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Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to
search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts
Vol. VI, No. 25 July
31, 2006 Quezon City, Philippines |
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Kalinga Bayan Muna
head wounded, wife killed in death-squad ambush
BY JUN
VERZOLA
NORTHERN DISPATCH
Posted by Bulatlat, 3:10 p.m., July 31, 2006
BAGUIO CITY –
Dr. Constancio “Chandu” Claver, chairperson
of the Kalinga chapter of Bayan Muna was seriously wounded and his wife
Alice Omengan Claver killed in an ambush by two gunmen at 6:45 am this
morning in Bulanao, Tabuk, Kalinga.
Mrs. Claver, 42, expired at around 12:30 pm, despite efforts to save her
life by attending physicians at the Kalinga Provincial Hospital, where the
couple was rushed after the shooting. Dr. Claver was declared out of
danger earlier this morning.
The Clavers had just come out from St. Toni’s College, where they dropped
off their their older daughters for classes, and were taking a U-turn at
the Bulanao junction when the armed men, reportedly riding on
two Delica vans, fired on their car.
Claver suffered multiple gunshot wounds in the left arm and chest, while
Alice was shot four times in the head, neck and shoulders. Their
seven-year-old daughter, who was with them, was dazed but unhurt. Janice
Ewag, 23, a student bystander, was also hit by stray bullets. Local police
said they recovered M16 rifle shells at the site.
Claver, a medical doctor who is more popularly known by his native Igorot
name Chandu, is a scion of a prominent Cordillera clan that includes
former Kalinga congressman William Claver and Bontoc mayor
Louis Claver.
The 49-year old Chandu has been long active in community-based health
initiatives and indigenous peoples’ concerns since the Marcos era. He is
also the vice chairperson of the Kalinga chapter of the Cordillera Peoples
Alliance.
In an interview by nationwide radio station dzRH, PNP Kalinga chief Pedro
Ramos claimed that Claver was a member of the communist-led National
Democratic Front (NDF).
Interviewed by phone, relatives and colleagues denied this police
allegation as totally unfounded. They alluded to earlier incidents where
Chandu reportedly received veiled warnings from local authorities that
“he would be next if he did not get out of Kalinga soon.”
This, they presumed, was in reference to the earlier killing of Rafael
Markus Bangit, another militant CPA leader and elder of the Kalinga
Malbong tribe. Bangit was shot dead on June 8 at a bus stopover in
Isabela, also by van-riding masked men, on his way from Kalinga to Baguio
City.
A CPA fact sheet on the incident said Dr. Claver noticed intensified
surveillance and harassment after Bangit’s killing. Alice also received a
harassing text message from an anonymous cellphone caller that said, “Matapang
si Doc. Hindi niya kayo mahal.” (“Doc is brave. He doesn’t love you.”)
Alice herself was an active member of the CPA as a college student in
Manila. She remained a staunch supporter of the indigenous people’s
organization when she returned to Tabuk, married Chandu, and raised
three daughters, the CPA said.
Regional PNP authorities denied that there is a pattern of political
killings in Kalinga, amidst widespread allegations by human rights groups
that the province was turning into a “killing fields” and that
locally-based death squads were being coddled by certain military and
police officials. Nothern Dispatch/Posted by Bulatlat
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