On the Farrazini Killing

Noong February 4, 2008, sa Bankerohan, Davao City, sa akalang siya'y isang military informants, walang awang pinaslang ng NPA si Vicente Ferrazinis. Bukud sa siya'y isang civilian, si Vicente Ferrazinis ay isang kilalang lokal na negosyante sa Davao na pinasimulan pa ng kanyang ama nuon pang 1940s. (Photo: interfaith rally sa Liwasang Bonifacio na pinangunahan ng Bagong Alyansang Makabayan at Bayan Muna. Ang rally ay may panawagang Katotohanan, Katarungan at Pagbabago; http://www.malaya.com.ph/mar15/)

Sa isang public apology (liham) na ipinadala ng Merardo Arce Command ng Southern Mindanao Regional Operational Command, NPA, malungkot na nakasaad sa lengwaheng dayuhan ang katagang; “that Ferrazini's killing (isang malaking pagkakamali) was a highly regrettable occurrence.... that the grounds on which a lower unit command of New People's Army (NPA) based their decision to mete out the particular action taken against Vicente Ferrazini are insufficient to warrant the maximum penalty of death. "

- Doy / IPD
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A letter by Placida Penitente
Thursday, March 06, 2008 6:01 PM

Dear Sir,
May I call your attention on the killing of Mr. Vicente Ferrazini, a small businessman in Davao. As a family friend, I view with sympathy and concern the case of Mr. Vicente Ferrazini who was wrongly gunned down by NPA rebels last February 4. Recently, the NPA apologized for killing him, but they could never bring him back to life, back to the arms of his loving family.

This only shows that there is no justice and legal system under the NDF or CPP organization. People could be tried and meted death by a "lower NPA unit command", as openly admitted by the NPA-MAC statement. It is therefore the NPA who "prosecute", "judge" and execute their defenseless victims.
Where then is the "just people's court" that they are bragging about? Where is the "due process" that they claim to champion?

Mr. Ferrazini is a civilian murdered by an NPA team. He is protected by the International Humanitarian Law as a civilian in the middle of Internal Conflict. The NDF-CPP-NPA committed themselves to CARHRIHL. But the Ferrazini murder is a clear violation of CARHRIHL and being so, an apology is not enough.

CARHRIHL is an agreement of the government and the NDF to respect human rights and the safety of civilians and non-combatants in the conduct of the internal conflict. According to that agreement which they signed in The Hague in 1998, in such case as the Ferrazini Killing, the NDF is duty bound to prosecute the guilty persons who
committed it; aside from indemnifying the victims' family with a just and reasonable amount.

The NDF's so-called commitment to Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law is clearly a mere propaganda. This case shows that there is none, but a bag full of lies. If they will succeed and come to power(heaven forbid!) they will definitely establish a Pol Pot regime and fill mass graves with peoples' bodies.

The NPA's recent apology is nothing but 'crocodile tears' shed before the public to mitigate their murderous guilt. One could be reminded of a similar case: the Digos Massacre in early 1990s. The NDF promised indemnification of the families of victims, which never happened. Now here they are again making that insincere and empty promise.

The NDF and their front organizations mounted complaints of "extra- judicial" killings and "involuntary disappearances" purportedly committed by the GMA government. Now, they are equally guilty of the same human rights violation and criminal act when they killed Ferrazini. They should stop raising the issue of "extra-judicial killings" if they temsleves commit the same crimes.

My sympathies to the family of Enting Ferrazini. Our beloved friend's death will not be in vain. For his death has brought to the fore the reality that the NDF and NPA are also human rights violators.

May we call the attention of the civil society on this case.

Sincerely,
Ms. Placid Penitente
5416 Yakal St., Pasong Tamo, Makati City
On Penitente and Ferrazini
Ka. Easel
Anakbayan-DAVAO
Thursday, March 13, 2008 6:30 PM
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A Statement of Self-Criticism on the Ferrazini Killing
Rigoberto F. Sanchez
Spokesperson; Merardo Arce Command
Southern Mindanao Regional Operational Command
New People's Army
February 25, 2008
After issuing a statement on February 4, 2008 claiming responsibility for the punitive action undertaken by operatives of the Ka Paking Guimbaolibot Red Partisan Brigade (KPGRB)-NPA against landlord-businessman Vicente Ferrazini in Davao City, the Southern Mindanao Regional Party Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines (SMRPC-CPP) and the Merardo Arce Command-Southern Mindanao Regional Operations Command of the New People's Army (MAC-SMROC-NPA) conducted an internal investigation on the matter. This investigation was initiated to clear the air in the light of various reactions from within and outside the revolutionary movement. (Photo above: "The New People's Army is branded a terror group by the US;" newsimg.bbc.co.uk/.../_41128879_ap_npa203.jpg)

The result of this investigation established the conclusion that the grounds on which a lower unit command of New People's Army based their decision to mete out the particular action taken against Vicente Ferrazini are insufficient to warrant the maximum penalty of death. Further, the implementation by the Ka Paking Guimbaolibot Red Partisan Brigade (KPGRPB) of the said flawed decision by a lower unit command of the NPA was likewise found incorrect.

