This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 10, April 17-23, 2005
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
Shot More than 22 Times
The
renegade group, Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB),
and military elements have to answer for the April 13 killing of a known union
leader in Negros, central Philippines. Relatives of the slain labor leader,
Edwin Bargamento, as well as cause-oriented organizations pointed to the group,
now believed to be a paramilitary organization, and their alleged military
handler as behind the killing.
By Karl G. Ombion
BACOLOD CITY – The
renegade group, Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB),
and military elements have to answer for the April 13 killing of a known union
leader in Negros, central Philippines. Relatives of the slain labor leader,
Edwin Bargamento, as well as cause-oriented organizations pointed to the group,
now believed to be a paramilitary organization, and their alleged military
handler as behind the killing.
Bargamento, 46,
married with five children was on board a tricycle with a nephew, Zandro
Bargamento, near his house past 4 p.m. last Wednesday at Hacienda Ginhulayan,
Barangay (village) Tortosa, Manapla town when three men armed with .45 cal.
pistols and a 12-gauge shotgun fired at him in quick succession. He had just
come from a series of labor protests in Bacolod where he also went to see a
friend to borrow a “barong tagalog” he will wear for a child’s graduation.
Manapla is 50 kms
north of Bacolod.
The labor leader
sustained 22 bullet wounds in his body. His nephew and neighbors brought him to
the Ikaayong Lawas Foundation Hospital in neighboring Victorias City – more than
10 kms from where the shooting took place. He died on the way.
Bargamento was the
regional auditor and district organizer of the National Federation of Sugar
Workers (NFSW), the biggest federation of cane workers in the Philippines.
Bargamento is the
33rd victim of political killings committed against progressive organizations
and party-list groups nationwide since January. In Negros, government security
forces and the paramilitary RPA-ABB have been accused by the militants as the
culprits in the spate of killings.
Manapla police
vowed to arrest Bargamento’s killers.
Three young men
The victim’s
nephew, Zandro, told Bulatlat that both he and his uncle were on board a
tricycle from the main highway when midway to the hacienda, an aura-type
motorcycle with three young people overtook them. He said he recognized two of
them.
Approaching
Edwin’s house crossing Hacienda Ginhulayan, he saw the three men - already
wearing ski masks - waiting by the road about 10 meters from their house. As
Edwin got down the tricycle two of the three men quickly walked forward and
fired several shots at him. The third man served as a look out, Zandro said. The
gunmen sped off after making sure that their victim is dead, he said.
In an interview,
Butch Lozande, regional chair of NFSW-Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU or May 1st
Movement), blamed the RPA-ABB for the killing.
“NFSW organizers
and members including Bargamento himself working in north Negros have been
receiving threats from the RPA-ABB for the past months,” Lozande said.
Lozande added that
armed men from RPA-ABB operating in north Negros are handled by a former
military man, who now serves as a point man of the army intelligence command.
More than two
years ago, Tay Pedring Trabajador, a local leader of NFSW chapter in San Isidro,
Toboso town, was also gunned down by suspected RPA-ABB operatives backed by the
military.
The victim’s wide,
Vicenta Bargamento, told Bulatlat that for more than a month prior to the
killing unidentified persons had been asking neighbors about their house, and
the whereabouts and activities of her husband. She also saw men casing their
house several times, she also said.
Last January,
Vicente said, she was invited to a “dialogue” by organizers from a yellow labor
organization, Democratic Association of Labor Organizations (DALO), whose ring
leaders were former NFSW members now believed to be linked to the RPA-ABB. She
was warned to stop organizing for the NFSW, she told Bulatlat.
A relative, she
said, had earlier warned that Edwin was on the RPA-ABB’s hit list. She also
learned from a relative who is with the RPA-ABB that the handler of the renegade
group is a military man.
AFP’s neutralization campaign
Mary Jean Fuentes,
district coordinator of NFSW in the near North, blamed both the military and the
RPA-ABB for the killing of Bargamento saying that the killing was part of the
AFP’s neutralization campaign against leaders, organizers and members of
progressive and militant organizations.
Julius Perez,
secretary general of AnakPawis (toiling masses) party-list in Negros Occidental,
said that Bargamento’s killing has only fired up their resolve to continue the
struggle of the Filipino working class for justice.
“We will not
recoil in the struggle because he died with a cause, he is a martyr,” he said
angrily, as he showed to Bulatlat a long list of leaders and organizers
killed by state security and paramilitary forces.
Roy Cordova,
spokesperson of Wage Increase Solidarity (WINS) in Negros, described the killing
of Edwin as cowardly and a treachery by those who want to silence critics of
government.
Cause-oriented
organizations and members of the progressive bloc in Congress have recently been
hot on the heels of the armed forces. A recent power point presentation, “Know
the Enemy,” names these groups as “communist fronts.” The PPT has been denounced
however as a virtual military hit list.
Exemplary leader-organizer
The medium-built,
soft-spoken, and amiable Bargamento spent all his life in Hacienda Emma as a
cane worker since childhood. His parents were also sugar workers. NFSW members said that Bargamento
organized the hacienda union after federation organizers came to their hacienda
in 1984. Convinced of the organization’s cause, he volunteered to become a
full-time organizer in the community, they said.
He also helped
form more haciendas and troubleshoot complex labor-management disputes in
several other towns and cities in north Negros.
Bargamento was
both a model union leader and a good father to his family, Lozande said. He
tried his best to provide for his family’s needs despite the meager allowance he
was getting from labor organizing. With reports from Ranie Azue and Jovani
Espartero of LIGA JOURNALISTA / Bulatlat © 2004 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
Bulatlat