Category: politics

crowd dispersal to death #kidapawan

Ed Lingao

I’ve covered enough violent dispersals to know that those who get hurt are often from both sides. BUT there is no such thing as equality in the frontlines. Policemen, and my friends in the PNP have to bear with me here, bear a far greater responsibility both for keeping the peace and for exercising restraint.

They are, after all, the state-sanctioned instruments of controlled violence who have the right and responsibility to bear instruments of death and use them when necessary. Secondly, they represent the state, and by extension, they represent you and me. They bear arms in my name. What this means is that, no matter how pissed off they are, or how rowdy the crowd is, they have no right to use their arms just because they are ticked off. As in any police force, they have the right to bear arms, and they have the responsibility to use them properly and according to law. Having said that, the Kidapawan incident is clearly a case of lessons unlearned after all the bloody demonstrations we’ve had post Marcos. The PNP’s own rulebook is clear, The latest iteration of the PNP operating manual on police operations involving demonstrations, issued in 2013, is pretty instructive. Rule 6.3 says that policemen are prohibited from firing warning shots. Rule 25.6 prohibits the carrying of firearms by policemen within 100 meters from the demonstration. Non-lethal weapons and equipment may be used to suppress violence, the manual says. Force is only used in cases of self-defense, and the force has to be justified and calibrated, and only for particular and specific cases. Hindi yung, nagkagulo na, magpaputok na tayo! Paalisin sila, paputukan na natin! Or, mga militante lang naman yan, hindi mga magsasaka. Ratratan na natin! If you listen to the recorded sounds of the dispersal, you would hear PAKPAKPAKPAKPAKPAKPAKPAKPAK … parang may encounter na, and not a dispersal. In other words, one does not use firearms in crowd dispersal, regardless of the political affiliations of the crowd. One does not need to be a lawyer or a genius to figure that out. Strangely, the provincial commander, Col. Alex Tagum, argues that his men had to use their guns “to draw out” the demonstrators, whatever that means. If he meant they fired guns to disperse the crowd, that is illegal and illogical. Do you shoot at a crowd to disperse it, really? How can that ever make any sense? And his other argument, captured on television, was that his men were shooting at the ground, which explains daw why you could see puffs of dust where the bullets strike the ground. Anyone who handles firearms would know that if you fire a gun at the ground at a shallow angle, the bullet ricochets or is deflected back upwards.Some combat troops use the technique of skipping bullets off the ground or walls in urban combat. That was one lesson US troops learned in Mogadishu. Is it any wonder that some people were hit, including one bystander who was killed with a bullet to his side? What it boils down to is this… Ang crowd dispersal ay hindi parang rambol ng mga frat, na, uy teka, nalamangan tayo, o, teka, pagkakataon na ito makabawi. Kung gusto ninyo ang kapangyarihan ng armas, akuin din ninyo ang responsibilidad.

#kidapawan

just posted this on my facebook wall:

‪#‎kidapawan‬ reminds me of ‪#‎yolanda‬ when people were seen wandering the streets, having walked all the way from their homes in far barangays, in shock, hungry, thirsty, looking for food and water in the city to bring back to their families, but getting no relief, from government anyway, because, sabi ni sec almendras on tv, hindi malinaw kung sino sa mga yan ang taga-tacloban talaga at hindi.  so they wanted to give relief goods through the barangays where official residents are registered.  imagine. denying immediate relief, kahit tubig at biskwit man lang.  if NGOs and civil society orgs had not come to the rescue, meron din sigurong mga namatay na lang sa gutom at uhaw at shock.  sa #kidapawan ganoon din ang excuse ng palace spin artists, ibig idaan sa proseso kuno ang pagbibigay-tulong sa mga nasasalanta.  at nung ayaw magsialis ang mga magsasakang nagugutom, pinagbabaril.  imagine.  what kind of policemen are these who willfully shoot at unarmed civilians?  and where is the president in all this?  he should have ordered the PNP to stand down (as he did in mamasapano?), even to escort the farmers to the nearest rice warehouse and to keep order while waiting for dinky soliman to oversee the distribution of rice.  i would call it the EDSA way.  and COA would not dare, would not think to, question it.

The RH fund cut, savings, and DAP

Katrina S.S.

