[asia-apec 232] from Bayan: Ramos Gov't. Suppresses Opposition to APEC

[daga]

URGENT ACTION APPEAL
5 November 1996
Re:     Ramos Government Suppresses Opposition to APEC
From:   Satur C. Ocampo, Spokesperson
        People's Conference Against Imperialist Globalization 
        Telephone: c/o Bayan  (63-2)  721-1021 loc. 229/252 
        Fax  (63-2) 924-6901 Attn: Bayan IRC (Urgent)
        email: < bayan at mnl.sequel.net> 
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              REPRESSION ESCALATES AS APEC SUMMIT NEARS

     A virtual martial rule is in effect in Central Luzon, the region just
north of Metro-Manila where the Fourth Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) Leaders' Summit will be held on Nov. 24-25.  On the pretext of
"security preparations"against "terroristic activities" targetting chiefs of
state who are attending the APEC summit, this state of martial rule has
actually become a convenient excuse for suppressing anti-APEC opposition,
dismantling legitimate people's organizations and economically displacing
populations to pave the way for so-called development projects intended for
foreign investors.

    In Metro-Manila, a state of war has been declared by the government of
President Fidel V. Ramos against five million urban poor residents while
signs of a violent clampdown against anti-APEC mass organizations are fast
developing. Again while the eviction campaign may be designed to hide the
squalor and poverty and project a Philippines in progress, it actually
uproots millions of homeless Filipinos struggling  to survive and fighting
for their economic rights while allowing giant real estate developers,
road-building conglomerates and MNCs to march in.

    Central Luzon . The state of martial rule in Central Luzon --
overshooting  the scale of Marcos dictatorial rule 10 years ago -- is
characterized by the following:

   1) The deployment of nine battalions of Philippine Army troops in
addition to Philippine National Police (PNP) forces, totalling about 50,000,
in at least three of the region's six provinces, namely, Bataan, Zambales
and Pampanga. Seven special Task Forces composed of other security forces
are in place: five in Zambales and one at Clark (the former US airbase in
Angeles City, Pampanga). Reinforcing them are PNP Special Action Forces
(mostly in Bataan) and composite contingents which include Marines.

   In addition to these, notorious paramilitary groups particularly the
Citizens Armed Force Geographical Units (Cafgus) and the Community Volunteer
Organizations (CVOs) are reactivated in almost all provinces. Other
paramilitary units (such as Anak-Bayan and Kamagong) are operating
region-wide, including Bulacan and Nueva Ecija. Other civilians have also
been armed as part of the Community-Based Special Action Forces (COBSAF)
which are deployed in at least four provinces.

   Barangay (village) officials and students are also recruited as informers
to monitor the activities of anti-APEC organizations, individuals and their
offices.

   2) Curfew, checkpoints, ID System. Curfew is now imposed in four towns of
Zambales, including Olongapo which hosts Subic (the former US naval base,
site of the APEC Leaders Summit). The controversial national ID system
(which has been opposed as a curtailment of individual liberties) is in
effect also in Zambales and in neighboring Pangasinan province. Checkpoints
manned by PNP and town officials are also in place along highways and other
strategic routes, on the pretext of protecting commuters from holdups and
robberies.

   3) Curtailment of freedom of speech and assembly. In Bataan and Zambales
schools, police are conducting room-to-room meetings, warning students of
"salvaging" (euphemism for summary execution)  those who opposed APEC.
Critics and opponents of APEC are thus called "communist terrorists."
Anti-APEC meetings are banned especially in Olongapo, and so is critical
political graffiti.

   The massive deployment of troops and subsequent restrictions and
semi-hamletting of communities however are turning out to be directed
against those opposed to APEC -- particularly the Bagong Alyansang
Makabayan, allied groups such as the League of Filipino Students (LFS) as
well as justice and peace and human rights organizations, which are members
of the Philippine Organizing Committee (POC) of the People's Conference
Against Imperialist Globalization and the People's Caravan Against APEC.. 

   Surveillance, harassment and threats of "salvaging" of members of these
cause-oriented organizations have been taking place in Bataan, Zambales,
Pampanga and Nueva Ecija particularly since June and have notably been
intensified today. A "hit list" or order of battle is reportedly being
circulated in Bataan and Zambales, implicating and linking leaders of
people's organizations to "terrorists." Having been lumped with and fingered
publicly as "terrorists," anti-APEC oppositionists especially militant
groups are now a fair play for arrest or assassination by state and
anti-left fanatic forces.

   Reports by Bayan-Central Luzon reveal the following, as of Oct. 26, 1996:
25 cases of harassment/intimidation, zoning operations (Bataan and
Pampanga), raid of a house (also in Bataan), illegal searches and looting.

   In Samal, Bataan last Sept. 14, peasant leader Nicanor Herrera, 44, was
found hanging dead from a tree with a nylon rope around his neck. His body
bore bruises and torture marks. (Witnesses told a fact-finding mission that
Army troopers from the 24th IB were the only ones near the scene when the
incident could have happened. The soldiers appeared drunk.)

      Allegedly as part of the APEC preparations, peasant communities along
with urban poor families are being displaced. At least 1,000 families are
set to be evicted from their decades-old farmlands inside Clark  for reasons
of security and to pave the way for an expansion project that would attract
foreign investments. Another 31,000 Mt. Pinatubo evacuees will likewise face
eviction from their resettlement areas -- likewise for security reasons.
Hundreds of families have also been evicted and a number of small business
establishments torn down  in Tarlac (where APEC delegates will visit former
President Corazon Aquino's Hacienda Luisita) and in Zambales particularly
Olongapo. Meanwhile, close to 42,000 workers inside Subic will be forced to
take leaves without pay  weeks before the summit.

