ZAMBOANGA CITY, 5 October 2007 — Muslim separatists negotiating peace with Manila have criticized the country’s human rights records, saying, the Philippines is no different from Myanmar (formerly Burma).

“Both the Philippines and Burma have semblances in sharing poor records in the protection of the human rights of their citizens. They are also in a state of martial law, one declared and the other undeclared, but both using the same iron fist policy of the state against their own citizenry,” said Khaled Musa, a senior leader of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

The MILF is the Philippines’ largest Muslim rebel group fighting for a separate homeland in the southern region. It has, in the past, accused Manila of human rights violations, particularly against the Muslim minority in the country.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has criticized Myanmar for its violations of human rights and called for the release of pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

Musa said the Filipino leader has no moral ascendancy to give lessons to the Myanmar dictators, citing the hundreds of militants summarily executed during her presidency, aside from those picked up randomly by security forces on mere suspicion that they are “terrorists.”

Hundreds of Muslims have been arrested over the years in the southern Philippines, particularly after the 9/11 Al-Qaeda attacks in the United States and at the start of the so-called war on terror.

“It is better for President Arroyo to keep silent and start cleaning up her own turf by weeding out local human rights violators,” said Musa, who used both Myanmar and its old name Burma in the interview. He said the worsening human rights abuses in the Philippines prompted the United Nations to intervene and send an envoy, Philip Alston, to investigate the extrajudicial killings in the country.

Court of Appeals

In Manila, justices of the Court of Appeals have expressed irritation with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for what they said was its continued disregard of their order to make public the result of a military investigation in connection with the disappearance of activist Jonas Burgos. Associate Justice Enrico Lanzanas said he does not understand why AFP chief Hermogenes Esperon continues to refuse to allow Provost Marshal Col. Arthur Abadilla to provide the appeals court with a copy of his report.

Lanzanas said Esperon announced last month that he would make public the results of the Provost Marshall’s investigation.

However, he said Esperon has so far refused to allow Abadilla to disclose the report, citing Memorandum Circular 78 that prohibits the production of classified documents.

“You cannot continue ignoring the court by using as a shield the memorandum circular,” Lanzanas said.

Abadilla also said Esperon was not a lawyer and probably does not understand the implications of his pronouncement last month on releasing the report.

Associate Justice Rosalinda Vicente said Esperon need not be a lawyer to know what is right and wrong.

The Court of Appeals has required Abadilla to secure a written clearance from Esperon to disclose the report.

Lawyers of Jonas’ mother, Editha, believed that the military’s continued refusal to release the report was part of a cover-up.

Lawyer Ricardo Fernandez said he would ask the appellate court to cite Esperon and Abadilla in contempt should the military continue to ignore the order.

The court hearing the petition for habeas corpus filed by Mrs. Burgos has dismissed the motion of the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) to revoke the subpoena that compels the military to produce the report.

The OSG told the Court of Appeals in its motion for reconsideration that the document could not be subpoenaed because it was considered confidential.

But Fernandez pointed that the respondents failed to cite any possible adverse effects of the disclosure.

Militant Groups

Last week, militant groups also criticized Arroyo for calling on Myanmar to free all political prisoners while extrajudicial killings still continue in the Philippines.

“The economic and political crisis in Myanmar, which triggered series of protests tackling variety of issues from oil price increases and human rights violations, is similar to what the Filipinos are experiencing under the Arroyo administration,” said Jeppie Ramada, a spokesman for the group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan in the southern Philippines.

Ramada said Arroyo’s statements in the 62nd United Nations General Assembly urging Myanmar “to go back to the path of democracy,” are mere rhetoric that contradict the human rights problems in the Philippines.

“With Arroyo’s speech in the United Nations General Assembly centered on Myanmar’s atrocities, it only manifests that she’s trying to evade and divert the issue of political killings in the Philippines.”

“Instead of answering allegations of political persecution in her own country, she managed to wipe the dirt into her fellow dictators in Myanmar. She has lost the moral ascendancy to talk about human rights violations since 2001, when hundreds of activists summarily executed,” Ramada said.

The militant women’s group, Gabriela, also branded Arroyo’s statements as hypocritical and ironic. “Mrs. Arroyo’s statements are attempts to cover up her regime’s murderous record on extra judicial killings and disappearances, amid much international criticism over the human rights crisis in the country.”

“This duplicitous show of support for Aung San Suu Kyi and the pro-democracy movement in Burma is mortifying. Mrs. Arroyo even had the gall to summon women power for the Burmese leader when in her own country, her repressive policies are the very hindrance to women power,” Rep. Liza Maza said.

Maza said that human rights documentation in the country since Arroyo assumed office in 2001 indicate that 96 women have fallen victims to extrajudicial killings and 31 have disappeared.

Under Arroyo, the Philippines have had 22 women political prisoners, many of them in conditions no different from Suu Kyi, she said. “No different from the military junta in Burma, Mrs. Arroyo has led the violent dispersal of protests with her calibrated pre-emptive response. She has led attempts to silence critics with her Proclamation 1017 and deny Filipinos the truth behind the rampage of corruption in her administration with EO 464. Certainly, her two-faced statements cannot hide her bloody record from the international community,” Maza said. (With a report by Inquirer News Service)