News Release
    March 15, 2007

    Reference: Berna Ellorin, Secretary-General, BAYAN USA, email: secgen@bayanusa.org

    Boxer, Amnesty Int'l Slam Malacanang in US Hearings on Killings
    Fil-Ams Demand US Gov't Halt Aid to Arroyo Gov't

    Washington DC-- The Filipino-American alliance known as BAYAN USA welcomed biting words from California Senator Barbara Boxer as she chaired the much-anticipated US Senate hearing yesterday on the extrajudicial killings in the Philippines from Capitol Hill in a chamber full of over 150 people. While the hearing was open to the public, Boxer was without qualms when she explicitly prohibited representatives of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police to be present in the hearing chambers and condemned Malacanang's persistence on the issue as it would "promote intimidation of witnesses."

    The alliance, a chapter of the mother alliance BAYAN in the Philippines, has been actively calling for restrictions on US military aid to the Philippine government under the pretext of the US War on Terror precisely due to reliable advocate documentation of the Philippine military's principal involvement in the killings of over 830 of its membership and allies since 2001.

    "It is important we [Americans] do not have blood on our hands," Boxer remarked as she questioned the character of the Arroyo government's usage of US military aid to the country to fund counter-terrorism exercises and trainings. "If we are training the [Philippine] military with our hard-earned tax dollars, our concern about the military cannot be discounted.... the War On Terror cannot be used as a excuse to kill innocent civilians."

    Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was among the first world leaders to endorse Bush's War On Terror back in 2001 and to join the so-called "Coalition of the Willing". The partnership with Bush's foreign policy boosted US military and other forms of foreign aid to the Arroyo government exponentially. In addition, US troops have been heavily based in the Philippines to train Philippine troops.

    "We welcome the outcome of the Congressional sessions about the situation in the Philippines, but we await expedient action on this matter from those who legislate US war funding abroad," states Rachel Redondiez of the Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines San Francisco Chapter, a member organization of BAYAN USA, who was also present at an earlier staff briefing with the House Foreign Relations Committee on the killings along with members of the United Methodist Church and human rights delegates who flew in from the Philippines.

    "The downfall of Arroyo's credibility has spiraled down considerably in the international arena. In the end, it will be the Filipino people themselves, marching on the streets across the nation, whose final judgment she should fear the most. This is what history taught Marcos and Estrada," stated BAYAN USA Chair Chito Quijano.

    A broad range of witnesses took the stands before the Senate committee later that afternoon, including the US State department's Eric G. John of the bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, T. Kumar of Amnesty International, Bishop Eliezer Pascua of the United Council of Churches in the Philippines and Marie Hilao-Enriquez of the national Philippine human rights alliance Karapatan.

    Bishop Pascua and Enriquez, part of a 10-person delegation from the Philippines who flew in with the support of the Philippine Working Group of the Church World Service's Asian Pacific Forum to testify before the Congressional committees, supplied the most compelling first-person testimonies from the frontlines of state violence in their home country, sharply criticizing the US-funded Arroyo government's domestic policies on so-called counter-insurgency in the nation.

    "Arroyo's counter-insurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya equals political killings of non-combatants and innocent civilians, with state security forces directly involved and responsible," Enriquez stated in the session.

    Pascua relayed the delegation's demand that the Philippine government stop extrajudicial killings in the country, including the revocation of the military's "hit-lists", which target church leaders, human rights advocates, lawyers, journalists, and parliamentarians in the country.

    "Exactly what kind of training [is the US military] giving the Armed Forces of the Philippines?" questioned T. Kumar of Amnesty International. AI, along with United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings Philip Alston, have been actively monitoring military activity under Arroyo's command responsibility. Kumar criticized Arroyo for her silent position on the killings while promoting controversial General Jovito Palparan to the highest military rank in the country. Palaparan has been tagged by many international sources as being a chief architect of politically-motivated killings during the early years of Arroyo's administration.

    "Arroyo waited 4 years to form the Melo Commission [to investigate the killings]. That's 4 years of complete silence," Kumar shot back at the Senate Committee.

    Boxer, who visited the Philippines back in 1986 and supported the first "People Power" uprising that led to the ouster of former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, stated "it was with a heavy heart" that she convened the Senate hearing when news from several human rights organizations and advocates exposed the human rights crisis in the Philippines under the Arroyo regime.

    BAYAN USA asserts US taxpayers are supporting human rights for the Filipino people by making their demands to the US government on war funding abroad.

    "The actions of the US government on this matter remain to be seen. The international human rights community has spoken. It is time for definitive and decisive action from the US government to stop war and murder funding to the Philippine military," Quijano ended. ###