CHARGE 3: GROSS AND SYSTEMATIC VIOLATIONS OF THE RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE TO NATIONAL SELF-DETERMINATION AND LIBERATION

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CHARGE 3 GROSS AND SYSTEMATIC VIOLATIONS OF THE
RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE TO NATIONAL
SELF-DETERMINATION AND LIBERATION

• CHARGE 3 GROSS AND SYSTEMATIC VIOLATIONS OF THE
  RIGHTS OF THE PEOPLE TO NATIONAL
  SELF-DETERMINATION AND LIBERATION
• President George W. Bush, Jr.s war against
  terrorism which was supported by President
  Gloria M. Arroyo has aggravated the gross and
  systematic violations of the rights of the
  Filipino people to national self-determination
  and liberation, through
•  
•          The irresponsible and illegal
  implementation of the Visiting Forces Agreement
  (VFA) of 1998 and the forging of new onerous
  bilateral agreements
•          Use of the Philippines as a key military
  outpost of the U.S. in East Asia and the Pacific
  in pursuit of the U.S. wars of aggression and
  interventionism
•          Increase in U.S. military assistance for
  Arroyos brutal counter-insurgency program,
  backed by legal and political repressive
  measures
•          Commission of crimes by the U.S.
  military either through direct combat engagement
  or through military aid and training
• The Bush governments refusal and
  inaction by the Arroyo government - in connection
  with the demands for the indemnification of
  victims of toxic contamination and repair of
  livelihood and environment as a result of past,
  and ongoing, bases operations and related
  military activities

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• THE VISITING FORCES AGREEMENT violates the
  Filipino peoples
• rights to national sovereignty,
  self-determination and other fundamental
• rights, because
•  
•          It grants extra-territoriality to U.S.
  soldiers in the whole Philippine territory and
  gives no limit to access by the American forces
  in the Philippines
•          It exempts American soldiers from the
  countrys criminal prosecution and regulations of
  judicial process
•          It has no provision restricting the U.S.
  military from bringing in nuclear arms despite
  the strict constraint in the 1987 Philippine
  Constitution
•          Under the guise of war exercises (called
  Balikatan), it gives legitimacy to U.S. military
  designs to maintain a temporary-permanent
  basing facility in the Philippines and support
  its wars of aggression in East Asia and the
  Pacific
•          It is the U.S. governments mechanism of
  using the Philippines as a key member of its
  system of alliances in East Asia that is being
  used for the encirclement and containment of
  China as well as North Korea

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• The VFA has also led to the forging with George
  W. Bush, Jr. of other
• bilateral agreements that further the U.S.
  governments infringement of
• the Filipino peoples rights to national
  sovereignty and self-determination
•  
•          The Mutual Logistics Support Agreement
  (MLSA, Nov. 21, 2002) which paves the way for the
  U.S. temporary-permanent basing facility as
  well as the entry or stockpiling of weapons of
  mass destruction, including nuclear weapons
•          The Non-Surrender Agreement of 2003,
  under which the Philippines is under obligation
  to refuse the surrender of U.S. military or
  civilian personnel operating in the Philippines
  to the ICC or any international tribunal
•  
• Major Non-NATO Ally Agreement (MNNA), which gives
  preferential increase of U.S. military aid to
  countries that have shown unrelenting support to
  the U.S. wars of aggression

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• Bushs military assistance to the Arroyo
  government (310 million during 2001-2006, the
  largest in Southeast Asia) and the system of
  bilateral security agreements sustain the U.S.
  strategic and tactical influence over the Arroyo
  regime particularly the Armed Forces of the
  Philippines (AFP), through
•  
• The U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM)
• Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group (JUSMAG)
• Defense Policy Board (DPB, a new bilateral
  defense consultative mechanism)
• Joint Defense Assessment (JDA, 2003), which
  identifies 10 key areas of U.S. policy
  intervention such as the critical security areas
  of planning, training, doctrines development and
  logistics procurement, and is implemented under
  modernization assistance through the Philippine
  Defense Reform (PDR)
• Security Engagement Board (SEB) which covers
  terrorism and transnational crimes
• Conducting war exercises (under Balikatan) plus
  more than 10 military and police trainings for
  Philippine security forces

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• SPECIAL TRAININGS
•  
• U.S. International Military Education and
  Training (IMET) program trains AFP special
  forces in anti-terrorism and counter-insurgency
  and assists U.S. goals of access and influence
  within the AFP and Philippine government more
  broadly. (U.S. Military Aid in East Asia and
  Pacific, 2006-2007).
•  
• Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines
  (JSOTF-P) U.S. SOFs that conduct special
  operations, counter-insurgency, and
  unconventional warfare in politically-sensitive
  environments under the guise of an exercise.
•  
• The Philippine Army Special Operations Command
  (PASOCOM) is composed of seven special forces
  battalions and two scout ranger battalions.

