Home > Op-ed | To bottom

Of fall guys and anti-GMA militants

Alarming is certainly an understatement to the increasing human rights violations (HRVs) in the Cordillera region. The most recent and most controversial of the HRVs is the arrest and torture of 11 backpackers in Buguias, Benguet due to their alleged participation in the raid of a detachment in Mankayan, Benguet. The sad fact, the arresting unit of the Philippine National Police (PNP) is due for commendation by Gen. Arturo Lomibao.

The use of unnecessary force in arresting the unarmed backpackers and the subsequent torture are indicators that the PNP cannot be relied on upholding the Bill of Rights as embodied in the 1987 Constitution. The torture inflicted on the backpackers by the 1064th Police Mobile Group in Camp Molintas, Abatan, that detained them for more than 48 hours without charges even implies that our peacekeeping forces could not handle the situation.

To know that these backpackers, punks as they call themselves, are actually local tourists and do not even know of the Mankayan incident makes one question the motive of the PNP in exercising its prerogative over the situation.

The group, mostly in their teens, came for the Baguio Panagbenga Flower Festival. Because they arrived almost a week ahead of the float parade and the street dancing, they decided to go to another tourist destination, Sagada in Mountain Province. Not knowing how far the place is from the city, they hitched-hiked until they were stopped at a police checkpoint shortly before noon. They were tortured until they admitted they are involved in the raid of a detachment in Mankayan, Benguet where two soldiers perished and several firearms taken by the rebels.

How could the authorities think these guys (and a girl) are NPAs? This callousness on the part of police authorities displays the anti-people character of the PNP. Furthermore, this shows the utter disregard of the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration to protect human rights.

In the same light, the authorities put militant and progressive organizations in Baguio City and elsewhere in the country in an intensified surveillance, intimidation and harassments. Political activists were subjected to stalking, prank calls, burglary and even cell phone snatching.

Are these included in a scheme to keep the activists busy amid a systematic policy of killing the “enemies of the state”?

Obviously, the organized anti-GMA groups in the region are also obliged to look into these cases of military and police atrocities. Their hands are full these past few days, but definitely, these incidents will keep the groups for GMA’s removal even more vigilant.

The heightened surveillances, harassments and threats on the lives of political leaders of progressive and militant groups and the practice of having “fall guys” (or fall girls) are but adding fervor to the flames of the ongoing people’s resistance to GMA’s decaying regime. #

Post your comments, reactions to this article

Home > Op-ed | Back to top