KARAPATAN condemns the mounting human rights violations in civilian communities where soldiers conducting so-called focused military operations have had a prolonged presence.
In San Jose del Monte (SJDM), Bulacan, troops of the 80th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) have been conducting saturation drives for the past two months against residents of Barangays San Roque, Paradise and Tungkong Mangga, known to be strongholds of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and the Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luson (AMGL).
According to reports, by mid-August, the military had practically encircled peasant communities in the four barangays of SJDM. Around 400 families or close to 2,000 individuals have been subjected to house to house interrogations and summons and coerced into surrendering as “terrorists” or sympathizers in order to “clear” their names. Red- and terror-tagging seminars maligning the KMP, AMGL and other progressive groups are being conducted. Membership in these organizations and attendance in protest rallies are prohibited, with those who refuse to surrender and abide by the military’s orders to stop attending rallies threatened with arrest.
In June, the 80th IBPA illegally raided the residence of KMP secretary general and Tanggol Magsasaka coordinator Ronnie Manalo in SJDM and planted evidence against him. He is now facing trumped-up charges of illegal possession of firearms, signalling what may be a major crackdown against the progressive peasant movement.
The military operations have engendered fear among the peasant communities and disrupted their livelihoods and other economic activities, particularly the Bungkalan movement which supplies fresh produce at reduced prices in various areas of Metro Manila through the mobile Bagsakan Farmers Market.
These disturbing developments may soon be replicated in campuses across the University of the Philippines (UP) system with the recent signing of a memorandum of agreement between UP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). The new memorandum now justifies and formalizes heightened military intrusion and presence within UP campuses and the conduct of, among others, red- and terror-tagging seminars in the guise of “information dissemination” by the AFP.
In fact, campus repression already reared its ugly head just days after the signing of the memorandum, when UP student leaders who staged a lightning rally on August 16 near the UP Tacloban campus were violently dispersed, with the protesters prevented for hours from returning to the UP Tacloban campus unless they give their names to the police.
KARAPATAN demands a stop to the human rights violations attending the AFP’s focused military operations and the withdrawal of all military forces from civilian communities for being detrimental to the people’s safety and security. Justice must be rendered to all victims of human rights violations perpetrated during these operations, the guilty parties punished and the masses provided compensation for the mental and psychological suffering and the economic losses they sustained in these operations.
