hile some folks are getting their panties in a bunch over that so-called Permanent People's Tribunal in Geneva finding the Philippines and US Presidents guilty of "crimes against humanity," please note that the Dutch envoy to the Philippines, Ambassador Robert Vornis has called it a KANGAROO COURTThe Netherlands' ambassador to the Philippines on Monday said that his government is concerned about reports of alleged human rights violations in the Philippines. The Dutch government, however, said the ongoing deliberation of the Permanent People's Tribunal (PPT) in The Hague should not be regarded as an official exercise.Well, it's a most unfair and insulting characterization to associate certain large marsupials on the Southern Continent with that Stalinist-Maoist exercise in Geneva involving pinheaded Francois Houtarts and Gianni Tognonis. But with Jose Maria Sison there providing most of the "evidence" for the six man "jury" of Human Rightists of the International Left, it's the least that the representative of the Dutch government can do. After all, it is his government that is the biggest state supporter of communist terrorism in the Philippines by giving a bunch of accused multiple murderers there a decades-long Dutch Retreat from which to wage revolutionary war from half-way around the planet.
Ambassador Robert Vornis told ABS-CBN News that the PPT's activities are more of a political exercise than a traditional one. He said that Filipinos should think of it as a "kangaroo court."
Vornis issued the statement after the six-member jury of the PPT found the administration of President Arroyo to be worse than the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos whose administration was tried by the tribunal in 1980.
The jury found the Arroyo administration, the US government under President George W. Bush and their accomplices guilty of gross violations of human rights, economic and social rights and transgression of the national sovereignty of the Filipino people.
In case anyone is still mesmerized by the words UNITED NATIONS in front of "Human Rights Council" whenever "rapporteurs" are piously mentioned after parachuting into the Archipelago for talks with the front organizations of Joma, perhaps it's time to ask Secretary General BAN KIE MOON what he really thinks of those wombats in Geneva. Or check out why even the New York Times is publishing dismay at the UN CHR. And here's one of my favorite sites for keeping an eye on the UN.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is no Marcos because she doesn't have the balls that Marcos had. She may have flirted with the idea of declaring martial law last year but apparently had enough sense to take the contrary advice of the former US Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte after he dropped by all of a sudden in November 2005 (as revealed by resigned Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz). As long as the Senate and Supreme Court are there to keep her excesses in check, it's really her capitulationist tendencies and overeagerness to give ransom to terrorists from time to time that we really have to worry about. (By the way Angelo de la Cruz is running for City Councilor in her home province of Pampanga!)
14 comments:
MB,
I will use the term "fascism" against them--if and when it becomes appropriate. But I think most people now understand the term terrorism ought to be applied to people whose activities really can't be stopped by mere elections or even retirement. But the word really hasn't been invented yet for those folks in Geneva who debase the Law from on high. But just imagine a blonde and blue-eyed Hilario Davide running a fantasy league World Supreme Court or something. Ugh.
Ricelander,
Few people take the Kangaroo Court seriously. You seem to be one of them. I'm sure Joma would take you in. They can always use more propagandists and apologists with such creative reasoning. Apply to PDI or one of the other front organizations.
off topic: I sent you email re Philippine Blog Awards night.
Thanks and Congratulations.
MB--People, even poor people, make choices all of the time--some good, some bad. Some even choose to become violent revolutionaries, others become alcoholics and drug addicts. Hunger is just one of the EFFECTS of these choices. I believe people should be held responsible for their choices, even as we uphold the right of do-gooders to help them. I do not believe in Marxist determinism, as you apparently do. People are not helpless, but we must draw the line at morals.
You are however free to try and put words in my mouth so as to create easily knocked down strawman arguments if it helps you to deal with my perfectly reasonable arguments by avoiding them.
Same to Ricelander!
Dean,
Am so surprised there's even a Vornis who sees things that way among millions in The Netherlands, after all didn't you say that the Dutch "really are the biggest state sponsors of terrorism in the Philippines."?
With your uncanny infallible knowledge on all things Dutch, am even surprised to learn here in your blog that there's one in their midst who ain't into state sponsorship of terrorism in Pinas.
HB,
Just imagine if you were a Filipino ambassador to the Netherlands and the Philippines just made the murderer of van Gogh's son the star witness in a trial held at the Makati RTC that finds the Dutch govt guilty of crimes against humanity and awarded him permanent asylum and a stipend in Baguio from which he continues to call for the overthrow of the Dutch Fascists...how would you describe things for the Dutch media as you walked down the strasse?
MB,
I have nothing against occasional euphoria MB. I've even been known to engage in at least some of these vices myself...it has nothing to do with being puritanical on my part...merely analytical. When the SWS announces its statistics, explaining them becomes an ideological enterprise with lots of people. You say hunger incidence can be explained by the fact that lots of people are just "dirt poor." But you don't need to be neoconservative or puritanical to conclude that there are an awful lot of causes of poverty as well as hunger that have nothing to do with oppression and exploitation by the rich or the corrupt. Personal irresponsibility is surely a cause of both poverty and hunger, a fact of which I have become aware from personal experience. It also does not require any special ideology or prejudice to note that extreme levels of addiction to these various vices are FACTS of Filipino life (for whatever reason, psychological, political, economic, whatever). When you spend money on any of them, you necessarily have LESS to spend on food. How many of the "heads of household" interviewed by SWS were women with alcoholic husbands? drug addicts? sex-starved maniacs? shabu heads? inveterate gamblers? None? Some? Most? All. Take your pick and tell me I'm being puritanical in making such empirical observations and asking such plain questions.
To attribute all or most hunger to being dirt poor is hardly illuminating, especially if you leap to the conclusion that it is all GMA's fault for cheating in the 2004 elections!
