TARLAC CITY- Bayan Muna party representative Satur Ocampo said on
Wednesday that the killing of Bishop Alberto Ramento is part of the long
string of extra-judicial executions sanctioned by Malacanang and not a
simple robbery case as claimed by the police.
“We are not satisfied with
the police investigations. We will look deeper into the circumstances of
the death of Bishop Ramento. We have reason to believe that because the
bishop is a consistent critic of [President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo] he
may have suffered the fate of many others who became victims of
extra-judicial executions,” Ocampo said.
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Partylist
representatives Satur Ocampo and Rafael Mariano at Bp. Alberto
Ramento's wake in Tarlac, Oct. 4
GLNS PHOTO |
Ocampo, along with Anak Pawis
representative Rafael Mariano, Gabriela party representative Liza Maza and
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan chairperson Carol Araullo visited the wake of
the slain Aglipayan prelate in Tarlac City last October 4.
Ramento, 70, died of multiple
stab wounds at dawn of October 3 at the Iglesia Filipina Independiente
church in Tarlac City in what police described as a robbery and homicide
case.
Ramento suffered three stab
wounds on the chest and another three stab wounds at the back, along with
lacerations on his arms, according to an autopsy report issued by Dr.
Saturnino Ferrer.
Ocampo said Ramento led in
denouncing the long spate of extra-judicial killing of leaders and members
of progressive organizations allegedly perpetrated by agents of the
military and the police.
He said the slain bishop also
opposed the government’s plan to amend the constitution and was among the
key leaders who have asked Mrs. Arroyo to step down from Malacanang.
“The pattern speaks for
itself. Bishop Ramento is one of the hundreds of critics of the
administration who have died because of their convictions and their
opposition to the policies [of Mrs. Arroyo],” Ocampo said.
Meanwhile, Karapatan-Central
Luzon pointed to the so-called “death squads” as responsible to the
killing.
“We fear that the death
squads of the [Arroyo government], like chameleons, have changed their
mode of attack after they have been vilified and denounced in public and
are now masquerading as robbers and common criminals,” Sr. Sister Ruiz,
Karapatan-CL coordinator said.
“We fear that Malacanang’s
Cabinet oversight committee on internal security composed of Norberto
Gonzales, Raul Gonzales, Eduardo Ermita along with others, is hell-bent on
continuing the policy of extra-judicial executions to eliminate civilians
and leaders of the people they brand as “enemies of state,” Ruiz said.
Bishop Ramento was appointed
by both the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the National
Democratic Front as a member of the Third Party repository in the peace
talks.
He was the Obispo Maxima IX
[Supreme Bishop] or the highest ranking IFI clergy in the country from
1993 to 1999. He was also a former chairman of the National Council
Churches of the Philippines.
At the time of his death he
was the chairman of the Supreme Council of Bishops, co-chairperson of the
Ecumenical Bishop’s Forum and the diocesan bishop of Tarlac.
GLNS/Posted by Bulatlat
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