NR0123: Noberto Gonzales & HLI

Mula sa Tanggapan ni Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran
News Release January 23, 2005

Rep. Beltran challenges Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales to declare the
country's entire political and economic situation a massive issue of national
security

Anakpawis Representative Crispin Beltran today lashed out against the Northern
Luzon Command and National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales for declaring
that there the Hacienda Luisita labor dispute was already an issue of national
security.

"Coming from a war-mongerer like Gonzales, this is an outright threat against
the strikers and consequently all the residents of worker and farmworker
communities surrounding and within Hacienda Luisita. Gonzales has most likely
gotten the go-signal from his commander in chief Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
in declaring the Hacienda Luisita picketline a war zone. In fact, it was
precisely the Macapagal-Arroyo government and its support to the inhumane and
unjust anti-labor practices and land grabbing of the Cojuangcos and Aquinos of
the Hacienda that has turned Hacienda Luisita into a battle zone," he said.

"Gonzales is not cowing anyone with this barely-veiled threat. If he and the
other henchmen of Pres. Arroyo in the Philippine National Police and Armed
Forces of the Philippines insist launching an open, full-scale campaign of
political repression against the strikers of Luisita, human rights groups and
advocates including civil libertarians will make sure that Pres. Arroyo's
name will be remembered as that of a brutal human rights violator," he said.

"It's a wonder that Gonzales does not declare the entire nation as under a
state of political and economic calamity, and thus a gargantuan national
security issue. The poor and working people are agitated and declaring their
disgust and antipathy for this government that has done nothing to liberate
them from poverty but instead manufactures laws and programs that worsen the
people's misery."

Beltran said that Pres. Arroyo is playing with fire if she thinks that she
will be able to put an end the Hacienda Luisita dispute easily. "There has
not been the slightest move on the part of the Arroyo administration to help
settle the dispute and ensure the safety, rights and welfare of the oppressed
and exploited workers and farmworkers in the Hacienda. The brutality the PNP
and the AFP have unleashed against the strikers remain unpunished, and this
is a massive red mark against the administration's human rights record."#