BY JOVE!

GUILT

Before the actual entry….

White Oleander divx
Toots Ople gave me the heads up about this additional nomination for the 2007 Philippine Blog Awards. A click HERE will help. Thanks!

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(and now for the actual entry, hehehe)

GUILT

Since the time we (MPC members) got hold of the information about the verdict of the Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT), we burned the lines and sent text messages to Malacanang officials for their reaction.

To no avail. (it is now 4pm)

As early as 9pm Sunday, we were advised that the President won’t have any official activity that’s open for coverage.

Today, one palace reporter tried to text Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye about the issue. Bunye replied by texting back: a blank text message. The reporter thought some kind of celfone glitch occurred, so she asked Bunye if that’s an official reply. The Secretary sent another blank reply. Interesting statement if that’s not due to techno malfunction.

Another group of reporters were able to get the reaction of Sec. Norberto Gonzales…

I will post the exact quotes as soon as I get the transcript but in effect, Norbi expectedly dismissed the findings of the PPT, saying that it is not surprising from the start that the group would reach that kind of decision. For Gonzales, it is clear what kind of group PPT is. He used words like “propaganda front” and even called it a fine example of a “kangaroo court”.

When asked by the lady reporters if the President knew about the findings, he evaded the question and just said that they know the leanings of the group and that they don’t wish to give legitimacy to PPT.

He said they are not worried, despite the intention of the group to bring their findings to the UN and even if the aim is to take out the nation’s membership in key UN committees. He’s surprised he said that the media is giving attention to groups like PPT.

Here’s the entry that prodded Norbi to react the way he did and what made some other palace officials “silent”…..

Arroyo guilty of crimes against humanity
Tribunal Verdict to be transmitted to the UN, ICJ and European Parliament

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – In a 13-page verdict read before about 300 people inside a church in this city March 25, the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) found both Philippine President Gloria M. Arroyo and U.S. President George W. Bush, Jr. and their respective governments as responsible for gross and systematic violations of human rights, economic plunder and transgression of the Filipino people’s sovereignty.

The verdict, read at the conclusion of the five-day second session on the Philippines by François Houtart, Session President, described the extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances, massacres, torture and other atrocities allegedly committed by the Arroyo government as “crimes against humanity”. Such violations which the PPT said were in no way justified as “necessary measures against terrorism”, must be stopped immediately.

In a cultural program held right after the verdict was read, Senator Jamby Madrigal said the Tribunal’s judgment will dispel the claims of the Arroyo government that there is democracy in the Philippines. The senator, who spoke as a resource person during the tribunal proceedings, said that the country is now ruled by a military junta with Mrs. Arroyo acting only as a figurehead.

The concluding part of the Tribunal took place at the Pax Christikerk in The Hague. The Hague is the Netherlands’ seat of government and the world’s center of international law. It hosts the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the new International Criminal Court (ICC) of the Rome Statute of 1998, and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTFY) that tried Milosevic, the deposed president of Yugoslavia for war crimes.

The Tribunal, composed of six internationally-eminent persons, also named the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), as having “a central role” in the atrocities, adding that the military is “a structural component and instrument of the policy of the ‘war on terror’ in the Philippines” declared by both Arroyo and Bush, Jr.

The verdict was rendered after three continuous session days that heard the testimonies of witnesses of political killings and abductions, expert testimonies and boxes of documents, and other evidences to support three major charges against the two governments. The charges were on: violations of the Filipino people’s civil and political rights; economic, political, and cultural rights; and violations of the people’s rights to national self-determination and national liberation.

The number of victims of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines has reached 839 this week. Hundreds of others were victims of frustrated murders and abductions, widely believed to be perpetrated by government security forces. This report has been confirmed by the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, involuntary or summary executions, and by the government-created Melo Commission.

In the Tribunal, several testimonies of eyewitnesses, experts and resource persons were heard live through tele-video conference with Manila, with questions tossed by members of the Tribunal’s jury.

Those who gave depositions and testimonies either in person or through video hook-up included Marie Hilao-Enriquez, secretary general of human rights alliance Karapatan; Dr. Constancio “Chandu” Claver, victim of frustrated murder; Dr. June P. Lopez, an expert in handling torture and trauma victims; Navy Capt. (ret.) Danilo Vizmanos; UP Faculty Regent Prof. Roland Simbulan; Bishop Elmer Bolocon of the UCCP and Ecumenical Bishops Forum (EBF); Elmer Labog, chair of Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU); and Danilo Ramos of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP)…..