My "Dutch ambassadorship" ain't the issue here, Dean. No point contemplating a thoroughly hypothetical question but I take your follow on comment (to mine) as an admission of some sort that you are sooooooo emotionally charged about the Dutch and Joma Sison's refugee status there that you would be prepared to tag America as the biggest state terrorism sponsors in Pinas if ever Dubya Busg as much as made a "kalabit" to Gloria for the extra judicial killings in situ.
Oh and by the way, Joma himself has been very vitriolic (like you) about the Dutch government, calling them fascists, free riders, labeling the Dutch as "terrorists of sorts", etc, etc for facing him in the European Human Rights Court re revocation of his refugee status in The Netherlands.
Amazing really that you and Joma have exactly the same dogmatic approach towards the Dutch. Tee-hee... What a paradox, eh?
And by the way, Dean, have already told you gaezillon times that Joma no longer receives ANY stipend from the Dutch government. Of course, you may fault the Dutch for allowing a non-tax paying individual such as Joma to use their roads, their bridges, their whatever but not their hospitals, etc.
For as long as the official terrorist tag applies to Joma, NO COUNTRY in the EU will give him a cent emanating from state coffers (which is what I believe you referred to with your "stipend" spiel), money that's paid by taxpayers. Of course, this is hard to understand coz in Pinas, there's no such thing as bona-fide social security pension scheme for the unemployed and the downtrodden that includes monthly cash pensions we have in the EU (and not just social welfare coupons.)
hb,
What? You lawyering for the man now? How do you know what stipends he receives? Seems to me some of the things you and that gang over at ellen's said a lot of things about "national sovereignty" that will make for interesting reading in this context.
Monsignor Buencamino,
The opportunity of which you speak is the opportunity to create a just and productive society.
So which comes first? The chicken of prosperity or the egg of opportunity?
Shouldn't the people develop a work ethic first before they can expect to enjoy the fruits of their labor? which I agree with you, those fruits ought to include the rights to the occasional bit of euphoria, but only AFTER they've fed the chilluns with the apples and oranges of that labor.
Do we have things just a bit uhmm, bass ackwards, your Grace?
Ricelander,
When you say "these killings" perhaps you refer to the list maintained by Karapatan numbering over 830 killed.
Cardinal Rosales says both sides are killing each other, meaning to say that the Military and the Militants are killing each other. If he is right, of course, then a significant number of those who have been killed are probably not even on the list maintained by Karapatan, since they only list dead or missing members of organizations like Bayan Muna. Their list purposely leaves out policemen, soldiers, agents and government officials that are killed by the NPA.
I think that is why the top leaders of the front organizations must carefully defend the claim that they are not allied with the NPA. The killings by the Left are done by the ARM, the NPA, the armed wing, while propaganda, recruitment, financial and material support are done by the shield (the front organizations).
The Military knows this modus operandi. I know this modus operandi. You know this modus operandi, so I hope you will not deny that you know this or assume that silly state of denial that Satur Ocampo, Teddy Casino and the rest of the top NDF leaders have perfected and perform with complete mastery whenever Media ask them to categorically denounce or renounce the violence of the NPA.
They never have categorically renounced the violent armed struggle of the NPA. Instead they give the same completely rehearsed bit of hedging and fancy hemming and hawing about root conditions and how it is not their place to reject the NPA's deadly means of conducting revolution, whislt fervently denying any connection between their front orgs and the armed wing.
So now I will ask you several questions:
Where do the NPA get their members and recruits? their arms and their ammo? their food and their gear? their cellphones and their load? their money, clothes, fax machnines, lap tops, radios, camping gear? their remote controlled land mines? Who attacks the government constantly in the Media, schools, and cities while the NPAs conduct military operations? Who is pinning down the govt while the guy in Geneva is giving evidence?
Finally: do you really believe there is no connection between Bayan Muna and CPP NPA NDF?
Ricelander,
Your original question was who I thought was engaged in certain killings. The general answer is that many different forces and individuals are apparently engaged in it. Among the Bishops, the Melo Commission and even the UN rapporteur there is common agreement on that general fact. They may disagree on how much by whom, but I think the outstanding fact is that there is a war, a violent struggle that takes many different forms, from outright attacks to propaganda. that war is the direct result of the existence of an armed wing that is not the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The killings, whether justified or not, cannot be stopped until that armed insurgency lays down its arms.
I merely accept this reality, whereas it seems you would hold the government forces to a standard that you would not impose on the Left.
Re: hb, "What? You lawyering for the man now? How do you know what stipends he receives? "
No, Dean, I ain't lawyering for the man at all.
You speak of stipends the man receives from the Dutch government and so I tell you there's none. (Also asked him once last year and he said "None" and then broke into rants against the 'ignoble' Dutch, etc.)
Hard to believe? Rule of law, man, rule of law.
Your man is on the OFFICIAL terrorist list in The Netherlands, UK, France, Belgium, etc., and as such, Dutch law, as well as EU member nations laws stipulate that all stipends, pensions, State freebies, etc are automatically withheld when a person is officially declared a terrorist (even if we are only doing it to make Bush happy.)
I do understand this sort of thing won't and cannot happen in Pinas so it's hard for a Pinoy to understand this but we do have certain rules to follow over here - the Dutch govt isn't exempted.
Oh yeah, to prove that the Rule of Law in Holland is alive , well, really quite unlike in Pinas, your man can still go to court and question in EU Courts Dutch govt decision to physically get rid of him when they revoked his refugee status that he got sometime in the late 80s.
Now back to you: How do you know that your man is receiving stipends from the Ducth govt?
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