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Arroyo Regime Under
International Scrutiny

By Brian McAfee

25 February, 2007
Countercurrents.org

As Hernani Pastolero was sipping his cup of coffee in front of his home early last Monday morning he was shot twice in the head by an unidentified gunman. Pastolero was the editor of the Lightning Courier, a weekly newspaper in the southern Philippines. He was the 50th journalist killed since Gloria Macapagal Arroyo became president in 2001 and the first in 2007. This number is part of the greater number of leftists that have been murdered in the same time period, now numbering 834.

Most of these killings have been linked to Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) or the National Police with the Arroyo administration giving tacit approval, at the very least. Throughout the time period of the killings she has sided with the military every time concerns have been raised and her Justice Secretary, Raul Gonzalez, has routinely blamed all the killings on the New Peoples Army even though there has never been solid evidence linking them to the killings.

Arroyo has continuously promoted all in the military that have been accused of the killings and/or human rights abuses. "No general under the Arroyo administration will be held accountable for the killings," says Renato Rayes Jr.,Bayan Secretary General. On the friday before the Pastolero killing the United Nations special rapporteur on extra-judicial killings was wrapping up a ten day visit to the Philippines to look at the killings. There was an ever increasing International outcry and requests from numerous left wing and human rights organizations to intervene as the Arroyo government was inactive in attempting to stop the killings.

Even though many in the Philippines see a direct link between Arroyo and the Military in the killings, with Arroyo giving tacit approval, Philip Alston, the U.N. special rapporteur stated "I do not believe there is a policy at the top designed to or which directs that these killings take place. I am clear on that." Leaving Arroyo off the hook for responsibility for what went
on during her tenure as president. This may further open a Pandora's Box that has unleashed terror across the archipelago.

The United States, which for decades has trained the Philippine Military continues to do so through the Joint Combined exchange Training program (JCET), which engages in small unit training, rifle marksmanship, day and night navigation, small unit killing, in short. Another U.S. training program that has been training the AFP for years is the U.S. International Military Education and Training program (IMET). IMET graduates populate the rank and file of the Philippine Military and the U.S. actively promotes a close U.S.-Philippine Military relationship. The telling silence of the U.S. and the Bush administration over the ongoing killings and the lack of action or concern on the part of the U.S. government is indicative of complicity. One of the other highly questionable areas in the U.S.-Philippine relationship is the pressuring the Philippine government by the U.S. to turnover the rapist of a young philippine woman to the U.S. embassy. The convicted rapist, U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith, was handed over to the U.S. by, the ever prostrate and servile to the U.S. government, Raul Gonzalez. The Arroyo administration and the Armed Forces of the Philippines increasingly resemble the defunct right wing military dictatorships of Latin America, with the same Washington backers. Hopefully, for the sake of the Philippine people, this nightmare will end and a new "People Power" will emerge.

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