Or if the guy accused of masterminding it was somebody from the Opposition like Lacson, for example, instead of Palparan (who GMA praised in her SONA), Joker Arroyo and the Arroyo administration would be the first one to attack Lacson.
UN blames AFP for murders; GMA gov’t in total denial
02/22/2007
The United Nations, through its special rapporteur, Philip Alston, in a press conference held yesterday, placed the blame on the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) for many of the political murders that have rocked the country and pressed President Arroyo to rein in the bloodshedm stressing that the AFP and the Arroyo government are in almost “total denial’.
Wrapping up an investigation into what rights groups say are more than 800 political assassinations, UN special envoy Alston said many of the killings stemmed from the military’s campaign against left-wing guerrillas.
Alston stressed that the Arroyo government was responsible for a climate of impunity but said he did not have evidence to support allegations by the nation’s leading human rights group that Mrs. Arroyo had ordered the murders.
Earlier, Alston was said to have briefed several Philippine officials, among whom was presidential legal counsel Sergio Apostol, whom sources told the Tribune reportedly asked of Alston if he could defer making public his findings after the May elections, to which Alston reportedly replied that he was not here to engage in politics.
Alston said “the increase in extra-judicial executions in recent years is attributable, at least in part, to a shift in the military’s counter-insurgency strategy,” adding that “in some instances, such intimidation escalates into extra-judicial executions,” he said, stressing that many of the killings had been “convincingly attributed” to the military, which he said was in “almost total denial” and has refused to cooperate in conducting fair investigation on the unabated executions.
Pero hindi eh. When maam Arroyo started her "War with the Left" last year, and lefty militants started from Bayan Muna, Akbayan and others started getting murdered one by one on a more regular basis by some elements in the military, and the body count kept piling up -- tahimik lang si Joker.
When Palparan last year openly advocated targetting "the enemy" (and he ain't just talking about the NPA's, if you know what I mean), tahimik lang si Joker.
Why is this guy, who we all know was a fighter and a human rights lawyer during the Marcos era, and was a vocal critic of Erap's "human rights violations" (he calls it Marcosian) whenever erap uses force to disperse the militant protests in Mendiola... bakit tahimik lang siya ngayon sa mga patayan na nangyayari during maam Arroyo's time? Aren't these the kind of issues the grandstanding Joker used to get all worked up during Marcos and Erap's time? Isn't that his forte? Wha happened? Cat got his tongue?
Joker's silence is truly DEAFENING.
More on the UN report here, here, here, and here.
Read this must-read Conrad de Quiros article on Joker ARroyo too. Money Quote:
How can anyone who has ever been a human rights lawyer possibly be confused about the direction in which this country has moved? It is not forward, it is downward. At the very least, it’s no small irony that a day before Joker said this, his boss had just walked out of a press conference because our reporter, Gil Cabacungan Jr., kept asking her why the effects of her touted economic growth had not reached the hungry. In fact, Gil didn’t just ask a perfectly legitimate question, he asked the only question worth asking. Growth that happens explosively in only one part of the body is not called progress, it is called cancer.
But far more than that, how can anyone who has ever been a human rights lawyer possibly not see the killings? Or, indeed, the mayhem that is happening right in a Bicolano’s own backyard? The deaths caused by the superstorms from the Pacific are nothing compared to the deaths wrought by the evil wind from Malacañang. One has yet to hear the opposition denounce the extra-constitutional plots of adventurous military officers? One has yet to hear Joker denounce the extrajudicial executions by murderous state-sponsored cutthroats. The killings are not just a vicious trespass against human rights and civil liberties, they are an abomination against any decent community, never mind democracy.
And still that is nothing. One has yet to hear the opposition denounce attempts by military adventurers to topple government and set up one outside the Constitution? One has yet to hear Joker denounce the actual act by a presidential aspirant of stealing the vote and setting up a government outside the Constitution. How can anyone, human rights lawyer or not, possibly ignore the “Hello Garci” tape? The fact that it was illegally obtained may only prevent us from using it to jail GMA. It may not prevent us from using it to not hail her as President. The only reason no one, opposition or not, is denouncing any attempt to oust this regime, by coup or by Cory, by military strike or by People Power, is that this regime is a coup regime. One wrought by ballots rather than by bullets, one wrought by Garci rather than by guns. It has been defended by guns ever since, which brings us back to the killings.
Indeedy.
I'm calling you out, JOKER!
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