     Metro-Manila. A wave of demolitions affecting thousands of urban poor
families is underway in this metropolis since Ramos ordered last June the
fast-track demolition of  so-called "squatter colonies" in order to clear
eyesores and beautify the metropolis for the APEC dignitaries. Since June,
the houses of about 5,000 urban poor families (or 30,000 residents) have
been demolished violently by city authorities, police elements and goons
armed with bulldozers, high-powered rifles, truncheons, teargas, water
cannons and German shepherds.  

   Demolitions were also marked by the destruction and burning of kitchen
utensils and personal effects as well as shooting and beatings. Three
persons (including two urban poor organizers) have been killed with at least
100 others including children injured. 

     BAYAN estimates that Ramos' demolition orders  affect close to five
million urban poor residents in the metropolis. (Half of the metropolis' 9
million population is urban poor.) Urban poor leaders and organizers,
meanwhile, have been threatened with arrest and possible "salvaging."

     People's Conference and Caravan.  The Ramos government is paranoid
about the People's Conference and Caravan strongly opposed to
"globalization" in general and  WTO-APEC in particular. Its blanket policy
of banning some conference speakers and delegates from entry  to Manila is
a clear violation of  one's right to freedom of expression and of movement.
Militarization in Central Luzon has the immediate goal of preventing the
villagefolks from joining the People's Caravan, which will pass through the
towns and provinces of the region. Olongapo City officials ban anti-APEC
rallies and other mass actions. As the Ramos government is unable to stem
opposition to APEC by those who are most adversely affected by imperialist
globalization, it chooses to silence them and deprive them of any forum.  

     These reports underscore the fact that authoritarian rule, said to have
been written off 10 years ago with the fall of  the dictator Ferdinand
Marcos, remains a reality in the Philippines. Some observers say this is
just a prelude to the Ramos agenda for a prolonged political rule beyond
1998 when his term ends.

     The harsh realities show that coercive means are at the disposal of
government to ram down its policies on the Filipino people particularly its
pro-APEC agenda and to stifle opposition. To ensure that his military orders
are followed, Ramos packed the National Organizing Committee for the APEC
Summit with retired generals including former Armed Forces Chief  Gen.
Lisandro Abadia. US intervention is likewise evident insofar as security
preparations and training of government troops assigned to APEC are
concerned: all preparations are closely monitored  by US military officers. 

   Military officials have in fact been reported as saying, "We are ready to
sacrifice a handful of rabble-rousers and obstructionists to make the APEC
Summit a success." Yet they, along with Ramos himself, have consistently
denied that militarization is in the works in Central Luzon saying that
"saboteurs and terrorist trouble-makers" are just "inventing fiction." Ramos
meanwhile has said, "demolitions must go on." Against those criticizing
militarization in Central Luzon, the chair of the Senate Defense Committee
(Sen. Orlando Mercado) himself declared that an "overkill" is in fact
necessary. Interior and Local Government Secretary Robert Barbers has
ironically admitted ordering PNP forces to conduct surveillance on activist
groups especially those opposed to APEC.

   The militarization and repression of human rights in Central Luzon -- as
what is also obtaining in other regions of the country -- go beyond APEC.
The state's wrath against the poor masses of men, women and children --
peasants, workers, urban poor, national minorities, fisherfolk  -- goes
beyond APEC for as long as the globalization-advocate Philippine government
is subservient to foreign investors and domestic elite. The track record of
the government -- from the time of Marcos, Aquino and now Ramos -- remains
anti-poor, anti-democratic and pro-elite, pro-foreign big business. At the
core of this orientation is an iron fist made infamous by the Philippines'
current president -- himself an architect of Marcos' martial rule and of
Aquino's "total war policy" against militant groups and revolutionary
guerillas and which also left a litany of human rights violations.

    Meantime, with the surge of militant mass protests against APEC and
imperialist globalization and as the APEC Leaders' Summit nears,
counter-opposition activities and other restrictions, as well as mass
displacements and demolitions, are expected to escalate with impunity.
 
   In view of the foregoing and what is yet to come, we call on you and your
friends, who are concerned with the current state of siege in our country,
to immediately do the following:

     1) Demand the immediate pull-out of all troops in Central Luzon,
including the dismantling of paramilitary units and other armed civilian
components;

     2) Demand an immediate stop to all forms of harassment and intimidation
against the people of Central Luzon particularly cause-oriented
organizations, their leaders and members, and the prosecution and punishment
of perpetrators of human rights violations;

     3) Demand a stop to the eviction of urban poor and peasant communities,
adequate compensation for and the resettlement of those already displaced to
their former residences and places of work; also a stop to anti-labor
policies and orders; and

     4) Demand the rescinding of the government policy which arbitrarily
bans the entry of speakers and delegates to anti-APEC conferences and other
fora, and illegalizes holding of any anti-APEC people's action in Olongapo City.

   Please conduct signature campaigns and write letters of concern,
statements, petitions and resolutions. They can be addressed to any of the
following:
 
	President Fidel V. Ramos
	Malacanang, Manila, Philippines
                
	Gen. Lisandro Abadia
	Chair, APEC National Organizing Committee
	Malacanang, Manila, Philippines

	Your Government, Head of your official  APEC delegation
	
	Applicable UN Agency

  Please furnish us a copy for  our information and files, and for
information of Philippine Media thru the:
          		 POC, People's Conference
		 Fax (63-2) 924 6901 Attn: Bayan IRC (Urgent)
                	 e-mail: <bayan at mnl.sequel.net>   
			   cc:  <tpl at mnl.sequel.net>