BS Aquino’s Oplan Bayanihan bound to fail despite billions for its implementation

“The people will not be cowed even as Aquino regime pours hundreds of billions for its killing machine,” said Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general in today’s hearing on the 2015 budget of the Department of National Defense (DND) at the House of Representatives.

OpBay pumapatay

The DND proposed budget for 2015 budget, Karapatan noted, is Php 17 billion higher than last year’s actual budget of more than P82 billion. This year, the Defense Department has proposed a whopping Php 99,469,167,000. Items in the budget include the same old items such as modernization budget of the Armed Forces of the Philippines at Php 20 billion; and,  Php 2 billion compensation and separation benefits for the paramilitary group CAFGU. The latter has been implicated in numerous human rights violations since its inception in 1987 during the Cory Aquino regime including the infamous 2009 Ampatuan massacre but all post-Marcos dictatorship regimes refused to dismantle the CAFGU despite widespread calls for its abolition. 

Palabay noted that the budget for the implementation of the US-backed Aquino regime’s counterinsurgency program Oplan Bayanihan (OpBay) is not dependent on the DND’s budget alone. The 2015 total budget for Oplan Bayanihan amounts to more than Php 200 billion, Php 40 billion more than last year’s budget. The funds are spread out in different government agencies, namely, the Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Social Work and Development, and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP).

The DSWD and OPAPP funds for PAMANA and Kalahi-CIDSS are part of Oplan Bayanihan’s implementation, particularly for its psy-war component. These projects are dubbed “pro-development and pro-people” in OpBay parlance. “PAMANA and Kalahi-CIDSS projects are mere palliatives meant to douse dissent over government’s anti-people policies and programs,” explained Palabay. 

“AFP chief of staff Gen. Gregorio Catapang bases his empty boast that the ‘New People’s Army would be history by 2015′ on his bloated defense budget,” said Palabay. “But the government’s unchanged militarist approach to armed conflicts has been a failure since the time of the Marcos fascist dictatorship,” she added. 

 

“The people will not be cowed even as Aquino regime pours hundreds of billions for its killing machine,” said Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general in today’s hearing on the 2015 budget of the Department of National Defense (DND) at the House of Representatives.

OpBay pumapatay

The DND proposed budget for 2015 budget, Karapatan noted, is Php 17 billion higher than last year’s actual budget of more than P82 billion. This year, the Defense Department has proposed a whopping Php 99,469,167,000. Items in the budget include the same old items such as modernization budget of the Armed Forces of the Philippines at Php 20 billion; and,  Php 2 billion compensation and separation benefits for the paramilitary group CAFGU. The latter has been implicated in numerous human rights violations since its inception in 1987 during the Cory Aquino regime including the infamous 2009 Ampatuan massacre but all post-Marcos dictatorship regimes refused to dismantle the CAFGU despite widespread calls for its abolition. 

Palabay noted that the budget for the implementation of the US-backed Aquino regime’s counterinsurgency program Oplan Bayanihan (OpBay) is not dependent on the DND’s budget alone. The 2015 total budget for Oplan Bayanihan amounts to more than Php 200 billion, Php 40 billion more than last year’s budget. The funds are spread out in different government agencies, namely, the Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Social Work and Development, and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP).

The DSWD and OPAPP funds for PAMANA and Kalahi-CIDSS are part of Oplan Bayanihan’s implementation, particularly for its psy-war component. These projects are dubbed “pro-development and pro-people” in OpBay parlance. “PAMANA and Kalahi-CIDSS projects are mere palliatives meant to douse dissent over government’s anti-people policies and programs,” explained Palabay. 

“AFP chief of staff Gen. Gregorio Catapang bases his empty boast that the ‘New People’s Army would be history by 2015′ on his bloated defense budget,” said Palabay. “But the government’s unchanged militarist approach to armed conflicts has been a failure since the time of the Marcos fascist dictatorship,” she added. 

 

 

Karapatan said the huge amount of money for Oplan Bayanihan and the deployment of Palparan-clone generals in areas considered as NPA hotbeds would only aggravate the human rights situation in the country.

“The government may spend hundreds of billions of pesos for its COIN program but unless it addresses the root causes of armed conflicts it will only bring about the peace of the graveyard on top of mounting human rights violations,” said Palabay. 

"Moreover, graft and corruption being so entrenched in the bureaucracy, the AFP included, these billions will just end up in the pockets of corrupt generals," said Palabay.   

“In the end, the US-backed Aquino regime can only further enflame dissent and armed resistance.## 

Oplan
Bayanihan Proposed Fund Allocation for 2015

Agencies

2015 (proposed)

DND

99,469,167,000 

DILG – PNP

70,763,289,000

DILG – Napolcom

1,426,813,000

DILG – Support for Peace and Order
Councils

34,177,000

DILG – Comprehensive Local Integration
Program

131,254,000

NICA

530,030,000

OPAPP

582,280,000

NSC

91,622,000

Budget for PAMANA

9,220,070,000

Budget for Socio-Economic Component of
the Normalization Process

2,462,283,765

DSWD – Kalahi CIDSS

17,530,737,000

TOTAL
2015 BUDGET FOR OPLAN BAYANIHAN

202,241,722,765