(First of two parts)MANILA, Philippines -- The wave of extrajudicial killings, which the Supreme Court-initiated summit on Monday seeks to end, may have begun after the Arroyo administration allegedly launched a campaign to “neutralize” the Communist Party of the Philippines by curbing the expansion of the party-list group Bayan Muna. The military has tagged the party-list group a communist front. A confidential Malacañang document obtained by the Philippine Daily Inquirer indicates that the campaign began after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took office in 2001, the year Bayan Muna topped the elections for party-list groups. The document calls for the use of massive “special intelligence operations” to counter the “grassroots clout” of Bayan Muna and its allied organizations. It was not immediately clear if the failure of Bayan Muna to dominate the party-list race in the midterm elections on May 14 was a result, directly or indirectly, of the campaign. The Philippine document was one of the pieces of evidence submitted by the Left to the United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings in February to prove that a government policy was behind the series of killings of Bayan Muna officers and members. The killings that also hit Bayan Muna’s allied party-list groups, Anakpawis and Gabriela, and people’s organizations such as the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) have increased to more than 800 over the past six years, according to the human rights group Karapatan. The extrajudicial killings spawned an international uproar, prompting no less than the Supreme Court to organize the two-day summit, which starts Monday at the Manila Hotel. Bayan Muna The paper, titled “The Bayan Muna Party-list Victory and the Prospects for its Wider National and Local Political Participation,” appears to have been written after Bayan Muna topped the party-list election in May 2001 and before the barangay elections in July 2002 that were later canceled.
It was included in a bigger document -- “The Strategic and Tactical Activities of the CPP-NPA-NDF in the White Areas” -- whose cover says it was prepared by the Knowledge Management Division of the Office of the Presidential Adviser for Special Concerns in October 2003. The NPA refers to the New People’s Army, armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, and the NDF to the National Democratic Front, political arm of the CPP. When reached by phone Sunday, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said the paper was not an official government document and was never implemented by the administration. “It was a proposal. I believe it was never acted upon,” Gonzales said, pointing out that it was the media that recently showed him a copy of the paper. Office of Special Concerns Gonzales said the paper was submitted to the Office of Special Concerns when he had already left that office. He had served as the presidential adviser on special concerns before assuming his present post. He pointed out that the Office of Special Concerns “receives all kinds of recommendations,” so “it doesn’t mean it’s an official government paper.” Gonzales said it was wrong for the Left to use the document as ammunition against the government because it was just a piece of paper. The paper on Bayan Muna details the alleged involvement of the CPP in the parliamentary struggle through the party-list group. The document made several recommendations on how Bayan Muna should be countered and controlled by the Arroyo administration “to contribute to its continuity beyond 2004.” “Strictly monitor all Bayan Muna activities pertaining to the upcoming barangay elections. Get exact data of Bayan Muna’s electoral coverage, membership and network,” said one recommendation. Oplan Bantay Laya The paper then suggested “the implementation of special intelligence operations to neutralize party members” and “a massive and well-coordinated mass-based psychological operation directed against mass movements and organizations supporting the CPP-NPA.” Bayan Muna and its allied party-list groups have alleged that the series of political killings against their ranks have been conducted by “special intelligence units” of the Armed Forces of the Philippines as part of the military’s “Oplan Bantay Laya.” The source of the Malacañang paper, a ranking official of a group allied with Bayan Muna, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that it was one of the documents submitted by the Philippine Left to United Nations special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Philip Alston during his visit in February. Total approach The document showed that the recommendations were made because of Bayan Muna’s increasing clout in local politics. “In areas where the presence of Bayan Muna is a potential political factor, those political leaders who lost in the last elections (the one in 2001) and even those holding key positions in various local government units will not be able to ignore Bayan Muna’s grassroots clout,” the paper said. “It is thus imperative that total government approach and decisive political measures be implemented to dwarf the seeming expansion of BM in different areas of the country. How the government will maneuver on this will certainly contribute to the continuity of the present administration,” it added. Know the enemy The Knowledge Management Division document that included the Bayan Muna appendix seemed to have been prepared when Gonzales was still the presidential adviser on special concerns. The document also included the “Knowing the Enemy” document that in 2003 identified the legal fronts of the communist insurgency and that the military presented in PowerPoint form at community assemblies. “The results of the May 2001 elections for party-list suggest that Bayan Muna has the potential of becoming a formidable political force,” read the document on Bayan Muna. Huge votes in NPA areas It took note that Bayan Muna got 1.7 million votes or 11.7 percent of the total votes cast in the party-list election and that these came from areas where the NPA had an active presence, such as the Bicol region and Northern Mindanao. “Election data from the May 2001 elections showed key provinces and areas in the country that delivered the votes to Bayan Muna. Provinces such as Camarines Norte, Surigao del Sur, Compostela Valley and Albay, to name a few, delivered huge votes to Bayan Muna,” the paper said. “By cross-examining these data with various AFP intelligence reports, it suggests ... that the turnout was high in areas where there are large concentrations of pro-Bayan Muna forces in the form of mass organizations, legal and underground groups,” it added. “(It also shows that) the presence of the CPP-NPA reinforced popular voting in the party-list system in favor of Bayan Muna,” it said. The paper expressed the belief that the active presence of the CPP-NPA’s “advanced organizational stage” in various local government units “channeled huge number of votes to Bayan Muna.” “Thus, these areas should be thoroughly examined and monitored,” the paper said. The paper said that Bayan Muna votes were particularly high in Surigao del Sur (39,182 votes out of the 80,757 cast), Sorsogon (51,537 of 121,565), Northern Samar (39,352 of 94,694), Albay (64,832 of 184,832), Compostela Valley (27,744 of 85,946) and Occidental Mindoro (14,469 of 70,558). Militant groups, too “It should be noted that these are the areas where there is an increasing movement of insurgency groups in the countryside and militant multi-sectoral and cause-oriented groups in the streets,” the paper said. By 2004, Bayan Muna and its allied organizations started calling for a stop to the assassinations that were hitting their ranks. Additional seats Despite the series of killings, the “national democratic” bloc in the House of Representatives managed to double their votes although spread among three party-list groups -- Bayan Muna, Anakpawis and Gabriela. Bayan Muna remained the topnotcher in the 2004 party-list election and seated its three representatives -- Satur Ocampo, erstwhile Bayan secretary general Teodoro Casiño and Mindanao organizer Joel Virador. Anakpawis managed to put its two nominees -- erstwhile Bayan Muna Rep. Crispin Beltran and Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas chair Rafael Mariano. Erstwhile Bayan Muna Rep. Liza Maza became Gabriela’s representative in the House. Private army Gonzales said it was not the policy of the administration to annihilate leftist activists. “The policy of the government concerns armed rebellion. We want to end armed rebellion as much as possible through peace talks. If they will agree on a ceasefire, then we resume peace talks,” he said. Gonzales insisted that Bayan Muna and allied organizations didn’t need a “private army” like the NPA to succeed in their parliamentary struggle. “In a democracy, you can’t have a political party with a private army. We cannot allow that. It’s unfair,” he said. | 
