Progressive FIlipinos Welcomes US Senate Spending Bill

MANILA, Philippines -- Progressive Filipino groups from whose ranks most of the victims of extrajudicial killings have come welcomed the action of the United States Senate appropriations committee prohibiting the use of US military aid against Filipino civilians.

The U.S Senate in its version of the Foreign Operations Spending Bill it approved last week, the committee instructed the US Secretary of State to monitor US military assistance to the Philippines so that they won’t be “misused by units of the security forces…against civilians, including civilians who are members of political opposition parties and human rights groups.”

According to the US Senate Appropriations Committee website, http://appropriations.senate.gov, the bill provides for $34.24 billion for US key investments in the fight against global terror, the strengthening of diplomacy, and the combat against the HIV/AIDS pandemic. It did not specify the amount of US military aid to the Philippines.

Danilo Ramos, secretary general of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Movement of Farmers in the Philippines), called the action of the US Senate Appropriations Committee “a breath of fresh air” and expressed hope that the bill would become law. Ramos himself has been a target of the military plans for arrest and dissaperances.

Ramos also offered to provide documents and evidence that the AFP was indeed using the US military training and aid it had been receiving against his group.

“This law can serve as a much needed accountability check on the military men who are being used to monitor, harass, abduct, and kill us, especially now that Gloria’s terror law is about to be implemented. This is also an assurance that at least the US would be watching the AFP and we hope that they can cut US military aid to the AFP,” he said.

Meanwhile, Gerry Albert Corpuz, spokesman of the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (National Strength of Movement of Fishermen in the Philippines), said both Houses of the Philippine Congress should pass resolutions supporting the US Senate action.

He said this should also encourage the European Parliament as well as the Philippine Congress “to come up with their versions of the bill that would stop the flow of aid to support the terrorist policy of the Manila government. If passed, it will become a landmark act against US terrorism and extrajudicial republic of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.”

Corpuz called the bill “a political blackeye to the US-authored Human Security Act of 2007, and an indictment of the extrajudicial killings rabidly executed by the national security cluster of Malacañang.”

Vince Borneo, spokesman of the leftist party-list group Bayan Muna (People First), said the bill might be a step toward transparency in how the US aid to the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police was being spent.

“It is also hoped that if this bill gets passed into law, the Philippine legislature can gain access to all details of how and where US aid to the military and the police are allocated and make certain officials accountable for their actions,” he said.

The tireless efforts of ecumenical groups and religious entities in the United States bore fruits. They were instrumental in calling for U.S Congressional hearing on increased human rights violations in the Philippines. They haver issued and published paid ads in U.S. newspapers and have sent various fact-finding missions in the Philippines.