Malacañang should account for rights violations instead of blaming victims

Malacañang called the November 29 protest action of the Manilakbayan contingent at Times Street, Quezon City "vandalism masquerading as legitimate protest." It is a logical reaction from a regime that looks at governance as a game of masquerade instead of looking into and addressing the roots of people's dissent.

All through the more than four years of the US-backed Aquino regime, it has resorted to dishing out catchy slogans to mask its attacks on the Filipino people. Aquino's Oplan Bayanihan instrumental in the bombing of communities, illegal arrests, detention, and killings of activists masqueraded as 'peace and development, and respect for human rights.' The police brutality used against legitimate protest actions and during demolition of urban poor shanties masqueraded as 'maintenance of peace and order.' The pork barrel system and the Development Acceleration Program or DAP masqueraded as 'economic stimuli. 

Benigno Aquino's statements on extrajudicial killings and a host of human rights violations in the Philippines is a recording-a canned, predictable response if not a mantra he has to recite to convince himself that his regime is different from all the other regimes in the past, which committed transgressions on people's rights and lives.

If not using catchy phrases, Aquino's statements could be as delusional as this: "there has been a significant reduction of recorded or validated extralegal killings." At times, he simply dismisses human rights violations committed under his regime as "baseless" or "propaganda."

We will be commemorating the International Day of Human Rights–the fifth under the US-Aquino regime. Beyond the name-calling and outright lies, we no longer expect to hear from Aquino an accounting of his regime's responsibility for the gross human rights violations committed against the people.  But we keep tabs. The US-Aquino regime stands on trial before the nation. The people are the witnesses and their own harrowing experiences under this regime, their testimonies. 

The peasants and indigenous peoples of Mindanao who travelled to Metro Manila for more than a thousand kilometers are examples. Definitely they are here not to attend Aquino's masquerade ball. Their lives are on the line as they defend the country's remaining natural resources from plunder of big and foreign interests.

Cristina Palabay

Secretary General, Karapatan