Philippine police, NYPD sign agreement that will lead to more human rights abuses
On Nov. 4, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) denounced the memorandum of agreement between the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the New York Police Department (NYPD) signed Oct. 31, as “part of heightening U.S. government intervention in the Philippines.”
The Communist Party of the Philippines further said that “the agreement with the U.S. NYPD, one of the most notorious fascist police organizations in the world, can only lead to worse human rights abuses by police operatives under the Aquino regime.”
The memorandum of agreement was signed by PNP Chief Nicanor Bartolome and the head of the NYPD's Singapore satellite office, Lieutenant Gustavo Gutierrez. It purportedly serves to advance “cooperation in addressing transnational crimes” and “capacity building and training” between the PNP and the NYPD. According to information earlier released by the PNP, the NYPD will open a satellite office inside the Philippine National Police’s general headquarters in Camp Crame.
“The PNP-NYPD memorandum of agreement will only serve as an additional legal cover for the U.S. government's heightening intervention in the Philippines. It will lead to more extensive and intrusive intelligence and other types of operations by U.S. police and military agents in the country,” said the Communist Party of the Philippines.
“Even before the memorandum of agreement, U.S. police and federal agents have already been operating in the Philippines clandestinely with the cooperation of the local police.” The CPP pointed out that political prisoners detained at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame were able to uncover the presence of agents of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) maintaining their own offices within the camp and in a condominium unit nearby.
Several Indonesian nationals accused of being ‘terrorists’ and arrested by U.S. agents in Indonesia and Malaysia have been renditioned by the U.S. government and given false Filipino identities at the behest of the FBI to justify their detention at Camp Crame. This is in violation of Philippine national sovereignty and the Indonesian detainees' human rights, added the CPP.
“The NYPD is notorious for being a fascist tool of suppression against the American people,” said the CPP. “Recently, the NYPD was employed in the suppression of protest actions at Zucotti Park near Wall Street by American workers, students and ordinary people against the pro-big monopoly policies of the American government,” said the CPP.
“Following the pattern of its new partner, the PNP is bound to become even more brutal in dealing with protests, urban poor anti-demolition barricades and other mass actions,” said the CPP.