Archive for March 22nd, 2007
CHR recommends Metro troop pullout
MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is urging the pullout of soldiers from depressed communities in Metro Manila and other urban areas to remove the impression the country is under martial rule, an agency spokesman said Thursday.
The CHR made the request in letters to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Armed Forces chief General Hermogenes Esperon Jr., Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., among others this week, CHR spokesman Edgado Diansuy said in a phone interview.
“The commission wants to erase this bad impression. The country is not under martial law; why are there soldiers on the streets?” Diansuy said.
“Allegedly, they [soldiers] are on community service, but we have the police to do that,” he added.
Diansuy said CHR investigators were dispatched to villages in the capital where soldiers were deployed but found no evidence of abuse or electioneering as alleged by left-wig party-list groups.
Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Bartolome Bacarro said Esperon was “seriously considering” the CHR’s request.
“This might have an effect on the areas where we have troop deployments like Davao, General Santos and even Zamboanga…The chief of staff would like to further discuss this matter with the CHR,” Bacarro told a news conference in Camp Aguinaldo.
“We are seriously studying it…So while we are studying this, we are also awaiting instructions coming from the higher leadership,” he added.
But Bacarro belied the commission’s observation that the Metro Manila troop deployment gave the impression that the country was under martial rule.
“Let us define militarization. This means day to day activities are in a way controlled by the military…we can see that this is not happening,” he said.
Bacarro said the pullout would reduce the military to “talkies” who could not deliver on their “commitment” to community service.
Since November 2006, nine-man teams have been deployed to 26 villages in Metro Manila. The military said the soldiers would do community service and were training for deployment to humanitarian missions abroad.
But last week, Esperon admitted that the deployment was part of Opaln Bantay Laya 2, the government’s counterinsurgency master plan that aims to defeat the communist insurgency by the end of Arroyo’s term in 2010.
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53% of Filipinos say they are poor — survey
MANILA, Philippines — Fifty-three percent of Filipinos consider themselves poor, according to a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey conducted in February, which was released on Thursday.
Self-rated poverty in Metro Manila dropped to 39 percent in February from 54 percent in November but it rose during the same period outside the capital, from 48 percent to 53 percent in Luzon, 55 percent to 59 percent in the Visayas, and 54 percent to 57 percent in Mindanao, the independent poll said.
“The net result was that self-rated poverty stayed virtually unchanged at the national level, being 52 percent last November and 53 percent this February,” the SWS said in a statement.
The SWS polled 1,200 heads of households nationwide from February 24 to 27. It had a margin of error of +/-3 percent.
The self-rated poverty threshold, the monthly household income of a poor family fell to P10,000 in February from P12,000 in November. In Luzon, it rose to P6,000 from P5,000, while it stayed at P6,000 and P5,000 in the Visayas and Mindanao respectively.
The SWS said the drop in the self-rated poverty threshold was an indication that Filipinos were “tightening their belts” or “lowering their living standards.”
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Esperon stands pat on outlawing CPP
MANILA, Philippines — Despite a rebuff from Malacañang, the police and other quarters, Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Hermogenes Esperon Jr. is standing pat on his suggestion to outlaw the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
In an interview with reporters on Thursday, Esperon claimed to have recently seen a leaflet of the left-wing party list Bayan Muna (People First), which he said listed the CPP, its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA), and political wing, the National Democratic Front (NDF) as “underground” groups.
Esperon refused to give additional details on how the military got hold of the alleged Bayan Muna leaflet.
“We might as well illegalize the Communist Party of the Philippines since they [Bayan Muna] admit that they [CPP-NPA-NDF] are underground anyway, or most of them are underground,” Esperon said.
Esperon reiterated his argument that the CPP took advantage of the repeal of Republic Act 1700, or the Anti-Subversion Law, which was intended to pure the rebels to give up armed struggle.
“Did the CPP go for the democratic space that we have? No, they did not. They continue to lead combatants…That means they are not predisposed to playing in the democratic space,” Esperon said.
Esperon broached the idea of reviving RA 1700 during a Manila Overseas Press Club (MOPC) forum in Makati City last March 15. The Palace rejected the idea a day after. The Philippine National Police also said there was no need to revive the repealed law with the passage of the new Human Security Act, or the anti-terrorism law.
The military chief also welcomed the opening of a people’s tribunal in The Hague, The Netherlands on the spate of extrajudicial killings of left-wing militants and journalists, which previous inquiries have blamed on the military.
“We welcome all investigations…I don’t think we will be called [but] if they come here we will give our statement,” he said.
Esperon also gave an unsolicited piece of advice to Bayan Muna Representative Satur Ocampo, who is detained on multiple murder charges that stemmed from the discovery of a mass grave of suspected military informants in Inopacan town, Leyte province in late August 2006.
“Magpakatotoo ka. Harapin ang korte. May kaso na siya e, hindi magbintang pa siya na nagtransfer ng kalansay [Be true to yourself. Face the case in court. He shouldn't accuse us of transferring skeletons],” he said.
Ocampo had accused soldiers of planting the bones in the mass graves, dubbed “The Garden,” where 67 remains have so far been dug up.
