3 Activist Leaders
Killed, 1 Wounded, 1 Missing in 3 Days
BY BULATLAT
Posted 3:30 p.m. May
11, 2006
In the latest spate
of attacks on activists, three leaders were killed, one wounded and
another abducted in three separate places in three days.
The human rights
alliance KARAPATAN condemned the attacks, blaming it on “state agents.”
Elena Mendiola, 52,
secretary general of Bayan Muna-Isabela and her
live-in partner Ricardo Balauag, 61 were shot dead at 10:30 last night,
as they were leaving Garit Sur village in Echague town, Isabela, Region
2 police said. Police said the assailants used M14 rifles and wore
bonnets. Balauag is a Bayan Muna municipal coordinator in Echague.
On May 9, four
motorcycle-riding gunmen ambushed and killed Jemias Tinambacan, 49, and
wounded his wife Marilou, 50, while the two were riding a KIA van in
Oroquieta City at 5:30 p.m. The
couple were both pastors of the United Church of Christ in the
Philippines and active members of the
Promotion of Church People’s Response in Misamis Occidental.
On May 8, Philip
Limjoco, a businessman and one of
the 50 persons charged with rebellion by the Philippine National Police,
was reported missing by his family.
Limjoco’s name
appeared 23 rd on the PNP's list of persons charged with
rebellion.
Ruth Cervantes of
Karapatan said: “We are outraged that disappearances and extrajudicial
killings committed by state agents exacerbate and is continuously
tolerated by the Arroyo government."
Cervantes said
Philip's son Glenn contacted KARAPATAN for help as his father failed to
meet him on the day he was to accompany him to the doctor on May 8. The
Limjoco family suspects the military could be behind his disappearance
because they have filed a harassment case against the ISAFP last year.
Glenn made an appeal to the AFP to "surface him and give him due
process."
Cervantes said from
January to May this year, KARAPATAN has recorded 65 victims of
extra-judicial killings and 16 victims of enforced disappearance .
Bagong Alyansang
Makabayan secretary general Renato M. Reyes, Jr. said that they are
holding the Arroyo administration directly responsible for the latest
killings. Bayan pointed to the defense establishment, the AFP and PNP
hierarchy as well as the cabinet security cluster as having done nothing
to stop the killing rampage.
“It is a tragic
irony that these killings happened on the same day the Philippines got a
seat in the UN council. How can a country aspire for a seat in the UN
Human Rights Council when its own human rights record is utterly
shameful and tarnished?” Reyes said.
Bayan Muna deputy
secretary general Roberto de Castro said in a telephone interview that
Mendiola survived an assassination attempt on March 10 this year.
De Castro said that
Mendiola and Balauag are the 12th and 13th activist killed
this year and the 90th and 91st killed since 2001 in what they called
“systematic killings against members of left-leaning
organizations.”
The latest attacks bring to 563 the number of victims under the Arroyo
administration, De Castro said.
With reports from Ace Alegre/Bulatlat
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