KARAPATAN led indignation rally
protesting the spate of killings in the country
Press Release
By KARAPATAN
July 11, 2006
QUEZON CITY,
Philippines – The human rights umbrella organization KARAPATAN led an
indignation rally in front of the NICA (National Intelligence
Coordinating Agency) headquarters on Monday to protest the spate of
killings, abductions and disappearances over the recent weeks.
In the last three
weeks, ten (10) persons were killed; fifteen (15) more were abducted,
six (6) of whom have been surfaced and wrongfully charged with
criminal offense. The activists killed were:
|
▪
TITO
MARATA (provincial officer of the Rural Missionaries of the
Philippines and a member of the Farmers for Agrarian Reform
Movement), shot and killed on June 17, 2006 in Loboc village,
Oroquieta
City;
▪
EUGENIO ESTES (Brgy.
Chairman of San Isidro, Lupao, Nueva Ecija), shot and killed on
June 18, 2006;
▪
GEORGE VIGO (a
contributor of the Union of Catholic Asian News and executive
director of the non-government organization Peoples' Kauyahan
Foundation, Inc. (PKFI) which initiates peace forums and
dialogues in
North Cotabato and Maguindanao) shot and killed on
June 19, 2006 in
Kidapawan City;
▪
MARICEL VIGO,
wife of GEORGE VIGO, shot and killed on June 19, 2006 in
Kidapawan City;
▪
DELFINITO ALBANO,
Mayor of Ilagan, Isabela, shot and killed on June 27, 2006 in
Quezon City;
▪
ELADIO DASI-AN,
shot and killed on June 20 2006, by elements believed to be
members of the 11th IB and SOT, in Guihulngan, Negros
(KARAPATAN human rights worker);
▪
JOHN GADO, July 4, 9PM inside their home in Bgy. Yuson, Guimba,
Nueva Ecija (Bayan Muna member);
▪
PAQUITO “PAX”
DIAZ, (Chairperson of COURAGE in Eastern Visayas);
▪
JULIE JACOB,
Daraga, Albay killed on
July 6, 2006 by armed men inside the village social hall (KARAPATAN human
rights worker);
▪
ANDRO
DIMACULANGAN, July 5, Brgy. Banaba, Padre Garcia, Batangas (Bayan
Muna member). |
KARAPATAN said NICA
and other intelligence agencies of the AFP have a complicity in the
stream of extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearance of our
fellow Filipinos. “Under the Oplan Bantay Laya (Operation Plan Freedom
Watch), civilians are subjected to so-called target research. Anyone
arbitrarily tagged by these so-called intelligence agents as
communists or communist sympathizers are then placed in an order of
battle and killed,” said Jigs Clamor, KARAPATAN Deputy Secretary
General.
Clamor said, “It is
now beyond question that there is indeed a trend in the killing of
civilians, 297 of them activists. Many are ordinary people. The
victims are unarmed, who had either pursued or supported political
causes. The killings and disappearances happen nationwide – in the
Eastern Visayas, Southern Tagalog,
Central Luzon, Bicol
Region, Southern Mindanao Region - areas identified by the military to
be the alleged hotbed of the communist insurgency.”
KARAPATAN said the
means, motives and opportunity behind such killings point to the
elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and/or their
agents like the Civilian Armed Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU) and
death squads.
Death squads are
motorcycle-riding men wearing masks and armed with high caliber
pistols or rifles. KARAPATAN records show that there were more than 50
killings that involved this kind of operation, and were implemented
nationwide.
“The AFP, being the
biggest armed group in the country, has the means of launching such
offensives on a nationwide scale. It has enough resources and manpower
to undertake a systematic attack on the progressive movement.” Clamor
said.
KARAPATAN also said
pronouncements by the regime’s Cabinet Oversight Committee for
Internal Security (COC-IS), the book “Trinity of War” and intelligence
briefing materials like the “Knowing the Enemy” CD, and very recently,
the virtual call to war by the Commander-In-Chief Gloria Arroyo
herself, reveal the motives behind the killings.
“They cannot anymore
deny that they are the killers. We cannot anymore contain our outrage
at these crimes being committed against our fellow Filipinos,” Clamor
said, to which he added, “we are calling on all freedom-loving
Filipinos to pour out into the streets in protest of the killings. Our
concerted action will let us prevent impunity and prevent the return
of draconian rule in the Philippines.”
