Killings haunt Arroyo in Europe

Killings haunt Arroyo in Europe
By Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Last updated 01:35am (Mla time) 09/11/2006

Published on page A1 of the September 11, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily
Inquirer

HELSINKI -- The ghosts of hundreds of political militants murdered during her
rule have come to haunt President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during her visit to
Europe.

The Arroyo administration's human rights record came up in talks Ms Arroyo had
on Saturday with Finland President Tarja Halonen and she told the Finnish leader
of her plan to invite a delegation from the European Union to see for itself the
human rights situation in the Philippines.

This was disclosed to reporters by National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales,
who was with Ms Arroyo during the bilateral meeting here.

Gonzales said the issue was also expected to crop up on Tuesday when Ms Arroyo
meets with top level officials of the European Union in Brussels, the second leg
of her five-nation trip.

"The tough questions will be asked of the President in Brussels and she is
prepared for this," Gonzales said.

Malacañang had raised a tempest among human rights fighters at home when it said
on the eve of Ms Arroyo's departure for Helsinki that controversial Army Major
General Jovito Palparan, who is to retire from the military today, would be
named deputy for counterinsurgency operations in the National Security Council,
which Ms Arroyo chairs.

Nothing definite

The announcement of Palparan's forthcoming appointment, made by Presidential
Chief of Staff Michael Defensor, came amid rising European concern over the
large number of unsolved killings of activists and journalists in the country.
Leftists had accused Palparan and his men of being behind the killings, a charge
the general scoffed at.

In a seeming turnabout on Saturday, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said
Malacañang's plans for Palparan had not been finalized and that there was
nothing definite about his appointment to the NSC.

Human rights groups in the Philippines are accusing security forces of having
killed 752 noncombatant civilians since Ms Arroyo assumed the presidency in
2001, and that this included 319 political activists.

An Inquirer tally listed 250 activists and 47 journalists slain during the
period.

Getting to the bottom

Gonzales said it was Ms Arroyo who brought up the subject of human rights with
Halonen by relating that two independent bodies -- the Melo Commission and Task
Force Usig of the Philippine National Police -- had been created to get to the
bottom of the killings.

Gonzales said the EU delegation that she planned to invite to the Philippines
could be made up of private individuals from Europe.

Ms Arroyo will present her offer when she meets with the EU officials in
Brussels.

Gonzales said Halonen did not press the President further on the topic.

Harsh reality

"She (Halonen) told the President that she did not want it to sound like Europe
was imposing its standard on the Philippines," Gonzales said.

Three days before Ms Arroyo arrived, Finland Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja
said in a speech that while the European Union "warmly welcomed the abolition of
the death penalty in the Philippines in June 2006, let me add, however, that we
also want to see an end to the political killings which still form a harsh
reality of that country."


Gonzales said Ms Arroyo was aware that she had not fully addressed the questions
on the EU's mind, considering the criticisms of her administration from
international human rights groups, notably the London-based Amnesty
International.

Face-to-face

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, a member of the presidential delegation, said
"the Philippines is ready to defend before any forum the earnest efforts being
exerted by the government to resolve the extrajudicial killings."

Bunye said the government was well aware that these cases had been a cause of
concern for the international community, which was why Ms Arroyo had made the
effort to visit Europe to explain her side.

"Indeed, there is no substitute for face-to-face meetings with world leaders to
renew our commitment as a strong player for a safer and better world," Bunye
said.

'Like a laser beam'

Bunye, in his newspaper column, said the government was "focused like a laser
beam on having them (the cases) solved at the soonest possible time."

"Our law enforcement agencies are working 24 hours a day, seven days a week to
bring the perpetrators to justice and we have an independent commission that
will get to the root of these killings and stop them," he said.

Bunye said the government will make sure that there will be no "untouchables" in
the pursuit of the killers.

At the sidelines of the 38-nation Asia-Europe Meeting, Ms Arroyo is expected to
hold a bilateral meeting with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

Gonzales' choice

When she goes to Belgium, the President is expected to meet with Belgian Prime
Minister Guy Verhosfstadt, members of the Belgian Senate and House of
Representatives, and with Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Union.

Briefing reporters covering Ms Arroyo's trip, Gonzales said he had endorsed
former Southern Luzon Command chief Maj. Gen. Pedro Cabuay to be one of his
right-hand men to beef up his staff in the face of Ms Arroyo's order to
eliminate the communist threat.
Gonzales gushed about Cabuay's exploits on the field, particularly his
performance as head of the military in charge of communist-infested Southern
Luzon.

When Cabuay retired on Aug. 31, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes
Esperon Jr. credited him with keeping the communist rebels on the run.

What a talent

"I have been visiting the different jurisdictions that he has been commander of
in his career and all I can say is that he is very good. I am impressed,"
Gonzales said.

"It would be a waste of such big talent if we don't get him back in the fold."

He was initially miffed when asked about Palparan's possible appointment as
deputy national security adviser.

"I am not aware of that," said Gonzales. He noted that Ermita had already
clarified that Malacañang had not yet made up its mind on what position to give
Palparan upon his retirement from the military.