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• U.S. MILITARY OPERATIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES
  U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY
•  
• The aforementioned agreements, mechanisms and
  programs strengthen the U.S. hand over the AFP
  and other security forces to make them more
  compliant with Americas military objectives in
  the Philippines and in the region as a whole. As
  the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO)
  said, U.S. military and training programs in the
  Philippines are generally consistent with the
  National Security Strategy of the U.S.

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• CRIMES IN U.S. MILITARY INTERVENTION
•  
• 1) Displacement of whole communities during
  joint U.S.-Philippine military operations against
  the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and Muslim rebels
  including indiscriminate bombardments resulting
  in killings and injuries and the destruction of
  property. Some of these are
•  
• January-August 2002, about 90,000 villagers
  uprooted many of them in western Mindanao
  (Maguindanao province), on the islands of Jolo
  and Basilan, and Lanao del Sur
• January to September 2005, 158,375 persons
  displaced by armed hostilities between the
  U.S.-aided AFP troops and Moro guerillas and
  suspected ASG bandit extremists
• In Central Luzon, in 2002 Balikatan 02-2
  U.S.-Philippine war exercises led to the
  militarization of 27 out of 29 Aeta communities

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•  
• 2) Killings, wounding of civilians, abductions,
  and illegal arrests perpetrated
• by the military either by engaging in direct
  combat operations, or assisting
• Philippine troops in military engagements, or
  through military aid
•  
• Midnight of July 25, 2002, a U.S. soldier shot
  and wounded an unarmed civilian, Buyong Buyong
  Isnijal, in a small village of Tuburan, a town on
  Basilan island, southern Mindanao
• Arsad Baharon, 25, was shot and wounded by U.S.
  soldiers during a live fire exercise in Zamboanga
  City, southern Philippines in 2004
• In southern Mindanao 2002, U.S. spy planes were
  spotted circling overhead for hours just before
  Philippine troops raided communities and arrested
  residents without any warrants or charges in
  this incident, three unarmed fisherfolk were
  massacred in Lantawan
• A mother testified that her 11-year-old child was
  abducted by Philippine soldiers and was later
  reported killed along with three other alleged
  ASG members in a summary execution
• In July 2005, U.S. and Filipino forces launched a
  joint operation in Mindanao in pursuit of the
  suspected leader of ASG, Khaddafy Janjalani, with
  the U.S. forces reported to have engaged in
  direct combat.

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• Rape by a US Marine and violation of Philippine
  jurisdiction and custody of the convicted
  perpetraror
• In November 2005, four U.S. Marines and a
  Filipino driver were charged in the gang rape of
  a 22-year-old Filipina, identified only as
  Nicole, in a van inside the former U.S. naval
  base of Subic Bay in Olongapo City, north of
  Manila. While awaiting trial before the Makati
  regional trial court, the four U.S. Marines were
  placed under the custody of the U.S. Embassy
  which invoked the VFA and against the
  Philippines Revised Penal Code. Sentenced to a
  40-year imprisonment in December 2006, Marine
  Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith, 21, was taken back to
  the custody of the U.S. Embassy, in violation of
  the countrys sovereign right to exercise
  exclusive jurisdiction and custody of the
  convicted rapist.

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•  
• Bombing incident involving a CIA operative
•  
• On May 16, 2002, Michael Terrence Meiring, 65,
  was arrested by the police on May 16, 2002 with
  explosives in his possession at a hotel in Davao
  City, southern Philippines. Agents from the U.S.
  National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of
  Investigation barged into his room at a Davao
  hospital, and flew him back to the U.S. Media
  reports exposed Meirings ties to the Central
  Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Abu Sayyaf. The
  case raised suspicions that the CIA was involved
  in bombing incidents in Davao at that time and in
  pinning the blame on terrorists to justify U.S.
  armed intervention in southern Philippines. The
  Meiring incident took place at a time when Col.
  David Fridovich headed a Special Operations
  task force in Mindanao. Fridovich, now a major
  general, presently heads the Special Operations
  Command, said to be the military vanguard against
  terrorism under the U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM).

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• U.S. bases toxic contamination Deaths,
  illnesses, injuries and deformations,
• ecological destruction and destruction of
  livelihoods.
•  
• The U.S. government continues to refuse to
  account for the deaths, illnesses, injuries and
  deformation, ecological damage and destruction of
  livelihoods caused by at least 25 U.S. bases,
  camps and installations as well as military
  exercises which it operated until 1992, a year
  after the rejection by the Philippine Senate of
  the proposed treaty for bases renewal.
•  
• Citing U.S. official documents and several
  scientific findings, the Philippine Senate in
  2000, confirmed the substantial environmental
  contamination in the former U.S. bases
  particularly in Subic Bay Naval Base in Olongapo
  City and Clark Field Air Base in Angeles City
  with substantial and serious adverse ecological,
  human health and economic implications for the
  residents within the area and the Philippines in
  general.

