Justice for Wim

By Ernesto Hilario / About Town

I FIRST met Wilhelm Geertman, the 67-year-old Dutch development worker who was murdered in Angeles City last week, sometime in 1990, while I was still working for a national consortium of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) engaged in socio-economic work. He was already based in Aurora at the time, having helped set up an NGO called Bataris that worked to improve the lives of the marginalized people, including indigenous tribes, in the province.

Wim first came to the Philippines in the early ’70s and enrolled in Asian Studies at the University of the Philippines. He spoke fluent Tagalog when I met him at our office in Kamias, Quezon City. Our NGO was then conducting an assessment of the impact of official development assistance (ODA) in the Philippines. Wim provided insights into how ODA from Europe was being spent in Aurora, and the conclusion that we reached based on the inputs he and others in the province gave us was that aid had done very little to uplift the living conditions of ordinary people, as most of it was spent on infrastructure projects rather than livelihood support and other services to farmers and fishermen.

Wim knew firsthand the social conditions in Aurora. He worked closely with church people in the province, and helped in organizing the people to improve their quality of life and assert their right to development which our group, the Council for People’s Development, pushed as part of our advocacy efforts. But, apparently, authorities did not look too kindly at community organizing, especially by foreigners like Wim, who was described by those who knew him as more Filipino than Dutch. He really was, having completely immersed himself in Aurora and living a very simple life.

After our initial meeting, I met Wim again, this time in Rotterdam, in 1995. He took me on a short boat cruise around the busy port and we later wound up in a bar where, over bottles of Heineken beer, we discussed what was happening in Aurora and the rest of the country. He said he was merely on a short vacation in his hometown and would go back to Aurora soon. Which he did.

I was, therefore, shocked to learn from news reports that he had been killed last week in Angeles City, in what initial reports said was apparently a robbery gone horribly wrong. But it soon became apparent that this was another case of extrajudicial killing, as he was forced to kneel and was shot in the back. The two assailants later ran off with P1.2 million in office funds earlier withdrawn from a bank.

Wim’s younger brother, who arrived in the country on Friday to attend his wake and burial in Baler, believes that he was killed not because of the money, but because he had been very vocal in his views regarding the government’s failure to address the root cause of poverty not just in Aurora but elsewhere in the country.

I would not be surprised that Wim had been included in the military’s order of battle and targeted for liquidation, as what happened to hundreds of political activists during the Arroyo administration and which continues up to now because the perpetrators have gone unpunished.

Was the military behind the killing? That cannot be established with certainty, as the police seem to be reluctant to follow any leads remotely connected to Camp Aguinaldo. The long list of unsolved cases of extrajudicial killings shows the total lack of resolve on the part of the civilian government to get to the bottom of these dastardly crimes.

It’s unfortunate that the Aquino administration is not taking decisive steps to address the issue of extrajudicial killings and other human-rights violations. Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda even blames those who pin Wim’s death on the military as unreasonable and wants them to come up with evidence instead of blanket accusations. But last I checked, the task of investigating crimes and looking for clues is the job of the police and the government, isn’t it?

With Malacañang turning a blind eye to the murder and mayhem taking place everywhere, wonder no more that the climate of impunity which allows perpetrators to escape prosecution and go about their murderous ways remains firmly entrenched, and the killers can strike at will again and again. I’m afraid that Wim’s murder certainly won’t be the last of summary executions of political activists and dissenters, unless P-Noy as Commander in Chief takes firm measures to stop the violence and the bloodshed.

E-mail: ernhil@ yahoo.com