Four gun men on board a Nissan Patrol driving from inside Las Haciendas De Luisita and coming out to the west gate drove through the makeshift barricade manned by striking workers at about 10 pm Wednesday night and shot Jorge Loveland, 32, resident of Barangay Balete, Tarlac City and critically wounded Ernesto Ramos, 50, of Barangay Mapalacsiao, uncle of CATLU president, Ricardo Ramos.

Doctors at the Ramos General Hospital, where the victims were rushed, pronounced Loveland, who was hit by a single bullet in the upper left breast, in stable condition. Ramos, who was also hit by a single bullet in the stomach is in critical condition and will undergo a major operation. (more)

Related story: KARAPATAN denounces new attempt on the lives of striking workers in Luisita

An alleged “hit list” of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) hogged the news headlines on Dec. 26 - the same day the CPP itself marked its 36th anniversary. The alleged “hit list” against “counter-revolutionaries” was denounced by Walden Bello, director of the Bangkok-based and well-funded Focus on the Global South and Etta Rosales, Akbayan party-list House representative. Bello is himself “chair emeritus” of Akbayan.

Their denunciation sprang from an article that came out in the Dec. 7, 2004 issue of Ang Bayan (AB or The People), the central publication of the CPP. The article is half-page with a diagram showing the links of reformist and pseudo-revolutionary groups with international Trotskyite and social democratic formations. The term “hit list” attributed to the diagram was coined by Bello and Rosales.

Bello and Rosales used the AB article to launch an offensive on Jose Maria Sison, founding chair of the CPP, accusing him of, among others, using the CPP as a “fascist harbinger of violence, hatred and murder.” They issued an “Open Letter” – a copy of which was never sent to Prof. Sison himself – and delivered it personally to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, which headlined the story, and other dailies. The letter is now circulating worldwide.

QC Indymedia is publishing the Bello-Rosales letter and replies by Sison dated Dec. 26 and 27.

The rejection of a longer-term truce was made in reaction to statements by Malacanang calling for a permanent cessation of hostilities between the government and the NPA.

The Christmas ceasefire, which takes effect from midnight of December 23 until midnight of January 2, 2005, was made "in unity with the Filipino people's traditional celebration of Christmas and the New Year" and "to pave the way" for the celebration of the CPP's 36th anniversary on December 26.

The CPP, however, has instructed NPA fighters to continue to bear arms and "remain alert and ready to fight and defeat any attacks and harassment" by government armed troops.

The CPP said it issued the declaration despite the Arroyo government's continued violation of past agreements reached in the now-suspended peace talks. The government, said the CPP, has failed to fulfill its commitment to take concrete measures to oppose and rectify the malicious inclusion of the CPP, NPA and NDF Peace Panel Chief Political Consultant Jose Ma. Sison in the US list of so-called terrorists.

The CPP also accused the Arroyo regime of "relentlessly violating" provisions of the human rights agreement signed by the NDF and the Philippine government.

It likewise condemned "successive brutal attacks by fascist forces of the reactionary government against unarmed people," citing the the November 16 Hacienda Luisita massacre and the more recent killing of peasant leader Marcelino Beltran, a vital witness to the massacre. It also condemned state forces for indiscriminately firing at a human rights day demonstration in Daet, Camarines Sur.

The CPP also scored the Arroyo regime for "duplicity" in declaring a Christmas ceasefire even as AFP and PNP continue with their military campaigns and operations against NPA guerrilla fronts across the archipelago. The CPP reported ongoing AFP offensive military operations in Cagayan Valley, Mindoro Occidental, Surigao del Sur and Negros Occidental.

No permanent ceasefire

Saying that the "puppet, corrupt and antipeople" Arroyo government has made a permanent ceasefire impossible, CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal cited the regime's extreme subservience to US interests and its antipeople acts.

"In the face of its relentless attacks against the people, calling for a long-term truce is a psywar ploy to camouflage its militarist war of terror and crimes against the people," said Rosal.

Rosal likewise cited the regime's policy of freezing wages amid soaring prices and allowing foreign oil companies to raise oil prices with impunity, as well as worsened corruption and criminal activities by government officials as added factors that make a long-term truce untenable.

"A just and lasting peace can only be achieved by resolving the roots of the armed conflict, primarily by carrying out land reform and national industrialization," Rosal added.

"The Arroyo regime's puppetry to US interests, its worsening corruption and criminal activities, the intensified hardships and oppression of the masses and the brazen use of fascist state violence all justify the intensification of revolutionary armed struggle," Rosal said.

The government expected the NDFP to reciprocate "in respect to the essence of the Yuletide season," said Malacañang spokesperson Ignacio Bunye in a news briefing.

"Any move to reciprocate the unilateral ceasefire declared by the government is welcomed, but we believe that it would be more beneficial if both the government and the CPP-NPA can come up with a lasting ceasefire like the one that we have with the MILF," Bunye added in a Dec. 18 statement.

The NDFP, however, is wary about Malacañang's ceasefire declaration.

Fidel Agcaoili, NDFP co-chair of the Joint Monitoring Committee for human rights, lambasted the government for setting capitulation as precondition.

