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“<br />
Killings of activists<br />
that are supposed<br />
to be happening<br />
only outside Metro<br />
Manila are now<br />
brazenly done in<br />
broad daylight.<br />
20<br />
”<br />
The dreaded culture of impunity is now a common experience<br />
in urban poor communities, particularly in the course of violent<br />
demolitions.<br />
These killings are happening in urban areas while similar<br />
abuses continue to happen in most provinces and cities outside<br />
metro manila. Contrary to government claims, there has been no<br />
stopping in the killings and abuse of defenders of environment,<br />
agrarian reform, workers’ rights, and the universal right to life and<br />
protection. The present government must account the 67 cases<br />
of extrajudicial killings, the 4766 victims of forced evacuations,<br />
and the 11,841 cases of military use of schools, medical, religious<br />
and other public places for military purposes, all within its first<br />
18 months in office. It is widely observed that changing the<br />
government’s anti-insurgency strategy from Oplan Bantay Laya<br />
to Oplan Bayanihan does not have to do with content but with<br />
packaging similar to a candy wrapper used to make a bullet look<br />
sweet from the outside.<br />
Shoot, lie, and get away from justice<br />
From the video we saw, which is from the mainstream media<br />
and repeatedly aired in a leading TV network, we may say that<br />
human rights organizations in the Philippines are now confronting<br />
a complicated human rights environment. Killings of activists that<br />
are supposed to be happening only outside metro manila are now<br />
brazenly done in broad daylight. we saw how justice and police<br />
officials shamelessly spin stories before the media telling that the<br />
bullets must not have come from the police but from the protesters<br />
themselves, even if videos simultaneously show police operatives<br />
firing automatic rifles directly towards the protesters. Here we see<br />
human rights violations visible to all while officials openly and<br />
shamelessly try to devise ways to get away from justice.<br />
In the Philippine Independent Church, we also have had enough<br />
of this ‘shoot, lie, and get away from justice’ routine. This is what<br />
we got over the years, particularly in the cases of extrajudicial<br />
killing victims Rev. Fr. william Tadena, Bro. Benjamin Bayles,<br />
and Archbishop Alberto Ramento.<br />
Rev. Fr. william Tadena was ambushed and killed while driving<br />
less than 10 metres from the Church where he just had a Sunday<br />
Eucharist on 14 march 2005 in La Paz, Tarlac. Three Church<br />
workers who were in the car were also hit by gunfire; one of them<br />
has been disabled and disqualified to work for life. A few weeks<br />
later, the police presented to one of the wounded Church workers<br />
a suspect arrested for another criminal case in another province.<br />
The Church worker testified that the suspect is the same person<br />
he saw shoot them and kill Rev. Tadena.<br />
The suspect was eventually convicted of murder in a separate<br />
case and now is under punishment of life imprisonment. The<br />
problem is that due to his prison sentence, he can no longer be<br />
brought to the Regional Trial Court in Tarlac City for personal<br />
identification by the witness. Worse, the original pictures of<br />
article 2 � June-Sept 2012 Vol. 11, No. 2-3
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