Unscrambling the Eggs
Monday, October 2nd, 2006Last week’s protest action against the continuing political killings in the country shows precisely the rage we feel against the Armed Forces of the Philippines and its chief-of-staff, Gen. Hermogenes Esperon.
The AFP continues to be a surrogate army of the Pentagon and the White House. It serves its purpose of crushing opposition to U.S. Imperialism’s dominance and control of the country’s economy, politics, culture, and foreign relations. Even after the dismantling of U.S. bases in 1991, lopsided military agreements with the U.S. – such as the Visiting Forces Agreement and the Balikatan exercises – continue to be signed and implemented.
The military has also been the implicated in the rigging of the 2004 presidential polls. In the infamous “Hello Garci” recordings, we heard President Gloria Arroyo and former COMELEC commissioner Garcellano mention names of military generals, including Esperon, in their plot to cheat the national elections.
This however, does not surprise us. After all, what do we expect from the repressive state apparatus of a state that serves only the interests of landlords, and U.S. Imperialism but a military establishment that is both corrupt and rotten to the core.
The constant news of coup attempts reveals the disarray and widespread demoralization in the military’s own ranks. The 2003 Oakwood mutiny brought in the open the junior officers’ feeling of disgust to the institution that is the AFP.
However, the icing on the bitter cake is the AFP’s role in the upsurge of killings and abductions of activists and ordinary civilians. This is under the government program of Oplan Bantay Laya—Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’ s all-out-war supposedly against the CPP-NPA-NDF but is actually being waged against the people.
Progressive organizations whose only interest is to advance the rights that the people have been denied of are seen as communist fronts. Thru the eyes of the military, there is no distinction between an armed guerilla and activists whose only weapons are word, and in this case, eggs.
Justice has not yet been served for the thousands who are victims of human rights violations. Of these, there have been more than 750 lives taken by the AFP’s death squads including LFS student leaders Cris Hugo of Bicol University and Rei Mon Guran of Aquinas University. The military is yet to resurface and release our fellow UP Students Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan who remain among the missing to this very day. The government is yet to prosecute the butcher, Jovito Palparan who continues to walk a free man.
In the forum where Gen. Esperon was invited as a speaker, the lack of a representative from the movement he attacked made it a venue where the military could spread government propaganda. It is reminiscent of the “seminars” being conducted by the military in the countryside where the people are harassed and threatened.
In that same forum, he claimed that they were fighting for democracy. And yet we ask, what democracy are they fighting for but a democracy enjoyed only by the few? It is a democracy where votes are being stolen using the military that has sworn to protect the people and the constitution.
And for so long, we have tried to express our grievances in the most peaceful means possible only for our calls to fall on deaf ears. Our actions are answered by batons and shields or water from a fire truck.
Eggs were thrown at the chief of a military that is stained with the blood of the people for the benefit of the few and the powerful; a military that continues a policy of state repression and fascism.
Indeed, “we share the same goals of social justice, equity, and development”. And so it would be detrimental to our cause if it is our own ranks that are divided. It is in this light that there is an urgent need for us to raise the level of our militancy and intensify our struggle thru collective action.
In the spirit of the Diliman Commune and other mobilizations of the University that shook the U.S.-Marcos dictatorship, MAKIBAKA! HUWAG MATAKOT!
Stop the Killings!
Justice for the victims of human rights violations!
Freedom for Karen Empeño and Sherlyn Cadapan!
Stop the militarization in the countryside!
End Arroyo’s Tyranny, Now!!!
League of Filipino Students – UP Diliman
An active member of the Student Alliance for the Advancement of Democratic Rights in UP (STAND-UP)