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• SOME CASES At the former Clark Air Base Command
  (CABCOM) in Mabalacat, Pampanga, at least 100
  residents, many of them children, died of various
  ailments ranging from cancer, leukemia, heart
  failure, kidney disorder and other ailments
  attributed to toxic contamination from 1995-1999
  alone. At least 500 other residents were feared
  awaiting the same fate as of 2001.
•  
• ACCOUNTABILITY OF ARROYO AND BUSH REGIMES
•  
• The U.S. government refuses to take heed on
  demands for clean-up, repair and compensation,
  the Philippine government under both Philippine
  and international laws
•  
• Arroyo has continued the inaction of previous
  presidents starting with Corazon Aquino to pursue
  the case with the U.S. government outside issuing
  requests for assessment and investigation of
  the toxic contamination. On this basis alone, the
  Arroyo government should be cited for upholding
  U.S. interests at the expense of the Filipino
  peoples national sovereignty and
  self-determination.

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• LINKAGE OF U.S. SECURITY POLICY
• AND THE ALL-OUT WAR POLICY OF THE ARROYO REGIME
•  
• The state terrorism of Gloria M. Arroyo which
  relies on a brutal counter-insurgency program
  leading to the gross and systematic violations of
  human rights has the political and military
  support of the Bush administration.
•  
• Counter-terrorism particularly the anti-Abu
  Sayyaf operation provided the excuse for renewed
  U.S. military aggression in the Philippines and
  increased military assistance of all types to the
  Arroyo regime that, in turn, is being used for
  counter-insurgency and for committing atrocities
  against civilians.

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• U.S. LINK TO COUNTER-INSURGENCY IN THE
  PHILIPPINES
•  
• The U.S. has been involved in counter-insurgency
  in the Philippines either as the architect or
  through military aid - since the Huk rebellion
  (1950s, which also involved CIA operations) in
  the series of suppression campaigns under Marcos
  (1970s-1986) Corazon Aquino (total war and
  CIA-sponsored low-intensity conflict, 1986-1992)
  Fidel V. Ramos (VFA, 1992-1998) and Joseph E.
  Estrada (total war in Mindanao, 1998-January
  2001).
•  
• All previous counter-insurgency campaigns and the
  present OBL are based primarily on U.S.
  counter-insurgency doctrines that emphasize the
  use of psychological or unconventional warfare
  that essentially justifies the use of terror
  including political assassination, abductions and
  massacres against enemies of the state. These
  counter-insurgency doctrines also give primacy to
  the role of regular military forces under the
  state command and ensure that U.S. security
  interests in countries are protected.
•  

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• U.S. intervention in the conduct of
  counter-insurgency in the Philippines has been
  carried out through military commands, bilateral
  agencies and programs as previously described.
•  
• These provide the mechanisms for U.S. strategic
  and tactical influence over the AFP and other
  state forces involved in counter-insurgency.
  Ultimately, they also ensure that the Arroyo
  administrations counter-insurgency instruments
  serve the U.S. governments security objectives
  in the Philippines and in the region.

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• THE BRUTAL COUNTER-INSURGENCY CAMPAIGN AS A STATE
  POLICY
•  
• 1) Arroyo officials have admitted several times
  about the existence of Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL or
  Operation Plan Freedom Watch) doctrine which
  falls under the Enhanced National Internal
  Security Plan (NISP) that, in turn, has been
  adopted by Arroyos Cabinet Oversight Committee
  on Internal Security (COC-IS) OBL gives emphasis
  to the neutralization of the communists
  sectoral front organizations particularly in
  regions identified as having a strong NPA
  presence
• 2) Recently created, the Inter-Agency Legal
  Advisory Group (IALAG), which supervises the
  states legal offensives against the Lefts
  sectoral front organizations and leaders as
  well as provide legal shield to perpetrators of
  war crimes and crimes against humanity
•  
• 3) In the works is the anti-terrorism council
  headed by the President that will see to the
  implementation of the Human Security Act of 2007
  which gives further legitimacy to the political
  persecution of the Left.

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• 4) The patterns, circumstances and evidence
  showing the occurrence of gross and systematic
  violations of human rights on a nationwide scale
  particularly in identified priority areas linking
  government security forces (notably, military
  intelligence agents) show that the political
  killings and related cases could not have
  occurred without a central authority and command,
  as well as the professional skills and impunity
  that only a military institution and other
  security units trained in unconventional warfare
  are able to execute
•  
• 5) It is apparent that this central authority has
  secured the acquiescence and cooperation of other
  agencies that fall under the Office of the
  President, including the National Security
  Council (NSC), the Department of National Defense
  (DND), the Department of Justice (DoJ), the
  Department of Interior and Local Government
  (DILG), the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)
  and, lest we forget, the military, national
  police and paramilitary forces some of which act
  under the guise of party-list groups.

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• Conclusion