Now, more than 20 years after People Power threw out the tyrant, things haven’t gotten better apparently. In fact, it may have actually gotten worse. Marcos is gone but the culture of impunity continues. So far, human rights advocates have documented more than 800 killings – all committed during the reign of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, surpassing even those crimes and abuses under Marcos. Not random murders. The victims were journalists, church workers, labor organizers, civil rights activists. And the perpetrators, credible investigators have found, are linked to Philippine government security and intelligence forces.

In this town around the middle of March, the Capitol Hill’s Dirksen building evoked the same dark moods. Not unlike Pompey’s theater hundreds of years ago, the senate chamber the day before the ides of March reeked of danger. The cast embodied in statements submitted for the record included names of assassins, conspirators and counter-insurgency agents. Although the circumstances weren’t quite the same, the word “Beware” evoked the same old perils.

A ROSY PICTURE? The day before the ides of March, Sen. Barbara Boxer convened the Senate Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs for a hearing on human rights abuses in the Philippines. She was fully aware of the danger posed to the witnesses who had come from the Philippines to tell their stories. That’s why the senator turned down the request of GMA’s generals to also testify. She assured the jampacked hearing room that only diplomats from the Philippine Embassy were allowed inside.

First to make their statements were bureaucrats from the U.S. state department. Boxer chastised them for painting “too rosy” a picture in describing the steps being taken by the Arroyo administration to stop the violence. The senator also suggested that further US aid to the Philippines may be contingent on improved human rights performance. She was  particularly concerned about US money being used to train the very people who are doing the killing. “I represent one million Filipinos in my state” who are outraged by the situation, she said.   

The next panel, which included a Philippine bishop and a human rights activist, submitted a report called “Let the Stones Cry Out.” Documenting more than 800 people killed since 2001, it’s a scathing denunciation of GMA’s leadership. Its findings are confirmed by authoritative organizations, including Public Services International, a global union federation of public sector trade unions. Gloria Caoile was a member of the PSI investigating team that looked into the murders of more than 80 labor organizers. “The situation is alarming,” she says.

A DEATH SENTENCE. Three days earlier at the National Christian Church, I participated in an International Ecumenical Conference on Human Rights in the Philippines. The presentations from members of the Philippine delegation were compelling. Among them was Amirah Ali Lidasan of the Muslim-Christian People’s Alliance. She recalled what one US embassy official said right after September 11, that Mindanao will be the next Afghanistan. “Since then, the bombs haven’t stopped dropping in Sulu and Taguig,” she said. “As muslims, our own religion has become our own death sentence.”

On the last day of the conference – the morning of the senate hearing – the conference delegates (mostly church leaders from various religious denominations) marched to the Philippine Embassy to hold a prayer vigil. They carried framed pictures of some of the victims and took turns reading aloud their names. A group of church leaders entered the embassy and requested a meeting with the ambassador. They waited for about ten minutes, only to be told that he wasn’t in and that his deputy was too busy to come down.

Meanwhile, two uniformed officers from the White House security detail watched from a distance while Enrico Fos, a political officer, met with the group outside the embassy gates. His statement about the “alleged” killings was immediately challenged by the protesters. Speaking for them, Rev. Larry Emery of the Presbyterian Church made three demands: a) fly the Philippine flag at half mast to mourn the life of the 800 victims, b) assure the personal safety of the 10-person Philippine delegation, c) adhere to international law and prosecute the killers. Fos, understandably not in a position to affirm, politely offered to convey them to Manila.  

 A week later, the Embassy tried again to explain the government’s position by holding a “Pulong Bayan,” with PNP General Avelino Razon. Only a handful from the community came.

Meanwhile, the nation stops to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the US war in Iraq. Interestingly, during the senate hearings, it was noted that when President Bush declared the “War on Terror,” he listed Afghanistan and the Philippines as the two fronts in “a lengthy campaign.”

   Which brings me back to Amira Ali Lidasan, the Muslim sister from Mindanao. She told the story of 11-year-old Muni whose father and grandfather were killed by US-RP Balikatan forces. The girl saw four US Tomahawk helicopters drop bombs in her village in Sulu, killing many of her playmates. It rained with bombs for six days, she said. Today, with their schools turned into military encampments, the children have to decide what to do with their young lives. Each day is lived with a sense of foreboding and impending doom.

Here, at a safe distance, we mark with foreboding the ides of March as a time to remember our history of resistance, with a firm resolve to let the stones cry out for justice.

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