|
It’s good to know that there are idealistic and well-meaning
military officers ready to oppose corruption and speak the truth.
Some wrongly took up arms to oppose government corruption last year
and were conditionally pardoned recently by the President. Other
military officers of conscience in the Armed Forces of the
Philippines are speaking out about how they detested being given
guns with silencers and ordered to assassinate civilians who are
perceived enemies of the government.
As many as 301 people were killed by military
hit squads during the past five years according to a national
newspaper. The killings caused a national and international furor as
Asia’s oldest democracy descended into hell and became mired in
the devil’s work, as one media commentator said. The number of
dead varies—the military say there were 122 killed, while
Karapatan, a human rights group, says there were 882 deaths. The
numbers have tapered off.
The victims were shot at close range by an
assassin-riding pillion on a motorcycle that drove up beside the
victim and shot him in the head. At times the assassins used a van
with sliding doors that opened and unleashed a hail of silent
gunfire. The innocent people, social workers, religious and
political activists and those considered to be “enemies of the
state,” plunged the nation’s human rights records to an all-
time low leaving hundreds of grieving families and friends.
Unnamed military officers not wanting to be a
part of this told the chief investigative reporter of the Philippine
Daily Inquirer, Fernando del Mundo, that they were given special
weapons with silencers for the job that had to be done. “We
didn’t like the idea and the implied mission,” an officer of the
elite Scout Rangers’ Special Operations said. They were given a
list of names that were an “order of battle,” to be
“neutralized,” he said. The assassinations were “not official
policy” but were “personality based” said another officer. The
abductions and extrajudicial killings were an “unintended
policy,” according to this officer whose name could not be
publicized.
At the sight of the international protest
condemning the daily assassinations, the Philippine government tried
to distance itself from the pile of bloodied bodies by setting up an
investigative commission headed by retired Supreme Court Chief
Justice Jose Melo. The conclusions pointed to high-ranking military
officers. That conclusion has now been substantiated by the most
recent revelations by these military officers who detest the
violations of human rights and said they are disillusioned by the
policy. The Melo commission also held the communists responsible for
assassinations, too.
In one shocking admission, an Army Scout Ranger
officer said he lost his idealism when he was ordered to kill Muslim
civilians in Mindanao, including children, on the orders of his
commanding officer who told him, “Don’t you know that those
children will grow up to be rebels, too.”
How is it that the Philippine military tasked
with protecting the people rights, freedoms, property and ensuring
peace and order are now involved in these nefarious shoot to kill
activities and political assassinations? No doubt, there is
corruption within the military, as the rebel officers said, as it is
everywhere, yet there maybe an external force that led some officers
along the wrong path of killing civilians by assassination. The
Philippine military has been trained for a long time by the US army
and is under their guidance in Mindanao through the Joint Special
Operations Task Force-Philippines. This special unit is for special
operations.
The “special operations,” as the US military
manual describes them, are those “conducted in hostile, denied, or
politically-sensitive environments” and require “covert,
clandestine, or discreet capabilities.” The US Army Field Manual
says that SOFs are the “force of choice” for “dynamic,
ambiguous, and politically-volatile situations.” We hope they have
not trained the Filipinos to kill each other.
Besides, hundreds of Philippine military
officers have been trained in the US at Fort Bragg and elsewhere.
Why can’t the Philippine Military Academy train its own officers
to a higher standard including lessons in human rights and the
absolute duty of the military to protect these rights, not violate
them?
preda@info.com.ph
|
