Joint Alliance-Philippines and International ANSWER Statement in Response to Philippine President Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 23



The Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines (AJLPP) or Alliance-Philippines, and the International ANSWER Steering Committee of which it is a member, strongly denounce Bush “ally” Philippine president Gloria Arroyo for going forward with the implementation of an Anti-Terror Law (ATL), euphemistically called the Human Security Act, in the Philippines.

We express our militant solidarity with the progressive forces in the Philippines who will be staging protests against Arroyo in all major cities throughout the country when she delivers her State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 23. Besides spinning the usual lies and deceit about her regime’s accomplishments, US “major ally” Arroyo is expected to make the ATL the centerpiece of her SONA.

The Anti-Terror Law is the Philippine counterpart and a far more insidious copycat of the USA PATRIOT Act, that much-reviled broadside on civil liberties and human rights. The ATL is the Arroyo puppet regime’s way of complying with US dictates to pass laws that will “legalize” the Philippine government’s repression of the open democratic movement as well as its armed offensive against opposition groups and other dissenters arbitrarily dubbed as “terrorist.”

The ATL will enable the Arroyo regime to impose Martial Law Part II with more deadly fangs than that of Dictator Marcos’ time against the open democratic opposition because it would give Arroyo a free hand to arbitrarily list people’s organizations as “terrorist groups,” and allow her military and police to conduct surveillance and wiretapping without restriction, to subject individuals to indefinite detention and warrantless arrest, and to pry into individuals’ bank accounts and confiscate their finances. It is a bill of attainder and much worse than RA 1700 or the so-called Anti Subversion Law of 1957 which was eventually scrapped in the 1993.

AJLPP and ANSWER denounce the hypocrisy of the Arroyo government for pretending to be interested in resuming peace talks with both the Philippine revolutionary movement represented by the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Moro revolutionary movement represented by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) while it continues its alarming spree of extra-judicial killings (now more than 860 since Arroyo took office in 2001) against political opponents and critics, and unleashes legalized fascism against the entire Filipino people through the implementation of the Anti-Terror Law.

We condemn the Bush administration for its continuing intervention in the internal affairs of the Filipino people and for abetting the Arroyo regime’s war of terror against the Filipino people fighting for national and social liberation. Arroyo’s terrorism would not be possible without the steady and unbroken stream of US advisers, weapons, equipment, training and millions of dollars flowing from the US government.

We join peace advocates and other progressive forces in welcoming the willingness of the Philippine revolutionary movement to resume peace talks with the Manila government. After all, the peace talks have remained suspended for the last four years because the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) unilaterally sabotaged them.

It is, however, counterproductive for the Philippine military to talk about a “three-year ceasefire” with the NDFP when it continues to demonize the peace consultants of the revolutionary movement and label them as “terrorists,” and to conduct unrestrained US-backed military operations against them. It is also hypocritical for Arroyo and her militarist minions to talk about peace when her military continues to carry out extra-judicial killings with impunity. After all, there can be no enduring peace without justice.

We call on the Philippine government (GRP) to have the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), the New People’s Army (NPA) and Prof. Jose Maria Sison, the NDFP chief consultant, all removed from the so-called “foreign terrorist list” of the US and of the European Union so that the peace negotiations with the NDFP can proceed without any obstacles. We call on the GRP to stop its death squads from committing even more extra-judicial killings, and have those who are responsible for committing heinous crimes against the people brought before the bar of justice.

As a confidence-building measure, the GRP must release the 200 political prisoners who continue to languish in Philippine jails, and surface the more than 200 missing activists, including 15 missing NDF peace consultants. The GRP must, furthermore, release the billions recovered from the Marcoses, and indemnify the victims of the Marcos dictatorship who have long been denied their rightful compensation.

We sincerely hope that GRP and MILF finally sign a peace agreement so that peace and prosperity return to the island of Mindanao and that the Moro people enjoy genuine regional autonomy.

Lastly, we will continue to work for an enduring peace with justice when the Filipino people are eventually free from foreign bondage and attain full social and national liberation. #