“Purging” Theory In Baldomero Deflects Blame Against Military

by Marco Valbuena

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) last week said the "internal purging" spin now being floated by the military and police officials with regard to the killing last Monday, July 5 of Bayan Muna Aklan coordinator and Lezo town councilor Fernando Baldomero "is meant to deflect the blame for the murder from the fascist military and security agents of the reactionary state."

"Because of the widepread indignation over the killing, the AFP is now trying to shift the blame for the killings of activists to the activists themselves," said the CPP. Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta this week complained that the military has become the easy usual target for blame in such cases. He retorted that communists or even the militants themselves could be behind the killing.

"Baldomero is a dedicated social activist and outstanding servant of the people. His killing is a big loss to the toiling masses and the movement for national freedom and democracy," said the CPP. "He is well loved by the people of Lezo. The revolutionary forces continued to regard Baldomero highly even after he decided to shift to the open, legal arena of struggle since his release from detention in 1994."

"The AFP and its henchmen in the RPA-ABB have long wanted to do away with Baldomero who has consistently served the people’s national democratic aspirations," said the CPP. "He performed his duties in the local parliamentary struggle just as ardently and effectively as he did in the armed struggle before his detention. But his shift to the legal and parliamentary struggle made him an open target of the fascist agents of the reactionary state, the only ones with the motive to kill the likes of him." Baldomero was rearrested by the military in 2004 and detained for three months.

Alston’s Report

The CPP expressed that "It is through such psywar spins as ‘internal cleansing’ or ‘communist purging’ that the military and police try to cover up the extrajudicial killings, abductions and other attacks perpetrated by state armed agents against the open, legal cause-oriented activists and organizations which they consider as ‘enemies of the state’."

"Such psywar spins have been thoroughly disproven and dis-credited," the CPP stated further, pointing to investigations in 2007 by the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) headed by Extrajudicial Killings Special Rapporteur Philip Alston which concluded that such killings have actually been the handiwork of state forces. Alston’s report pointed to the organic connection between the campaign of vilification by the government and military against progressive activist groups and the killings perpetrated against their ranks.

The CPP described as "lame and inadequate" Aquino’s order to the Philippine National Police to investigate the killing of Baldomero. "Putting a stop to the extrajudicial killings requires an overhaul of the very framework of the goverment’s military and security forces in carrying out their counter revolutionary war, something that Aquino has failed to do."

The CPP forewarned Aquino that, "ultimately, he himself will be blamed for the killings. His failure to countermand the AFP’s fascist terror tactics-cum-vilification campaign against activists, progressive groups and movements constitutes implicit support to the military’s fascist reign of impunity." /MP