FIDEL V. AGCAOILI
Chairperson, NDFP Human Rights Committee
Gloria M. Arroyo is the one who most benefited by the extrajudicial killings of those who legally oppose her rule. She is known to brag that she cannot be removed from power so long as she can preempt and neutralize her Left political opponents with the extrajudicial killings and the breakup of protest rallies before these grow big.
FIDEL V. AGCAOILI
Chairperson, NDFP Human Rights Committee
Gloria M. Arroyo is the one who most benefited by the extrajudicial killings of those who legally oppose her rule. She is known to brag that she cannot be removed from power so long as she can preempt and neutralize her Left political opponents with the extrajudicial killings and the breakup of protest rallies before these grow big.
Although she is now being exposed as the mastermind of the extrajudicial killings, she is not at all deterred and is in fact showing clear signs that she will not stop but will escalate the extrajudicial killings and abductions of progressive legal activists who oppose her regime.
- She has refused to heed the advice of Sen. Aquilino Pimentel to act as the de facto commander-in-chief and issue the order to the military, police and death squads to cease and desist from further committing their dastardly acts. The death squads are actually composite teams of killers from the military and police under the direct operational orders of military intelligence groups.
- She has not instructed the Cabinet Oversight Committee on Internal Security and the Presidential Task Force Against Terrorism headed by General Eduardo Ermita to scrap the policy of mass murder under Oplan Bantay Laya and to stop giving over-all direction to the extrajudicial killings and abductions and to the psywar campaign of slander and intrigue by putting the blame for the crimes on the revolutionary forces.
- She encourages the spread of intrigue by her top cabinet officials (especially the executive secretary, national security adviser, justice secretary and press secretary) and the military and police that the revolutionary forces are killing the legal activists, despite the overwhelming testimonies that the military and police are the killers, from the surviving victims, witnesses and the close relatives, colleagues and friends of those extrajudicially killed. The butcher type of generals like Jovito Palparan, Pedro Cabuay and Romeo Tolentino have been promoted rapidly and are further rewarded with appointments that allow them to continue their dirty work even after retirement.
- She encourages the propagandists of her office, her national security adviser, her press secretary and the military and police to churn out the most vicious lies against NDFP chief political consultant Prof. Jose Maria Sison, NDFP negotiating panel chairperson Luis Jalandoni and Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo. They are blamed for the most obvious fabricated allegations in order to deflect attention from the current infamy of Arroyo and the killing spree of the military and police under the Arroyo regime.
- She has formed Task Force Usig of the PNP to cover up the criminal responsibility of the military and police and to put the blame on the revolutionary forces for the extrajudicial killings. Before it could solve only 10 cases in ten weeks, the number of extrajudicial killings leaped from 720 (at the time of its formation) to 750 (as of this date).
- She has formed the Melo Commission for whitewashing purposes. It is composed mostly of barefaced lackeys of the regime. It has no independence. It gets its measly resources from the military. It is dependent on the false claims of the Task Force Usig. It is obviously intended to counter the Commission on Human Rights.
- She has pretended to welcome fact-finding missions from European countries. But she is actually trying to counter the findings and recommendations of the factfinding missions of Amnesty International, World Council of Churches and the professional organizations of journalists, lawyers and others. She has refused to welcome the visits of the rapporteurs of the UN agencies dealing with human rights issues. In this regard, she has ignored the demands of Sen. Jamby Madrigal.
No matter how tricky and treacherous, the Arroyo regime will not be able to escape an ignominious end. The broad masses of the people will ultimately get rid of a regime that is so despicably servile to foreign interests and so greedy, corrupt, brutal and mendacious.
