Clergy score AFP red-baiting

From The Standard (Nov 7): Clergy score AFP red-baiting

RELIGIOUS groups scored the Armed Forces of the Philippines for “red-baiting” foreigners who were part of an independent fact-finding probe that looked into the atrocities committed against indigenous people in Mindanao, called lumad.

“No, they aren’t linked with the [Communist Party of the Philippines-New Peoples’ Army]. We don’t know what’s on the mind of the AFP. We asked them repeatedly if they could speak with us to know their point-of-view, but to no avail,” Bishop Modesto Villasanta of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines told The Standard in an interview.

Villasanta blasted the military for repeatedly ignoring their request for interviews and instead choosing to vilify the probe.

“We’ve personally sent a letter to Col. Isidro Purisima, the commander of the 402nd IB and Senior Supt. Narciso Verdadero, the PNP provincial director, asking if the members of the IFFI can talk with them on the killing of lumad. But we were rejected for several times,” Villasanta added.

On Thursday, Army spokesperson Col. Benjamin Hao accused six foreign members of the IFFM of having links with leftist cohorts and branding the IFFM itself as “fake.”

“As tourists, they cannot meddle in the internal affairs of the country. Our immigration rules are simple and clear. They are not authorized to conduct a fact-finding mission as they had no authority from any international organization nor clearance from the [Department of Foreign Affairs],” Hao said.

Villasanta identified the foreigners as Jonas Straetsmans of Belgium, Dalkiran Metin and Hans Schaap of the Netherlands, Gill Boehringer of Australia and Henry Langston and Philip Calles of Vice News London.

They were part of the 140-man team, majority of whom were Filipinos, that was commissioned as an “ecumenical effort” by the UCCP, the Aglipayan Church and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Tandag in efforts to prosecute the people behind the killings of lumad.

“They have already completed the probe just last week,” Villasanta said.  

The AFP and the PNP claimed that Schaap, in particular, helped recruit members for the NPA’s Southern and Western Mindanao guerrilla fronts and has direct contact with NPA leader George Madlos.

Villasanta added that they personally asked the foreigners to come over to the country and shed light into the killings “as they are personally supporting the lumad.”

The Alternative Learning Center for Agriculture and Livelihood Development were among the IP schools being tagged by the military as “breeding grounds” for communist ideas.

Also on Friday, Bayan Muna Representative Carlos Isagani Zarate lashed out at the Army’s threat to deport the foreign-based observers, claiming that the military’s aim is to “whitewash” their alleged violations against lumad.

“The Philippine Army’s threat to deport foreigners who joined a fact-finding mission that looked into alleged human rights atrocities committed by army-backed militias against the lumads in Surigao del Sur is a cheap shot,” Zarate said.

Zarate said the presence of foreign delegates in the mission was to ensure an objective and unbiased report.

“Human rights organizations invite foreign observers and participants because it provides more credibility, expertise, and insight to fact-finding missions, especially in cases with many dimensions and intricacies, such as the killing of lumads, particularly in Surigao del Sur, and the massive displacement and humanitarian crisis that these problems spawned,” he said.

http://thestandard.com.ph/news/-main-stories/top-stories/191307/clergy-score-afp-red-baiting.html