THE P1-billion cut in the Reproductive Health budget, specifically for Family Health and Responsible Parenting, was not in the least surprising. Because for all of government’s press releases about transparency and matuwid na daan, the budget and the decisions that are made about where and how to spend public money remain shrouded in secrecy. Just because documents are made available to us does not mean everything’s happening above ground. And when transparency means going through long lists of line-item budgeting and reams of paper, it’s easy to see how government can take every opportunity to slip one past us.

Read on…

Rizal’s prophecies fulfilled

Oscar P. Lagman, Jr.

Tomorrow being Rizal Day, we honor Dr. Jose P. Rizal by reading and pondering his writings. As he wrote prolifically, we choose today to contemplate on what he wrote for La Solidaridad, the newspaper published by Filipinos studying in various universities of Europe, from September 1889 to February 1890. In that series of articles Rizal envisioned what the Philippines would be 100 years from then.

Of those who governed the country, he wrote: “If those who guide the destiny of the Philippines should, instead of granting the reforms that are demanded, continue to erode the state of the country, exacerbate the hardships and repressions of the suffering and thinking classes, they will succeed in making them risk a troubled life, full of privations and bitterness, for the hope of obtaining something uncertain.

“What would they lose in the struggle? Almost nothing. The life of the large discontented class offers no great attraction that it should be preferred to a glorious death. Poverty inspires adventurous ideas, stimulates a desire to change things, and diminishes regard for life.”

It seems Rizal had visions of Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship. Millions of discontented Filipinos, including those from the uppermost level of Philippine society, risk life, liberty, and fortune in February 1986 to put an end to the dictator’s rule in the hope of getting something though uncertain that something may be.

The consequence of Mr. Marcos’ suppression of the press seems to have also been predicted by Rizal. He wrote: “Is it preferable to govern in the dark or to govern with understanding? If the great Napoleon had not muzzled the press, perhaps it would have warned him of the danger into which he was falling and it might have made him understand that the people were tired and the land needed peace.” Mr. Marcos fell from power because he muzzled the press and thus failed to understand that the Filipino people were tired of a life of privation, submission, and oppression.

Rizal also foresaw the many coups d’etat staged against Marcos’ successor. Wrote he about insurrections: “All the minor insurrections that had broken out in the Philippines had been the work of a few fanatics and discontented military men who, in order to attain their ends, had to resort to deceit and trickery or take advantage of the loyalty of their subordinates. Thus, they all fell. None of the insurrections was popular in character nor based on the basic need of the people nor did it struggle for the laws of making of justice. Thus, the insurrection did not leave indelible memories in the people. On the contrary, the people realizing they had been deceived and their wounds healed, applauded the fall of those who disturbed their peace.”

He could have very well been describing the putsches led by then-Colonel and now Senator Gregorio “Gringo” B. Honasan II, the last one disturbing intensely the merry observance of Christmas of 1989.

While they cried for reforms in the Armed Forces, the leaders of the coups did not offer any specific program. They appeared to the people as just out to grab power. Interestingly, two leaders of military adventures are now running for vice-president. Both are at the bottom in the rankings of the voters’ preference for vice-president, outranked by a widow with much less experience in government.

Rizal also wrote: “We said, and we repeat it once more, and will always repeat it, all reforms of a palliative nature are not only ineffective but are even harmful when the Government is beset with ills that need radical remedy.” President Joseph E. Estrada did not even offer palliatives. He offered only himself. The squealing masa, who voted him into office, were contented, nay ecstatic, in just having him as president.

When the Philippine Daily Inquirer exposed not only his utter lack of awareness of the function of the presidency but also his nocturnal bacchanalian activity, and subsequently his plunder of the country’s coffers, the upper crust of Philippine society decided a radical remedy was needed. President Estrada met the same fate President Marcos did.

Our judiciary as has been described as the best judiciary money can buy. Judges and prosecutors for sale abound in our justice system. President Estrada, of all people, called the members of the judiciary as hoodlums in robes.

The incoming administration should heed the words of Rizal on Justice before another prophecy of Rizal is fulfilled. He said “Justice is the foremost virtue of civilized society. It subdues the most barbarous nations. Injustice arouses the weakest.”

Rizal also wrote that the Islands will probably adopt a federal republic. There is much dissension and resentment in many parts of the land towards Imperial Manila. Manila, the official seat of government, has too much control of the governance of the entire nation. The dissension and resentment have sporadically flared into violent armed conflicts.

Peace might descend upon this troubled land if the different regions, distinguished by ethnic origin, language, religion, culture, and natural resources, were allowed to conduct their own affairs and determine their own destiny as Rizal envisioned.