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Issue Number 25/26, December
2005
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Kapatiran Issue
No. 25/26, December 2005
REVIEWS
“ECHO OF BULLETS” & “DEFEND”
- Murray Horton
Our theme for this issue
is that of systematic human rights violations, and these
two video cassette discs (VCDs), are part of that. When
PSNA toured Marie Hilao-Enriquez through New Zealand in
October 2004 (see elsewhere in this issue for the
report), she gave them to us. “Alingawngaw Ng Mga
Punglo” (“Echo Of Bullets”) is a riveting
but gruelling account of the atrocities committed by the
military and death squads under the command of Major
General Jovito Palparan, an officer who leaves a trail of
death and terror wherever he goes. This documents how he
acquired his nickname of the Butcher of Mindoro in the
first few years of this century (he has since moved on,
leaving a pile of mutilated corpses in the Eastern
Visayas and now in Central Luzon. The filmmakers
themselves came under threat whilst making it – one
was abducted, along with members of a human rights team,
and lost equipment and film. He got off lightly –
simultaneously, the tortured and mutilated bodies of
human rights leaders, Eden Marcellana and Eddie Gumanoy,
were found. This is a hard documentary to watch, because
it features unflinching footage of mutilated corpses and
the white hot anger and pain of those left behind.
Palparan himself, literally a smiling assassin, is
interviewed by these very brave filmmakers (bear in mind
that only Iraq has a worse record for murdering
journalists than the Philippines).
Palparan and his innumerable murders feature throughout
this issue, whether in the reports by the four New
Zealand delegates on the International Solidarity Mission
or in the paper by Marie. This VCD puts the faces and the
dead bodies to the names of those he has had murdered.
But they would hate to be relegated to the status of
“victims” – they are casualties in the
massive campaign for justice and peace in the
Philippines. The word martyrs is overused, but not in the
case of these people. This shows the Philippine human
rights movement in action and, more importantly, it shows
what it is up against. It is sobering to bear in mind
that this only documents the atrocities in one province
(Oriental Mindoro); it is certainly not an overview of
the whole country.
Joma Sison
“Defend” is a shorter documentary on the
international campaign to support Jose Maria (Joma)
Sison, the exiled founder of the Communist Party of the
Philippines (CPP) and the highest profile political
prisoner of the Marcos martial law dictatorship. Sison
has lived in Utrecht, The Netherlands, since shortly
after being released from prison in the late 1980s and
his current role is as political consultant to the
National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP),
which is the umbrella political organisation for the
groups, including the CPP and its New People’s Army,
waging the Communist armed struggle.
In the hysteria after the September 11, 2001, terrorist
atrocities in the US, he was caught in the dragnet and
absurdly put on the list of international terrorists,
along with the likes of Osama bin Laden. The Dutch
government promptly launched a concerted campaign to
strip him of all means of support (he had never been
allowed to work there, and was reliant on welfare
payments and State housing) and throw him out of the
country (where he was supposed to go, and to what fate,
are open questions). You can read Joma Sison’s
paper, “The Attack On My Human Rights And Civil
Liberties Is Part Of US Offensive Against The
People’s Right To National Liberation, Democracy And
Social Justice” in Kapatiran 24, August 2004. It can
be read online at
http://www.converge.org.nz/psna/KapNo24/kap24art/art106.htm.
He and his supporters have spent the past several years
fighting this through various courts, both national and
international, and via a high powered international
campaign. Sison is also an accomplished poet, so the VCD
features him reading several of his works (it also comes
with a bonus CD of him singing various cover versions of
songs ranging from the Internationale to Windmills Of
Your Mind. My only comment is that he should keep the day
job).
You’re unlikely to ever see either of these on TV or
in cinemas. But you can hire them from PSNA for a token
$5 each (to cover postage) for one week. Both are in
Filipino, with English subtitles. You need a DVD player
to view them. And be warned: “Echo Of Bullets”
contains graphic sequences of the murderous consequences
of systematic State terror and mass murder.
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