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PHOTOS: 110th Army Anniversary in Fort Bonifacio
Army Chief Lt. Gen Romeo Tolentino addresses his commanders at the Fort Bonifacio club house
Former Army chiefs including ex-chief of staff Gen. Generoso Senga (ret., third from left)
AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. slices through a rifle seized from communist rebels with a metal saw
Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., too, dismantles a rifle seized from the New People’s Army (NPA)
Army Chief Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino, AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr., and Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane inspect firearms seized from communist rebels
AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. inspects a grenade launcher sized from NPA rebels
Army Chief Lt. Gen. Romeo Tolentino (R) shows Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. (L) the engine of a prototype armored personnel carrier
Here is a video clip of Tolentino’s speech. Log on to INQUIRER.net Videos on YouTube
Marine commander in Janjalani slay reassigned
MANILA, Philippines — The Marine commander, under whose watch Abu Soya chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani was neutralized, will be relieved from his post effective March 31, and will be reassigned as deputy commander of the Armed Forces Western Mindanao Command (Wesmincom), a spokesman for the Marine Corps said Thursday.
Brigadier General Juancho Sabban will relinquish his post as commander of the 3rd Marine Brigade based in Jolo, Sulu to Colonel Natalio Ecarma III, the outgoing Marine Corps chief of staff, said Lieutenant Colonel Ariel Caculitan.
“This is okay with me. It’s a promotion,” Sabban said in a phone interview, when asked about his new assignment.
“The Chief of Staff wants me to be involved more in the planning against the Abu Sayyaf, before, my area was only in Sulu, now, I also
cover Basilan and Tawi-Tawi,” Sabban said.
Janjalani was killed in an encounter with Marine troops in the jungles of Patikul town last September 4. His remains were unearthed last December 27 and weeks later, DNA tests in the United States confirmed
the notorious extremist’s death.
A veteran of the Mindanao wars, Saban was also part of intelligence
operations that led to the neutralization at sea of former Abu Sayyaf spokesman Aldam Tilao alias Abu Solaiman in June 2002.
Sabban is a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy’s 1978 class, while Ecarma is a “mistah” or member of the academy’s 1981 class.
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Retired general linked to rights abuses eyes party-list seat
MANILA, Philippines — Elated after being cleared by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) of involvement in extrajudicial killings in Central Luzon, retired Major General Jovito Palparan is setting his sights on a party-list seat in Congress.
But Palparan refused to reveal which party list group he was joining, saying he was negotiating to be the first of its three nominees.
“It’s not yet final, but that’s my intention,” Palparan said on local television when asked if he would run in the party-list elections this May.
“We’re in negotiations. The nomination, if they want me to be their number one nominee,” he said.
Palparan belied reports that he was running under the Alliance for Nationalism and Democracy (ANAD) party-list, which has been known for its anti-communist stand.
Palparan said he “expected” the CHR to clear him, since “there is really nothing that they can squeeze from me.”
“I still want that the alleged extrajudicial killings be resolved so it will vindicate a number of people, including those in government,” he said.
Palparan retired from the service on Sept. 11, 2006, leaving behind a trail of killings and disappearances of left-wing activists on his every assignment.
He was commander of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division based in Central Luzon when he retired. Before this, he was assigned as chief of the 8th Infantry Division in the Eastern Visayas and the 204th Brigade in the Mindoro Provinces.
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Explosion rocks school in Quezon City; no injuries
MANILA, Philippines — An improvised explosive or “pillbox,” concealed in a paper bag, exploded at a garbage pit inside a school in Quezon City on Thursday, the police commander in the area said.
No injuries were reported, according to Superintendent Tante Agpaoa, commander of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) station 6.
At a round 8 a.m., a security guard at the Our Lady’s Grace Montessori School in barangay (village) Holy Spirit noticed a brown paper bag left unattended in front of their gate, Agpaoa said in a phone interview.
The guard threw the bag into a garbage pit, where it exploded, Agpaoa said.
Agpaoa said investigators have yet to determine who left the paper bag at the school gate.
Before the incident, Agpaoa said school management and parents of students had been arguing amid reports that the school was about to close down since it was going bankrupt.
Joel Guinto
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Defense chief apologizes to TV reporter
MANILA, Philippines — Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. publicly apologized on Thursday to a television reporter whom he berated during a press briefing over a month ago.
But Ebdane apparently owes Charmaine Deogracias another apology as he mistakenly identified her as a reporter of the Asahi Shimbun instead of Japanese television NHK.
At the start of his speech during the 110th Philippine Army anniversary in Fort Bonifacio, Ebdane acknowledged Deogracias’ presence in the audience.
“Charmaine, my sincere apology,” Ebdane said.
Asked if she accepted Ebdane’s apology, Deogracias said: “He doesn’t have to apologize for anything.”
At a news conference during his assumption as defense chief, Ebdane was irked when Deogracias had asked him about the role of soldiers in the mid-term elections in May.
Instead of responding to the question, Ebdane countered with, “What’s your problem?”
Joel Guinto
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