The Picture That Alston Did Not Want To See

This is a photograph of our friend Isaias Manano, Jr, as shown by his own mother to United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions Philip Alston during his visit to the Philippines last February. For being the Secretary-General of Anakpawis in Mindoro Oriental and for many other reasons that do not make sense, Isaias was shot dead by an suspected military assassin while walking home last April 28, 2004.

Alston reportedly did not want to see this photograph. Well, neither did we. But we did not have the option to please ask that this photograph be taken away from our eyes, to beg off and ask to be shielded from this sight because it was an unbearable one indeed.

Almost four years have passed since Isaias was murdered. At the time of his death, the number of activists murdered by the government was pegged at 62. Now, the number of extrajudical killings has risen to over 800. The vermin suspected of masterminding the killings are now eyeing a seat in Congress. Military agents prowling the provinces and rural communities where people such as Isaias worked are now being deployed to slum areas in the cities in time for the 2007 elections. Alston, as a duly-acknowledged UN Special Procedures representative, did issue his official statement , only to be preempted and disrespectfully dissed by Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales as an unwelcome muchacho "brainwashed" by the Philippine Left. Later today, President Arroyo signs the Anti-Terror Bill into law.

If all these aren't symptoms of a government gone mad, then I don't know what this is. It's like seeing Isaias die over and over again.

Remembering Braveheart
May 23, 2004

"BNARIL C ISAIAS. PATAY NA." I received this text message from a friend at 10:30 p.m. on April 28 and slumped into numb shock. The airconditioning in the fast food chain that humid night sunk into a sickening chill. Isaias was gone, the dissident exile from Mindoro who tirelessly trekked around in his cap, rubber slippers, and hunched, lean frame. Isaias, who risked sojourns throughout numerous sites of struggle, armed only with a guitar, the strongest of principles, and the humblest of words. [Continue]