AFP, PNP top of Duterte’s mind amid the pandemic

In his first televised address to the people in the new year, during the Inter-Agency Task Force meeting on the COVID-19 pandemic last Tuesday, President Duterte again bared the closeness to his heart of the military and the police, whose salaries he doubled.

Of course, that’s not surprising. Duterte has entrusted in the two security forces the conduct of his administration’s twin wars: the “total war” against the Left revolutionary movement (jointly to the AFP and the PNP) and the “war on drugs” (to the PNP).

Both wars have been criticized and condemned, locally and internationally. Moves for independent investigations, aiming to stop the extrajudicial killings and other grave rights violations and call to account those responsible, have repeatedly been raised at the United Nations. Complaints have been submitted to the International Criminal Court, and the latter has authorized a formal investigation of the drug war killings and other serious acts that could constitute crimes against humanity.

Moreover, to the public’s dismay, the President has mainly relied on retired military generals – not on health and epidemiology experts – to manage the government’s response to the pandemic.

To the defense department’s satisfaction, Duterte has shown his abiding support for the AFP modernization program even during the pandemic. He provided funding for its military procurements costing tens of billions of pesos per deal on “big-ticket” items (warships, multirole aircraft and helicopter gunships, all with missile-delivery capabilities), even as the government incurred P11-trillion-plus foreign and domestic debts to finance the fight against COVID-19 and its impact on the economy and the people’s lives.

“At the onset of COVID-19, the military had accepted the fact that its modernization procurements, especially those involving big-ticket items, would be put on hold, if not delayed, as the funds would have to be reallocated for the country’s pandemic response,” says the lead paragraph of the Business Mirror’s year-ender on defense. But it turned out, “none of the big procurements would be dropped.”

Besides the purchases, Duterte acquired $18 million worth of weapons systems as donations from the United States, purportedly for use in the “counterterrorism” campaign in Mindanao, but apparently employed in counterinsurgency operations.

In his televised address, Duterte specifically reassured soldiers and policemen that he would support and protect them should they be charged with crimes (mostly human rights violations) in the performance of their missions.

“So I’m helping them,” he said. “Every military or police officer who is facing charges for a crime connected with the performance of his duties, tutulungan ko… without exception.”

Also, Duterte took the occasion to declare anew he would never apologize for the thousands of deaths resulting from his “war on drugs,” referring to the victims as “those bastards.” And although the government has asked the ICC to defer its prosecutor’s investigation on the drug war killings and other rights violations, he asserted he doesn’t recognize the court and its jurisdiction over him.

However, the government’s request for deferment of the investigation impliedly recognizes the ICC’s authority – which the Supreme Court has upheld in a ruling last year.

Reflective of his derision for human rights and belligerence towards the Commission on Human Rights, the President has vetoed a special provision of the General Appropriation Act of 2022 establishing a Human Rights Institute, because “no specific appropriation is provided for the purpose.”

The CHR expressed sadness over the veto, but announced they would continue with the HRI, which was launched last Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day. Its launching accords with one of the CHR’s mandates under the 1987 Constitution: “Establish a continuing program of research, education and information to enhance respect for the primacy of human rights.”

“The establishment of a HRI is a long-time vision of previous and present commissions in ensuring crucial human rights education is made accessible to the people and for government personnel to better understand their role as primary duty-bearers in fulfilling [their] obligations to faithfully comply with (HR) standards and principles,” CHR Commissioner Karen Gomez-Dumpit pointed out.

“With regard to the problem of historical revisionism [attributed to the Marcos heirs],” she added, “the HRI was envisioned to fight against revisionism and provide a gateway for robust HR education programs with other government institutions.”

Now here’s something surprising. Per the news report, Duterte has slashed the proposed P19.1-billion budget – originally P28 billion – of the NTF-ELCAC (National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict), down to P5.62 billion for maintenance and other operating expenses. No explanation has been provided for the big slash. Note: Duterte is the NTF-ELCAC chairman.

Another Duterte move also requires clarification on precisely what it intends to accomplish. He issued Executive Order 158 creating the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity (OPAPRU). It replaces the better-sounding OPAPP (Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process), currently headed by retired AFP chief Carlito Galvez Jr., who also is the chief implementer of the NTF against COVID-19 and its “vaccine czar.”

Supposedly replacing the “systemic approach” for the peace process, outlined by former presidents Fidel Ramos and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in their separate issuances (in 1993 and 2001, respectively), EO 158 reduced the “six paths to peace” they had set to three goals: embed peace, reconciliation and unity in the social fabric; enhance resiliency for peace; and social, economic and political reengineering.

“Peace-building interventions, programs and activities,” the EO says, “shall consolidate peaceful relations and strengthen viable political, socioeconomic and cultural institutions to be capable of handling conflict, and enhance the capacity of other mechanisms to create or support the necessary conditions for sustainable peace.” Can anyone make out what this means?

What is clear, though, is this: While the OPAPP merely advised the President, the OPAPRU will now manage, direct, integrate and supervise, in behalf of the President, all aspects of the peace process. Duterte has ceded his principal role to Gen. Galvez. But with whom is he talking peace?

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