The Assassins Repent and Speak Out

It’s good to know that there are idealistic and well-meaning military officers ready to oppose corruption and speak the truth. Some wrongly took up arms to oppose the government corruption last year and were conditionally pardoned recently by the President. Other military officers of conscience in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) are speaking out about how they detested being given guns with silencers and ordered to assassinate civilians, perceived enemies of the government. As many as 301 people were killed by military hit squads during the past five years according to a national newspaper. The killings caused a national and international furor as Asia's oldest democracy descended into hell and became mired in the devils work, as one media commentator said. The number of dead varies, the military say there were 122 killed, Karapatan, a Human Rights group says there were 882 deaths. The numbers have tapered off.

The victims were shot at close range by an assassin riding pillion on a motorcycle that drove up beside the victim and shot him in the head. At times the assassins used a van with sliding doors that opened and unleashed a hail of silent gun fire. The innocent people, social workers, religious and political activists and those considered to be “enemies of the state”, plunged the nation’s human rights records to an all time low leaving hundreds of grieving families and friends.

Unnamed military officers not wanting to be a part of this told the chief investigative reporter of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Fernando Del Mundo that they were given special weapons with silencers for the job that had to be done. “We didn't like the Idea and the implied mission”, an officer of the elite Scout Rangers of Special Operations said. They were given a list of names that were an “order of battle”, to be “neutralized”, he said. The assassinations were “not official policy” but were “personality based” said another officer. The abductions and extrajudicial killings were an “unintended policy”, according to this office whose name could not be publicized.

At the night of the international protest condemning the daily assassinations the Philippine government tried to distance itself from the pile of bloodied bodies by setting up an investigative commission headed by retired Supreme Court chief justice Jose Melo. The conclusions pointed to high ranking military officers. That conclusion has now been substantiated by the most recent revelations by these military officers who detest the violations of human rights and said they are disillusioned by the policy. The Melo commission also held the communists responsible for assassinations too.

In one shocking admission an Army Scout Ranger officer said he lost his idealism when he was ordered to kill Muslim civilians in Mindanao including children on the orders of his commanding officer when he was told “don’t you know that those children will grow up to be rebels too”.

How is it that the Philippine military tasked with protecting the people rights, freedoms, property and ensuring peace and order are now involved in these nefarious shoot to kill activities and political assassinations? No doubt there is corruption within the military, as the rebel officers said, as it is everywhere, yet there maybe an external force that led some officers along the wrong path of killing civilians by assassination. The Philippine Military has been trained for a long time by the United States army and is under their guidance in Mindanao through the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P).This special unit is for special operations. The "special operations" as the US military manual describes them are those; "conducted in hostile, denied, or politically sensitive environments" and that require "covert, clandestine, or discreet capabilities." The U.S. Army Field Manual says that SOFs are the "force of choice" for "dynamic, ambiguous, and politically volatile situations." We hope they have not trained the Filipinos to kill each other.

Besides, hundreds of Philippine Military officers have been trained in the United States at Fort Bragg and elsewhere. Why can’t the Philippine Military Academy train its own officers to a higher standard including lessons in human rights and the absolute duty of the military to protect these rights, not violate them?