As a matter of self-criticism, we apologize to the family of Mr. Vicente Ferrazini as well as to the people in general for this highly regrettable occurrence. Consistent with the principles, laws and policies on revolutionary justice adhered to by the revolutionary movement, the SMRPC-CPP and the MAC-SMROC-NPA are currently undertaking appropriate and necessary courses of action related to this grievous incident. Among others, we are prepared to make an indemnification for this and are open to meet and talk with the Ferrazini family via their choice of neutral channels.

This self-critical and public admission of fault is a hallmark of the principled standpoint, viewpoint and method of the revolutionary movement. We stand for the truth and struggle for genuine justice; we admit errors and rectify mistakes and are steadfast and undaunted in accepting responsibility all in the interest of truth and justice.

In a fundamental way, this is sharply in contrast to the terrible record of fraud and fabrication, deceitfulness and deception of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Numerous cases of the AFP's gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian law under the fascist Arroyo regime's Oplan Bantay Laya I and II have tremendously risen and widely condemned here and abroad and yet the political and military leadership of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) remain in a hopeless state of denial. Despite being deeply stuck in the quagmire of state terrorism -- where serious crimes against the people such as massacres, extra-judicial killings and forced disappearances -- are perpetrated in disgusting regularity and brazenness , the AFP and PNP continue to muster the impertinence, albeit vainly, in claiming respect for human rights and adherence to international humanitarian law in its conduct of what is clearly a frantic but futile effort versus the spreading flames of peoples resistance and revolution. #
http://www.philippinerevolution.net/cgi-bin/statements/statements.pl?author=mac;date=080225;language=eng
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"On the Farrazini Killing"
On Penitente and Ferrazini
Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2008 6:30 PM

Ka Easel (March 13, 2008 ) of Anakbayan-Davao wrote:

Dear friends,
I trust that you will be fair enough to allow me to react to the one-sided statement of Placid Penitente on the Ferrazini case in Davao. (Photo: http://www.blogger.com/www.ciw-online.org/images/Day-3&4-Udub-Anak.jpgimages/Day-3&4-Udub-Anak.jpg)

It seems that there is an orchestrated anti-communist propaganda being weaved around the killing of Ferrazini by military psywar agents. The successive news features on the case and the Penitente statement seek to protray the people's army and the NDF as "human rights violators". Everybody knows that the NPA and the NDF have the highest interests of the people in their fight against imperialism and feudalism. The people's economic and political rights are being violated by landlords and bureaucrat capitalists who deserve the punishment of the people's army.

We must not forget that Ferrazini is a landlord-comprador and his family had exploited workers and farmers for decades. His good public relations cannot cloak their family's exploitative and oppressive acts. The NPA apologized for his killing, it is true. But it is only because of political reasons and not because there was a real mistake in his killing.

Penitente invoked Human Rights and International Humanitarian Laws. These are all bourgeois standards created by the western capitalist world during the cold war era, as a propaganda tool of the imperialists against the socialist camp led by Comrade Stalin. If these will be the norm in determining what is just and unjust, then the rights of individuals will gain higher premium than the rights of the oppressed people and classes. The only measurement of what is just and unjust lies in the reality of class struggles and class wars, where the few ruling social elite exploit the majority of the toiling masses.

In my opinion, it will be wrong for the NPA to tie its hands to the so-called CARHIL because they will lose the initiative from their own hands and momentum, and allow the reactionary AFPwe to launch political-military offensives under the cloak of bourgeois human rights. The NPA should continue its offensives especially now that the reactionary state has exposed its political bankcruptcy and anti-people nature. They should not forget that they are fighting a just war, a war to end all wars, a war to attain just and lasting peace, a war that will uphold the people's genuine human rights in the end.

Mayor Duterte's anger against the NPA is not because he really believes it was a mistake and of no basis. Duterte has a special relation with one of the Ferrazini women. That is the real truth. And he had to denounce the NPA because he wants to please his special friend. We will not blame him. But the public should know where his statements are coming from.

People like Penitente should stop attacking the NPA and allow herself to be used by the military agents. Stop beclouding the real issue. Stop pretending that you and your lot are the "champions" of democracy and human rights because you support the bourgeois ruling elite (if you are not one of them) who feast while our people's suffer in poverty.

Let us not muddle the issues. All efforts should be for the ouster of the US-Arroyo regime now!
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Ka Easel (March 13, 2008 ) of Anakbayan-Davao wrote: "In my opinion, it will be wrong for the NPA to tie its hands to the so-called CARHIL because they will lose the initiative from their own hands and momentum, and allow the reactionary AFPwe to launch political-military offensives under the cloak of bourgeois human rights. .."
(Photo: www.bulatlat.com/images/4-31/Jalandoni.jpg)

Luis Jalandoni (September 03, 2002) said: In the course of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations, the principals of the GRP and NDFP negotiating panels have mutually approved a series of ten agreements, including the GRP-NDFP Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) in 1998. The GRP and the NDFP have thereby bound themselves to comply with the principles and standards of respect for human rights and humanitarian conduct in the civil war in the Philippines. Both sides in the armed conflict are required to prevent, avoid and combat acts of terrorism against the civilian population and the hors de combat.

http://www.philippinerevolution.net/cgi-bin/statements/statements.pl?author=lj;date=020903;language=eng
Accessed 14 March 2008

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