Gonzales claimed that while he was seriously considering Cabuay for the post, he
was unaware that Palparan was set to retire today. He stressed that he did not
want to make comparisons between Cabuay and Palparan, but he pointed out that
Cabuay was "head of an entire division."

Perfect for the job

Gonzales said he knew both Cabuay and Palparan had been accused by the
communist-led National Democratic Front of human rights violations but that Ms
Arroyo had lionized both as heroes in her all-out war against the communists.

Gonzales said he already had two senior deputies under his wing and he thought
Cabuay was perfect for the new deputy post he planned to create. With a report
from Christine O. Avendaño and Inquirer Research

ANALYSIS
Europeans rebuke Arroyo on killings

By Amando Doronila
Inquirer
Last updated 02:43am (Mla time) 09/11/2006

Published on page A1 of the September 11, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily
Inquirer

PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ran into sharp rebuke of the human rights
records of her administration from Europeans on her arrival in Helsinki for the
Asia-Europe Meeting (Asem), which has been convened to examine interregional
cooperation, including security, political and economic relations.


The summit was the first leg of the President's extensive nine-day tour that
cuts a wide arc, circumnavigating the globe, touching the Scandinavian countries
near the Arctic Circle, Belgium in the heart of Western Europe, Britain, Cuba in
Central America, and ending in Hawaii in the Pacific.

Leaders of the 25-nation European Union (EU) and of the 10-member Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), together with China, Japan and South Korea, are
attending the summit.

As a dialogue mechanism designed to strengthen European and Asian political,
economic and political ties, Asem was established in Bangkok 10 years ago,
pointedly excluding the superpower, the United States.

Highly valued concept

Human rights stole the focus of the Asem agenda from the start of Ms Arroyo's
visit to Helsinki, souring the atmosphere of her trip. It was an issue she would
have preferred had not been mentioned at all.

But the host country did not want her to forget that, among Europeans, human
rights and democracy are highly valued concepts, equally important as trade, aid
and economic prosperity.

Taking the first opportunity to emphasize the issue, even before the summit
officially started, Finland's Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja gave notice, at
the opening of the Asia-Europe People's Forum (AEPF), of the Europeans'
disapproval of the appalling extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.

Tuomioja could not have been more emphatic when he said that while the European
Union "warmly welcomed the abolition of the death penalty in the Philippines in
June 2006, let me add, however, that we also want to see an end to the political
killings which still form a harsh reality of that country."

Alongside Burma

He said that open and informal dialogue was one of Asem's prime aims and it was
very important that the meeting provide for an opportunity for a direct exchange
about sensitive and difficult issues, such as human rights and democracy in some
Asem partner-states.

This put the Philippines in the same category as Burma (Myanmar), an ASEAN
member, against which the European Union has applied economic sanctions over the
repressive political rule of a military junta that has put under house arrest
for 17 years opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Although the AEPF was a forum of NGOs and civil society groups, there can't be a
mistake that the foreign minister of the host country was speaking with
authority and reflecting EU concerns over the unabated killings in the
Philippines.

Concern about Palparan

This indicates that the Philippine representation in the summit will have to do
a lot of explaining about the killings, and that would be embarrassing to Ms
Arroyo.

The Finnish foreign minister made the scathing speech shortly after the
presidential office announced that Major General Jovito Palparan would be
appointed deputy national security adviser on counterinsurgency after he retires
from military service as commander of the 7th Infantry Division in Central
Luzon.

This appointment, especially its timing on the eve of Ms Arroyo's departure for
the summit, could not have escaped the notice of the Europeans, and could have
been easily understood as flaunting the issue to their faces.

International dimension

While his retirement today effectively removes Palparan from command of
counterinsurgency actions in areas where most of the extralegal executions of
political dissidents have taken place, his new position would give him a wider
scope in influencing the crackdown on leftists in the President's "all-out war"
on insurgency.

He would also share compatible company with National Security Adviser Norberto
Gonzales.

Palparan's appointment has, of course, been criticized in the Philippines as a
continuity of the government's repressive domestic policies on political
dissent. But its international dimension is clearly damaging to the
administration.

He can be sacrificed

While it shows that Ms Arroyo is stubborn in her loyalty to officers overzealous
in executing her counterinsurgency policy, the decision at once sends wrong
signals to Philippine partner-states in the European Union and undercuts other
aspects of Philippine relations with the Europeans.


Ms Arroyo likes to believe that foreign policy is her strong suit, as it was for
her father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal, who, in my view, was one of
the most foreign policy literate Filipino presidents.

Ms Arroyo does not synchronize her domestic policy objectives with her foreign
policy initiatives. Palparan can be sacrificed with no loss to national
interests.

Measure of success

The Europeans are putting on notice in Helsinki that they will not allow her to
go unscathed at Asem.

If Ms Arroyo passed muster in her last European visit, when she had an audience
with Pope Benedict XVI, who praised her for the abolition of the death penalty,
that is not sufficient to meet the Europeans' exacting standards of democracy
and of respecting human rights.

On that score alone, Ms Arroyo's success of her trip must have to be judged --
not for any claimed economic dividends, of which there is little promise.



[courtesy]

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