Congressmen denounce AFP for ‘enemies of the state’ list

Congressmen denounced the Armed Forces of the Philippines yesterday for including legitimate Church, media and political organizations on its list of "enemies" of the state.

"By classifying these organizations as enemies of the state on the basis of their open opposition to government policies, the military has shown that it has forgotten what freedom of expression, freedom of speech and freedom of the press are all about," said Deputy Speaker Gerry Salapuddin and Rep. Douglas Cagas of Davao del Sur in a joint statement.

They said the decision of the AFP leadership to include these groups in its "Know Your Enemy" PowerPoint presentation making the rounds of military camps is dangerous.

"But what is more dangerous and frightening is the call for the soldiery to ‘neutralize’ the enemies of the state named in the presentation. Some misguided elements could use the exhortation as their license to inflict harm on and even assassinate the personages identified in the presentation," they stressed.

Salapuddin and Cagas urged AFP chief of staff Gen. Efren Abu to correct the "distorted view" the military apparently holds of civil society groups."It is embarrassing not just to the military, but to the entire government of President Arroyo," they said.

They also took to task AFP civil relations chief Brig. Gen. Jose Angel Honrade for saying it is up to the organizations named in the presentation to prove they are not enemies of the state and allied with the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

"Honrade is ignorant of the legal doctrine that the burden of proof is on the accuser, not the accused. The military should first prove its accusation before identifying a group as an enemy of the state," the two said.

Aside from lawmakers representing party-list organizations, militant lawyers, doctors, journalists, pollsters, government workers and even bishops are included in the "Know Your Enemy" PowerPoint presentation.

Six party-list congressmen whose groups are among those named as "enemies" of the state because of their alliance with the CCP revealed the list in a joint statement yesterday.

Representatives Satur Ocampo, Teodoro Casiño and Joel Virador of Bayan Muna, Liza Maza of Gabriela Women’s Party, and Crispin Beltran and Rafael Mariano of Partido Anakpawis said the 335-slide PowerPoint presentation is part of the military’s communist witch hunt.

"It is improbable that President Arroyo does not know the systematic red-baiting and witch-hunting activities of the AFP. For years, the progressive party-list representatives in Congress held several dialogues with her seeking her intervention but to no avail," they said.

"We therefore hold her responsible, as Commander-in-Chief (of the AFP), for her inaction which signals the fact that she tolerates if not encourages (it). She should act expediently and decisively before the situation worsens," the lawmakers said.

Besides their organizations, the 32 groups named in the "echelon of alliances" as part of the military’s PowerPoint presentation are the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace, Philippine Independent Church, United Church of Christ in the Philippines, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), IBON Databank, a pollster;

Free Legal Assistance Group, Health Alliance for Democracy, an organization of militant doctors; the government workers’ group Courage, College Editors Guild of the Philippines, the League of Filipino Students, Piston (a grouping of jeepney drivers) and National Union of Students in the Philippines.

"Like a fish caught by its mouth, the AFP’s call to neutralize the CPP echelon of alliances betrays the policy of witch-hunting and violent repression of legal democratic forces and personages. In military parlance, the term ‘neutralize’ includes assassination," they pointed out.

"These highly malicious imputations not only damage the integrity of these legitimate organizations and institutions but dangerously expose their leaders to abuse and murder," Ocampo and his colleagues stressed.

The AFP’s inclusion of media groups on its list of "enemies" of the state comes amid a spate of murders of media practitioners in the Philippines. Most of the cases remain unsolved.