By Carmel Crimmins
CABANATUAN CITY, Philippines (Reuters) – James Ayunga
thinks of death whenever a motorcycle roars past.
“I get goosebumps when I hear one come up behind me,” said
the farmers’ activist and father of three.
Across the Philippines, masked gunmen on motorcycles have
killed scores of left-wing community leaders and Ayunga fears
he could be next.
The 40-year-old, like other leftist organizers, believes
the government is behind the murders.
He has not returned to his village in Nueva Ecija, an
agricultural province around 55 miles north of Manila, since
soldiers accused him of membership of a communist rebel group,
the New People’s Army (NPA), two months ago.
“I’m on the move, anywhere and everywhere. I stay in a
different place every night,” said Ayunga, nervously thumbing a
newspaper in a safe house in Cabanatuan City, the business hub
of Nueva Ecija.
He denied any link with the communist movement, saying his
work was about winning more rights for subsistence farmers.
The Philippines, also fighting Muslim insurgencies, has
been battling the NPA since 1969 in a conflict that has killed
more than 40,000 people.
In June, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who is also
commander-in-chief of the armed forces, declared “all-out war”
on the communist insurgents.
Since then, leftist activists and community leaders have
been shot dead on a weekly, and sometimes daily, basis.
Arroyo denies soldiers or police are behind the murders
despite many of the victims being members of organizations the
military views as fronts for the NPA.
Previously, the government blamed the rebels and their
political wing, the Communist Party of the Philippines, for the
recent surge in killings, saying the movement was purging its
ranks as it did to chilling effect in the 1980s.
But under pressure from rights group Amnesty International,
which this month decried “politically targeted extrajudicial
executions,” Arroyo created a commission, headed by a former
Supreme Court justice, to investigate the murders.
ASSASSINATIONS
In a damning report, Amnesty estimated at least 51
political and community activists were killed in the first half
of 2006, nearing the 66 killed during all of 2005. The group
said it was concerned the military and police were involved.
A day after the Amnesty statement, another community worker
was shot dead in his home.
Despite negative press, Arroyo, who escaped impeachment in
2005 over corruption and election fraud allegations, is not
seen as politically threatened by the killings.
The idea that the NPA is behind the murders is not entirely
discounted by the public after the organization tortured and
executed thousands of its own members in the late 1980s as part
of a clearing out of suspected informants and traitors.
Some people also feel many activists are linked to the NPA
and fear they are winning positive publicity from the murders.
But analysts say the killings could encourage mainstream
leftists to join the NPA and lead to an escalation in violence.
“I think the bulk of these killings are illicit government
assassinations. The question is: How far up does it go and who
is authorizing them?” said Kit Collier, a visiting fellow at
Australian National University.
“It will definitely raise the incentive for legal left-wing
activists to take up arms.”
The NPA was at its most powerful in the 1980s, aided by the
dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. In 1987, a year after he was
overthrown, it was thought to have as many as 25,000 fighters.
Currently, the guerrilla army, which extorts money from
farmers and business people, is believed to have around 7,000
members. Fueled by entrenched poverty, corruption and a sense
of injustice, it is active in 69 of 79 provinces.
Peace talks stalled in August 2004 after Manila refused to
persuade the United States and some European governments to
remove the NPA from their terror blacklists. Negotiations are
unlikely to be revived in the current climate.
THE BUTCHER
In Lupao, a small northern town still scarred by a military
massacre nearly 20 years ago, General Jovito Palparan, head of
the 7th infantry division, is launching a charm offensive.
Armed with a Power Point presentation and plenty of
wisecracks, the man left-wing groups refer to as “The Butcher,”
explains to hundreds of residents in a packed town hall how his
soldiers will clear Lupao of NPA supporters.
The screen behind him reads: “Neutralisation of Political
Personalities.”
Accused by local human rights groups of giving his men a
free hand to kill community leaders, Palparan, 55, denies the
charge. But he says the victims are targeted because of their
“offensive” activities.
In Lupao, where the army shot dead 17 unarmed civilians in
a botched encounter with the NPA in 1987, people are reluctant
to talk about the military or the guerrillas.
There are media reports of security forces harassing locals
in the province for identification and enforcing curfews but
Palparan, a jovial man who keeps a photo on his cellphone of
his dog wearing a bow-tie, says the stories are exaggerated.
Feted by Arroyo for his campaign against the communists,
Palparan is worried international pressure to stop the activist
killings will cool the government’s anti-NPA ardor before his
retirement next month.
Some activists have said they will feel safer when the
general leaves active service. But Ayunga is not so confident.
“I don’t think things will get better,” he said. “It’s not
just Palparan, it’s a national policy.”
(Additional reporting by Joseph Agcaoili)
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