First posted 01:32am (Mla time) May 12, 2006 (Philippine Daily Inquirer)By Villamor Visaya Jr.
ECHAGUE, ISABELA -- Two Bayan Muna members in Cagayan Valley were shot and killed by unidentified men here on Wednesday night in an attack that the activists’ colleagues said was part of military attempts to muzzle antigovernment groups.
The military denied involvement in the killings.
Elena Mendiola, 54, Bayan Muna-Cagayan Valley secretary general, and her live-in partner, Ricardo Balauag, 51, had just bought mangoes in Barangay Garit Sur and were about to leave the village at 9:30 p.m. when two men fired at them with an M-14 rifle and a .45-cal. pistol.
Mendiola was hit six times in the head, while Balauag was hit in the head and body.
It was the second assassination attempt on Mendiola in less than 24 hours.
Unidentified men earlier fired at her in front of her house in Barangay Silauan Sur, but she was unscathed.
The victims were the 90th and 91st members of the militant party-list group killed since April 2001, according to Robert de Castro, Bayan Muna national deputy secretary general.
The two were also the 12th and 13th victims of political killings under the Arroyo administration, he said.
“We condemn the cowardly act perpetrated by agents of the state. Only the military has reason to silence the voices of truth and change,” Castro said.
Catholic Bishop Sergio Utleg of Isabela province condemned the murder and described the killers as “evil and narrow-minded armed government forces.”
Reginald Ugaddan, Bayan-Cagayan Valley spokesperson, said some witnesses were willing to testify on the killing but were afraid to do so because of lack of protection for them.
He said the non-prosecution of perpetrators had created “a culture of impunity and violence.”
Officials of the Army’s 5th Infantry Division based in Jones town denied any involvement in the killings.
“It is just convenient for them [activists] to blame the military. It is unfair. They must have to verify first before accusing us,” Colonel Hilario Atendido, 502nd Infantry Brigade commander, said in a text message to the Inquirer.
The military considers Bayan Muna and other leftist groups fronts for the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army (NPA).
The CPP-NPA has been waging a Maoist rebellion since 1969, making it Asia’s longest running communist insurgency.
In February, Ms Arroyo invoked emergency powers to quash what she claimed was a coup plot by the communists and disgruntled military officers.
Defender of farmers’ rights
Mendiola led several Bayan Muna protests against the Arroyo administration in Cagayan Valley. She actively supported the campaign to increase the buying price of rice and corn produced by farmers.
Ugaddan described Mendiola, a member of the People’s Alliance for Democracy, Justice and Good Governance, as a “popular defender of farmers’ rights” in Isabela.
“Any further investigation must work to establish who is responsible for this killing and bring the perpetrators to justice. The government must take a proactive role to ensure the citizens are protected,” Utleg said.
Killing, disappearance
Earlier, Jeremias Tinambacan, a member of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, was killed in Misamis Occidental province on May 9, according to the human rights group Karapatan. His wife, Rev. Marilou Tinambacan, was wounded.
The group also reported the disappearance early this week of Philip Limjoco, a suspected NPA rebel and listed as one of those to be arrested during the state of national emergency declared by Ms Arroyo in February. His family has said Limjoco is not involved in the leftist movement in the country.
The attacks came in the wake of the Citizens’ Congress for Truth Accountability’s findings that Ms Arroyo had committed serious human rights violations because of the extrajudicial killings.
Karapatan has listed more than 560 deaths of leftwing activists since 2001.
The militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) yesterday said it was holding the Arroyo administration directly responsible for the latest killings. It said the defense establishment, the military and police hierarchies, as well as the Cabinet security cluster had done nothing to stop the rampage.
Tragic irony
“It is a tragic irony that these killings happened on the same day the Philippines got a seat in the United Nations Human Rights Council. How can a country aspire for a seat in the council when its own human rights record is utterly shameful and tarnished? It is a grim reminder and a slap on the face of the Philippine government,” said Renato M. Reyes Jr., Bayan secretary general.
“How can Ms Arroyo save Filipino lives in Saudi Arabia and not save the lives of activists in her own country?” he added, referring to the President’s visit to the Middle East and her plea in behalf of imprisoned Filipinos there.
Karapatan urged the President to order an investigation into the killings of activists and to condemn the extrajudicial executions in the same manner she condemned the killings of journalists and ordered their probe.
Systematic
“We are outraged that disappearances and extrajudicial killings committed by state agents exacerbate and are continuously tolerated by the Arroyo administration. In the minds of survivors, families of victims and human rights organizations, this is a systematic effort to annihilate people who hold a different opinions on the country’s situation and how it could be changed,” said Karapatan information officer Ruth Cervantes.
No pattern—PNP
Despite the wave of attacks on leftist activists, police authorities have refused to see a “pattern” to the murders.
They also insisted there was “no factual” basis to blame the killings on the security units of the government.
“(Investigations) by the Philippine National Police showed no strong indicators that would establish that theory,” said police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao, referring to the militants’ claims of a campaign to decimate their ranks.
Pagdilao said it was not necessary at this point to create a national task force to investigate the murders. “For you to say that (that the activists were being targeted), there must (be) a pattern, but there is no basis (to say that),” he said.
Pagdilao challenged the activists to back their claims with evidence that the Armed Forces, the PNP or other agents of government were behind the attacks.
Task force?
However, the PNP Directorate for Investigation and Detective Management would be asked to “establish the existence of a pattern of serialized killings victimizing these people,” Pagdilao said.”
“If there were one, that will guide our leadership to come up with an action like create a task force or assign the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group to focus or concentrate on these cases, rather than leave them to the territorial police,” he said.
With reports from Norman Bordadora, Luige A. del Puerto and Scott James Roxas in Manila, Agence France-Presse
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