MANILA, 22 September 2007 — Human rights and democracy activists yesterday urged Filipinos to fight the “undeclared martial law” of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo with the same fervor as they opposed the iron-hand rule of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Thousands of people gathered in various sites in the national capital to join a protest rally marking the 35th anniversary of Marcos’ declaration of martial law on Sept. 21, 1972.
Activists warned that abuses and human rights violations committed during the Marcos dictatorship were being repeated by the Arroyo administration.
“There is a new dictator and kleptocrat in Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her cohorts under an undeclared martial law,” warned human rights group Karapatan and Selda, an organization of martial law victims and former political prisoners.
They said that while Marcos and his wife Imelda maintained a “conjugal dictatorship” in their heyday, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and her husband Mike were engaged in “conjugal plunder.”
Arroyo’s husband has been implicated by the businessman son of House Speaker Jose de Venecia in a controversial national broadband network deal between the government and China’s ZTE Corp. Arroyo’s Cabinet officials have denied de Venecia’s allegations.
In a joint statement, Karapatan and Selda noted that under Arroyo’s six-year rule, 886 people have become victims of extra-judicial killings, 184 of enforced disappearances, 799 of torture and 355 of attempted murder.
During Marcos’ 14-year martial law, there were 3,257 victims of extrajudicial killings and more than 700 victims of enforced disappearance until February 1986, when a “people power” revolt ousted the dictator.
The military has denied any involvement in extra-judicial killings and disappearances, pointing instead to communist rebels as being responsible.
“We call on our compatriots to resist the Arroyo regime’s terrorism with the same fervor,” Karapatan and Selda said. “We call on all compatriots to renew our commitment to defend our human rights in the face of fascism.”
The leftist New Nationalist Movement (Bayan) warned that Arroyo was “courting the same fate as Marcos” by steadily “drifting toward Marcosian rule.”
“The Arroyo regime often repeats the mistakes of the dictatorship,” Bayan chair Carol Araullo said. “It has engaged in gross human rights abuses such as killings and abductions. It has even rivaled previous regimes in terms of corruption.”
“So long as she treads the path of Marcosian rule, she may yet end up like Marcos who was deposed by people power,” she added.
Censorship
In a move reminiscent of the muzzling of media during the Marcos regime, the government censors’ board has banned the showing of a series of short films on alleged human rights violations under President Arroyo, a sister of a missing activist said yesterday.
The minutes-long films depicting alleged disappearances, extrajudicial killings and torture — grouped together under the title “Rights” — were given an “X” rating by the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB), meaning that it can not be shown in public.
The board issued the ban on Thursday, a day before they were scheduled to be shown along with other independent films at a suburban mall.
The board said in a letter to the filmmakers that the scenes in the films were “presented unfairly, one-sided, and undermined the faith and confidence in the government and duly constituted authorities.”
Peachy Burgos, the eldest sister of activist Jonas Burgos, a left-wing peasant activist who has been missing since he was allegedly abducted by soldiers five months ago, strongly criticized the decision.
“A democracy proscribes the very notion of prior censorship, but this is exactly what has happened,” she said. One of her other brothers, J. L. Burgos, was one of the filmmakers.
The board said the filmmakers can appeal its decision.
Military Trial
Yesterday, the military said it is preparing to try at least 13 soldiers for their alleged role in the murder of left-wing activists, the first cases to be brought before new tribunals set up to hear human rights complaints.
Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, the military chief, said the soldiers were undergoing pre-trial investigation for four cases of murder, including that of a female radio talk show host on the southern island of Mindanao, since 2005.
“We want to be thorough about it,” Esperon told reporters, adding it would take some time before the cases would go to trial. “While we want to be quick on this, due diligence and the rules of the procedures must be observed. We don’t want to pin down anybody based only on suspicions,” he said. (With input from agencies)