NDFP chief negotiator Luis Jalandoni, meanwhile, accused the government of poisoning the backchannel line of communications. "Based on past experiences with so-called unilateral ceasefire of the GRP and the regime’s proven record of anti-people and anti-national policies and actions," Jalandoni said, "the regime’s unilateral ceasefire for Christmas and New Year holidays must be considered a tricky psywar scheme."

On the prospect of a long-term truce, NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison said that it is possible if there are basic reforms.

On the other hand, the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU or May First Labor Center) hopes that the bombing was not the handiwork of the military and is not a pretext for an escalation of the presence of state forces in the city. The KMU calls for an independent investigation into the bombings.

The Philippine Constitution lists press freedom as a basic right of Filipinos, on par with the right to life, the right to freedom of speech and expression, and freedom from involuntary detention and torture.

On the eve of the commemoration of the International Day of Human Rights, Filipino print, radio, television and web-based media practitioners join the lament of all compatriots whose rights have been violated in what is supposed to be one of Asia's most vibrant democracies.

Our national officials like to describe the Philippine press as among the freest in the region. Certainly, many journalists in other Asian countries languish indefinitely in jail. Colleagues in other nations experience censorship or work under the shadow of draconian internal security laws that brook no dissent against a country's rulers.

But in the most basic of right -- that to life -- the Philippine press is under siege. The Philippine press will remember 2004 as a year of infamy. We have lost 13 colleagues in what could be work-related murders, the highest number in history. We have lost more in other incidents billed as "ordinary" crimes -- though no bereavement due to senseless violence can be called ordinary.

There has been no single conviction for a journalist's murder since 1986. And the killers of our colleagues are getting bolder. In at least three recent killings -- that of Bombo anchor Herson Hinolan in Kalibo, Aklan; of Freeman reporter Allan Dizon of Cebu, and of Guru Press reporter Stephen Omaois in Kalinga -- the dastardly acts were followed by gloating calls and more death threats to the newsrooms. The climate of impunity is such that murder of a journalist also sparks a rash of death threats in other regions.

In condemning the killings, media groups are aware that our profession does not suffer alone. We also condemn the killings of judges, lawyers, anti-corruption advocates and human rights workers nationwide.

As Filipino journalists unite today in outrage, we also stand defiant against those who wish to silence Philippine media.

The press does not exist in a vacuum. Our nation's history has shown that it is when the press is silenced that the dark hours descend on our people. Many journalists joined our people's struggle for the restoration of democracy, and a number of us gave up careers and lives for this cause. Many journalists also fought to protect democracy against those who sought to turn back the tide of change.

We ask the public to support us in the fight for press freedom. This right is enshrined in the Constitution, not because a special sector demands special privilege, but because it helps ensure adherence to all other basic civil liberties.

With every murder of a journalist, or a judge, an environmentalist, an anti-corruption activist, a human rights worker – democracy dies a little. As our nation grapples with crisis, and powerful groups jockey to control big chunks of our economy and body politic, many among our citizens, journalists among them, become casualties of events.

It is time Filipinos raised their voices against the violence that stalks our land. Media organizations are stepping up the campaign for the ethical practice of journalism. Media groups and individual journalists are struggling to rectify numerous flaws in our profession. This we owe the public -- our readers, listeners and viewers. Indeed, these tasks are overdue, and we also ask the public to continuously remind us of our duties and responsibilities.

But Filipino journalists shall give no quarter to those to want to see a cowed and quiescent press. A united media sends notice to the enemies of Press Freedom: We shall overcome.

In response, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) will lead a nationwide mediapersons' protest on Nov. 17 to seek justice for their slain members and to demand an end to the killings and intimidation of members of Philippine media which, the group laments, continues to this day.

Gene Boyd Lumawag (in photo), 26 years old, was shot dead by still unidentified assailants in downtown Jolo Nov. 12 after taking photos of the sunset at the pier. He had come to Jolo along with fellow journalist Carolyn Arguillas of the MindaNews news agency to pursue a story on graft in local governments.

Herson "Bombo Boy" Hinolan, 38, was shot by a lone gunman a day after Lumawag's killing. He died yesterday while undergoing medication at a local hospital.

Lumawag and Hinolan the 57th and 58th casualties in the unending spate of murders of journalists since the so-called restoration of democracy in 1986 with the overthrow of the Marcos dictatorship.

The Antonio Zumel Center likened the situation to the post-1986 media atmosphere with the martial law years, "when journalists like the late Antonio Zumel were relentlessly pursued by the state, and many of them landed behind bars and not a few were killed or abducted, for exposing the fascist regime's atrocities against the people. Journalists were among the first to be arrested following the Sept. 21, 1972 declaration of martial law."

In a brief statement, Indymedia QC (Pilipinas) expressed full support to the NUJP and the AZC, vowing to expose on the worldwide alternative media network the ongoing murderous spree against Filipino journalists. "We will fight back by exposing to the whole world these cold-blooded murders and the refusal of the Philippine government to protect Filipino journalists."

(In photo: Gene Boyd Lumawag)