[APWSLMembers 479] 2 news releases from Anakpawis

[KMU International Department]

Anakpawis Party List News Releases
Friday, February 23, 2007

Esperon, Gonzalez should be removed from office on the grounds of 
mental and emotional incapacity 

Anakpawis Representative and political detainee Crispin Beltran today 
said that the top brass of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and 
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez are foaming at the mouth over the 
Melo Commission Report and UN Human Rights Commission special 
rapporteur Philip Alston's initial report, and their responses were all 
non-sequitur and fallacious in nature.

"Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon and Gonzalez 
should be removed from office. They are both mentally and emotionally 
incapacitated. With their recent conduct and response to the issue of the 
Melo Report and Alston's findings, they have proven that they are 
incapable of objective thinking. They simply just might go amok. It would 
be best for them to go into early retirement," he said. 

Beltran said that Esperon's accusations that the New People's Army 
(NPA) was guilty of purging its ranks was completely unrelated to the 
Melo Reoport and Alston's findings. 

"The victims of the AFP's extrajudicial killings are human rights 
advocates, members of progressive party-lists and militant people's 
organizations. What has the NPA got to do with all of this? Civilians are 
being systematically killed as part of the AFP's Oplan Bantay Laya, but 
all Esperon can say that the AFP is fighting the NPA and waging a 
counter-insurgency campaign.  It appears that he's trying to justify the 
brutal murder of over 830 political activists and human rights advocates 
as the AFP's retaliation against the NPA," he said.

Beltran said that the AFP's release of a 20-year old video of Jose Maria 
Sison wherein he mentions the people's organizations of Kilusang Mayo 
Uno (KMU), Gabriela, League of Filipino Students and Alliance of 
Concerned Teachers (ACT) also strengthens the argument of human 
rights groups that the real target of the AFP are the militant people's 
groups. 

"It's a 20-year old video. What does that got to do with the extra-judicial 
killings being perpetrated now with the blessings of the 
Macapagal-Arroyo government? The AFP is conducting an exercise in 
futility by trying to use a 20-year old video to justify the AFP's attacks 
against the progressive party-lists and militant people's organizations," 
he said. 

"There is no defending or justifying the AFP's Bantay Laya and 
Esperon's pathetic attempts to defend the institution. He is deliberately 
avoiding the issue that the military is behind more than 830 extrajudicial 
killings, and is throwing darts at Alston and human rights groups for 
calling to an end to the brutality," he concluded.# 


Macapagal-Arroyo should stop protecting the military and order the
arrest and prosecution of Palparan

Anakpawis Representative and political detainee Crispin Beltran said 
that  Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo should immediately act on the 
recommendations of the Melo Commission and United Nations Human  
Rights Commission special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Philip 
Alston.

"Pres. Arroyo was the one who invited members of the international 
community to come to the Philippines and help investigate the issue of 
the killings. She's also the one who ordered the establishment of the 
Melo Commission and laid down its mandate. Now that she is in 
possession of two reports – one by the Melo Commission, and the other 
containing the initial findings and recommendations of a UN 
representative – Macapagal-Arroyo should take immediate and 
decisive action to address and put an end to the extrajudicial killings," 
he said.

"Pres. Arroyo will once more expose herself a hypocrite if she doesn't 
take action on the findings recommendations of the Melo Commission, 
primarily it's conclusion that Jovito Palparan is a mastermind of the 
killings,"" he said.

Beltran, however, opined that Mrs. Arroyo's reluctance to order the 
scrapping of Oplan Bantay Laya and the full investigation of Jovito 
Palparan was goaded by self-preservation.

"It's clear that Pres. Arroyo is being highly hesitant and perhaps even 
afraid of the repercussions if she should express the slightest 
agreement with the reports. She is beholden to the AFP and to the likes 
of Jovito Palparan and is perhaps afraid that if she criticizes the AFP for 
the killings, they will abandon her," he said. 

"Macapagal-Arroyo should order a stop to the political killings and 
order the arrest and prosecution of Palparan or being international 
condemnation.She is now caught between a rock and a hard place. 
This issue of political killings and the worsening human rights situation in 
the Philippines will not disappear or go away because the attention of 
the international community is focused on the country. 
Macapagal-Arroyo's continuing support for the AFP and the refusal to 
order an end to the killings inevitably damages her and her already 
unpopular office."#