFP truly respects the people’s rights, why do soldiers persist in using the people as human shields by setting-up their detachments so close to populated areas?

The human rights violations committed by the AFP in Mountain Province were part of a continuing series of rampant violations it commits in the rest of the Cordillera and the country.

Most of these violations were not broadcast on radio and TV, nor published in newspapers. And in cases where these violations became known, AFP spokesmen immediately launched cover-up by spreading lies and innuendoes through interviews, their own radio programs, letters to media, and bogus covenants and festivals.

On this celebration of International Human Rights Day, the eyes of the world were on the AFP and the Aquino administration. Can the Aquino administration mete out punishment on Gloria Arroyo and her henchmen and their minions in the military who were responsible for the extrajudicial killings, abductions, torture, and harassment of civilians?

Can the Aquino administration render justice to the grieving relatives of the victims, as it had promised during the electoral campaign? Or will the Aquino administration continue to pursue Arroyo’s violent and discredited campaign of using the military to suppress the people to allow the entry of foreign and local big mining, energy, and other extractive industries?

Let us not forget that justice remains elusive for natives of the Mountain Province such as Etfew Chadyaas, Alyce Omengan Claver, and many more who were brutally murdered by the military. Nor must we ever forget James Balao and the others forcibly abducted by the military and up to now remain missing.

The military’s trick show “MP Week for Peace” was just another civilian-military operation to fool the masses, a diversionary tool to cover-up their continuing violations of human rights in the province. Peace is not the result of gimmicks.

It is the dividend of a just society where exploitation and oppression cease to exist. The people of Mountain Province have a glorious history of standing up to resist exploitation and oppression. They took part in successfully stopping the Chico Dam Project, and barred the entry of big mining into Mainit and other areas, despite the overwhelming show of force and brutality of the Marcos dictatorship.

For its part, the New People’s Army is committed to persevere in the revolutionary struggle to end exploitation and oppression and help build a society where there is peace based on justice and the respect for human dignity.

Ka Magno Udyaw,
Spokesperson
Leonardo Pacsi Command
New People’s Army-Mountain Province