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Plotting to kill

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has finally confirmed the existence of a list naming the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) and other organizations as “influenced” by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), in a PowerPoint presentation entitled “Knowing the Enemy.”

Other organizations too made it to the list. At one point, the exposé is nothing new. It is pretty similar to a list (a flow chart, actually) propped up in main thoroughfares during the elections last year. Amusingly, it was entitled “So the People May Know”. The recent military intelligence product, in what appears to be a campaign revival to feed their anti-terrorism campaign, and to actually have some organization or somebody responsible for terrorism.

Brigadier General Jose Angel Honrado, Civil Relations Service chief, imposes on the NUJP the burden of clearing itself. The burden should be laid squarely on the doors of national security agencies, else this is mere propaganda gimmickry. Honrado’s statements trample on our basic rights as stipulated under the Bill of Rights, specifically the freedom of the press and of expression.

The NUJP is in the thick of protests against the mounting murders of Filipino journalists: three in the first three months of 2005, with two other failed attempts; 13 in 2004; 66 since 1986. These are not figures taken from the air. There are graves and widows and orphans to give painful witness to this truth. Does Honrado want journalists to shut up, roll over and cringe in one corner, so that criminal syndicates and grafters and corrupters are given free reign in this country? Is this his concept of democracy ­ a gagged, cowed press?

After including the said organizations in the list, the AFP has the gall to clarify that their naming game only intends to warn the NUJP and the other identified organizations of having contact with members of the Left. Sabay bawi ba?

Does Honrado also want journalists to ignore the fact that several of the killers were active or retired soldiers and police officers? That was not something the NUJP grabbed from thin air. Honrado can just call the Philippine National Police for a list of killers that belong or used to belong to security forces. With this confirmation, maybe he can start calling police officials communists, too.

Knowing the Enemy has but one purpose, and that is to intimidate, silence and “neutralize” individuals and organizations critical of the government’s anti-people policies. And, according to some partylists identified in Knowing the Enemy, to neutralize also means to “assassinate” in military parlance.

Does campaigning for improved ethics and better working conditions betray democracy?

Lest we looked, these missions were part and parcel of a thriving democracy. For Honrado and the government to equate genuine reform and the quest for justice for slain journalists as part of a communist plot is to betray the democracy that Filipinos hold so dear. #

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