Philippine soldier

The Philippine Army (PA; Filipino: Hukbong Katihan ng Pilipinas; Spanish: Ejrcito Filipino), is
the main, oldest and largest branch of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) responsible
for ground warfare. Commanding General, Lieutenant General Eduardo Ao, former Chief of
Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP),[4][better source needed] assumed
office on 15 July 2015. Its main headquarters is located at Fort Bonifacio, Taguig, Metro
Manila
Regional Context Is terrorism real in Southeast Asia? The Bali blasts and Philippine kidnappings
have focused attention on a region once perceived as relatively peaceful with political
violence merely domestic in scope. There used to be no cause for worry after all, the region
hosts a moderate form of Islam. But all that has changed as Southeast Asia is touted as the
second front for the US-led war against terrorism. The events of 11 September were a wake-
up call to Southeast Asia as its regional grouping, ASEAN balances the need for stabilizing the
terrorist threat and the demands of Islamic militants against crackdown on Islamic radical
individuals and groupings.
Several soldiers with ranks of Privates and Private First Class from the 6th Field Artillery
(Deadly Accurate) Battalion (6FAB), who were deployed in the area of Central Mindanao
received their baptism of fire during the actual fire support provided to the operating troops
of the 6th Infantry (Kampilan) Division, Philippine Army in its recent law enforcement
operations.Their deployment came after the Pre-deployment Training including the series of
mentoring and coaching sessions direct from their senior NCOs and Officers led by
Lieutenant Colonel Francis Anthony M Coronel, the Commanding Officer of 6FAB.
Companies from the segregated Black infantry regiments reported to the Presidio of San
Francisco on their way to the Philippines in early 1899. In February of that year Filipino
nationalists (Insurectos) led by Emilio Aguinaldo resisted the idea of American domination and
began attacking U.S. troops, including the 24th and 25th Infantry regiments.The 9th and 10th
Cavalry were sent to the Philippines as reinforcements, bringing all four Black regiments plus
African American national guardsmen into the war against the Insurectos.Within the Black
community in the United States there was considerable opposition to intervention in the
Philippines. Many Black newspaper articles and leaders supported the idea of Filipino
independence and felt that it was wrong for the United States to subjugate non-whites in the
development of what was perceived to be the beginnings of a colonial empire. Bishop Henry
M. Turner characterized the venture in the Philippines as "an unholy war of conquest." (21But
many African Americans felt a good military showing by Black troops in the Philippines would
reflect favorably and enhance their cause in the United States.
 Extra judicial killing
An extrajudicial killing (also known as extrajudicial execution) is the killing of a person by
governmental authorities without the sanction of any judicial proceeding or legal
process. Extrajudicial punishments are mostly seen by humanity to be unethical, since they
bypass the due process of the legal jurisdiction in which they occur.[citation needed]Extrajudicial
killings often target leading political, trade union, dissident, religious, and social figures and are
only those carried out by the state government or other state authorities like the armed forces
or police, as extra-legal fulfillment of their prescribed role. This does not include cases where
aforementioned authorities act under motives that serve their own interests and not the state's,
such as to eliminate their complicity in crime or commissioning by an outside party.[1]Section
3(a) of the United States Torture Victim Protection Act contains a definition of extrajudicial
killing:a deliberate killing not authorized by a previous judgement pronounced by a regular
constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by
civilized peoples. Such term, however, does not include any such killing that, under international
law, is lawfully carried out under the authority of a foreign nation.[2][a]Extrajudicial killings
and death squads are common in Syria,[3][4][5] Iraq,[6][7][8][9][10] Egypt,[11][12][13][14][15] Libya,[16] Central
America,[17][18] India,[19][20][21] Mexico,[22] Colombia,[23]Brazil,[24][25][26][27][28] Venezuela,[29][30] Indonesi
a,[31] Afghanistan,[32] Pakistan,[33] Bangladesh,[34][35][36] several nations or regions in
Africa,[37][38][39][40][41] including the Democratic Republic of the
Congo[42] and Burundi,[43][44] Jamaica,[45][46][47] Kosovo,[48] Russia,[49][50] Uzbekistan, parts
of Thailand,[51] Turkey,[52][53][54][55][56] in the Philippines,[57][58][59][60][61][62][63] Tajikistan,[64][65] Papua
New Guinea,[42][66][67] and by Israeli forces.[68][69][70] One of the most recent issues regarding
extrajudicial killing has been the debate about the legal and moral status of targeted killing by
unmanned aerial vehicles by the United States.
Concerning the effects of extrajudicial killings such as those authorized in the Philippines by the
current president, this is an opinion piece rather than an analysis of facts and addresses the
ethical and moral underpinning more than the results.
Extrajudicial refers to outside of the court systems judgement but not necessarily outside the
law. Though the constitutions of many democratic countries protect suspected criminals, there
are circumstances where law enforcement or others have to take violent action, as when they
are attacked.
Obviously, self defense can lead to a legal extrajudicial killing that is justified by the urgency of
the circumstances. The other examples of them in the American historical experience were
lynch mobs and vigilance committees. The former were generally bad and the latter sort of
more organized, quasi-legal versions of the same thing.
With more than 3,000 drug war-related killings and counting, there is no doubt that President
Rodrigo Duterte is continuing the unwritten state policy of extrajudicial killings (EJKs)
againstperceived enemies of the state.
Whereas before, the policy was directed against suspected rebels or political dissenters, this
time it is against suspected illegal drug users and traffickers.It was the fascist Marcos
dictatorship that institutionalized EJKs and other human rights violations as a means to silence
the political opposition, including activists and members of the revolutionary underground.
Historian Alfred McCoy cites 3,257 victims of such killings under the Marcos regime, earning a
common term for it that is still in use today: salvaging.

Post Marcos, it was the Arroyo regime that blatantly implemented this Marcosian legacy. From
2001-2010, human rights group Karapatan documented 1,206 EJKs committed by state security
forces and state-backed para-military and vigilante groups. In her State of the Nation Address,
then President Arroyo even praised the notorious retired general Jovito Palparan, who admitted
to having inspired the killings, for his excellent work.
Since becoming president of the Philippines in June 2016, Rodrigo Duterte has launched a war
on drugs that has resulted in the extrajudicial deaths of thousands of alleged drug dealers and
users across the country. The Philippine president sees drug dealing and addiction as major
obstacles to the Philippines economic and social progress, says John Gershman, an expert on
Philippine politics. The drug war is a cornerstone of Dutertes domestic policy and represents
the extension of policies hed implemented earlier in his political career as the mayor of the city
of Davao. In December 2016, the United States withheld poverty aid to the Philippines after
declaring concern over Dutertes war on drugs.