Impact of War on Terror on Human Rights in the Philippines

Human rights activists Marie Hilao-Enriquez was in Winnipeg recently as part of a cross-Canada tour to discuss the impact of the U.S. war on terror on the people of the Philippines. Enriquez, general secretary of KARAPATAN (the Alliance for the Advancement of the People's Rights), gave a very thorough presentation on the current state of human rights in the Philippines, comparing the abuses currently taking place to what happened under the years of the Marcos' dictatorship.

She began by outlining the serious economic problems the country is facing, noting that 40 per cent of Filipinos, or some 80 million people, are living in poverty. Unemployment is growing steadily, which has created a massive economic migration movement. Some 2,000 workers a day leave the Philippines for overseas jobs. She also described the plight of migrant Filipino workers, who often face terrible abuse and violence, yet receive no protection or assistance from their government. Indeed, instead of adopting an economic program to reverse this situation, the government of Gloria Arroyo, which was hailed as the antidote to the corruption of the Estrada regime, has facilitated this migration. The entire education system is being re-organized, Enriquez explained, with an emphasis on English, math, science and the trades, while the whole of Filipino history, literature and language has been marginalized into one minor course. The terrible economic situation, she pointed out, is the result of the total domination of the Filipino economy by foreign multinationals, mainly American.

While American economic dominance has continued, one of the great victories of the Philippine people was the withdrawal of all U.S. military troops from the country in 1991, ending a century-long occupation. However, in 2001, this hard-won victory was taken away, all on the pretext of fighting terror.

Shortly after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, Enriquez pointed out, they set their sights on the Philippines, declaring that it was the second front in the war on terror and claiming that the group Abu Sayyaf, which was operating in the south of the country, had links to al-Qaida. Abu Sayyaf is nothing more than a criminal gang originally established by the CIA, which engages in acts against the people in the region, Muslim and non-Muslim. However, the existence of the group was the only pretext the U.S. needed and in the last three months of 2001, U.S. troops began to arrive in the southern Philippines, in direct violation of the post-Marcos constitution.

At the time, both the Bush and Arroyo administrations said the troops were only there to participate in military exercises designed to train the Filipino army in the fight against terror. But there have been many documented cases of American soldiers participating in actual fighting and, a year later, over 100 U.S. troops remain, with plans for more to arrive.

Since their arrival, KARAPTAN has documented thousands of human rights abuses, not just in the south but throughout the entire country, committed under the pretext of fighting terror. Illegal searches, detentions and beatings have been commonplace, as have the over 100 extra-judicial killings human rights groups have documented in the last 12 months.

The true aim of the U.S. intervention, Enriquez said, is two-fold. The first is for the Americans to re-establish their critical bases in the Philippines. (From which, she noted, they can easily target Malaysia and Indonesia, two of the area's Muslim countries, both of whom have been less than eager to embrace the war against terror). The second is the aim of the Arroyo government and Filipino ruling class, which is to crush the progressive forces in the country. On August 9, 2002, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, with the consent of Arroyo, declared that both the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New Peoples' Army were foreign terrorist organizations, despite the fact that neither has ever carried out a single violent action on foreign soil, which is the definition of a foreign terrorist organization. Revolutionary fighter Jose Ma Sison was also singled out, his name being added to a list of names of international terrorists. Sison has since been imprisoned in the Netherlands, where he was living in exile.

Within the Philippines, activists are systematically being targeted, Enriquez reported. Between January 2001 and July 2002, for example, 22 activists of the Bayan Muna (People's First) movement have been killed, with dozens more arrested, threatened, tortured and harassed. Bayan Muna, amongst other things, has been active in leading resistance to large multinational development projects in rural parts of the Philippines. These projects are leading to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. KARAPATAN has also been targeted, as have other human rights organizations. As well, Enriquez said, the Arroyo government is waging a media campaign against progressive groups, trying to portray them as terrorist sympathizers.