3 activists killed in 24 Hours
1 missing since July 28

BY BULATLAT
Posted 2:10 p.m., July 31, 2006

Three activists were killed in the last 24 hours in the regions of Northern and Central Luzon and Sorsogon province, the three priority areas of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s all-out-war policy.

Dr. Chandu Claver,49,  Bayan Muna-Kalinga Chapter chair, and his wife, Alice, 42, were ambushed at around 7 a.m. today, July 31, in front of St. Toni’s College by two unidentified gunmen on board a black van.  The couple was dropping off their daughter  to school.  At 1 p.m. Alice was pronounced dead at the Kalinga Provincial Hospital while Claver is in critical condition.  Their daughter was unhurt.

Earlier at around 6 a.m., Rie Mon Guran, 21, spokesperson of League of Filipino Students in Aquinas University in Legazpi City was shot to death in Bulan, Sorsogon by an unidentified gunman. Guran was shot four times and sustained multiple gunshot wounds.

At 4 a.m. yesterday, July 30, Mario Florendo, 56 was killed inside his home in Barangay (village) Parista in the town of Lupao, province of Nueva Ecija, according to Karapatan-Nueva Ecija (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights) secretary general  Beatriz Perido.

The murder of the three brings to 121 the total of civilians killed since January 2006 alone.

Also in Lupao, Dionisio Malapit, a peasant leader of Balbalungao village was abducted on July 28.  Perido said the abductors also beat up Malapit’s son then burned his house before leaving.  Perido said they were also confirming reports of two other peasants killed in the villages of Salvacion and Bagong Flores, also in Lupao. 

In its counter-insurgency program Oplan Bantay Laya, the president named the regions of Ilocos-Cordillera, Central Luzon and the province of Sorsogon as three of its priority areas. Bulatlat

Related article: Kalinga Bayan Muna head wounded, wife killed in death-squad ambush

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