This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 21, July 3-9, 2005
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
4 Negros Farmer Activists Killed in 3 Months
Mass
organizations have become victims of political repression because they are the
most outspoken and consistent in exposing human rights violations and defending
people’s rights. The killings can no longer be viewed as isolated, however.
These could be part of a planned and systematic campaign of terror against
members and leaders of mass organizations in Negros.
BY KARL G. OMBION AND RANIE
AZUE BACOLOD CITY – Can a person
be killed because of his or her organizational affiliation? The answer is yes in
Negros. From April to June this
year, four activist-organizers belonging to the National Federation of Sugar
Workers (NFSW) and Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP, Peasant Movement in
the Philippines) became victims of summary execution. First to fall was NFSW
leader Edwin Bargamento who on April 10 was killed allegedly by members of the
paramilitary Revolutionary Proletarian Army (RPA). The RPA members, rights
watchdogs and cause-oriented groups said, were backed by the Philippine National
Police’s Regional Mobile Group (PNP-RMG) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines
(AFP). Seven days later, Renante
Alesna, a local organizer of KMP-Negros, was shot dead also allegedly by members
of the RPA in Barangay (village) Lalong, Calatrava town, 120 kms north of this
city. Last June 10, Mario
Fernandez, 22, an organizer of NFSW covering hacienda (vast tracts of
land) communities in Silay City, 20 kms north of Negros, was mowed down
by unidentified armed elements while on his way to
Silay City. On June 13 at
around 7 p.m., Manuel Batolina, 50, was resting inside his hut at Hacienda
Sangay, Barangay Purisima, Manapla town, 40 kms north of Negros, when
unidentified armed elements barged into his hut and open fired at him. He died
on the spot. According to
Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of Peoples’ Rights), Fernandez who was
with a companion at around 9 a.m. was on his way to Hacienda Salanap to follow
up organizational assignments related to the NFSW’s preparations for the June 12
Day of Mourning rally in Bacolod. About eight unidentified armed elements hiding
in a nearby sugarcane field suddenly opened fire at them. Fernandez
died on the spot while his companion managed to flee. Karapatan noted that a
day before the shooting of Fernandez, a composite team of PNP-Silay and RMG from
Aidsisa and Bagtic detachments started a three-day operation in the area.
Residents said that they were on a hot pursuit mission against “a group of
bandits” who ransacked a house in the area last June 8. However,
sources told Bulatlat that this group of bandits is a death squad
composed of rebel returnees and RPA elements coddled reportedly by the RMG and
police officers. This group is said to engage in crimes like hold-up and robbery
for their uniformed bosses. Its objective is also to sow terror among organized
masses in the area. “If plain
bandits killed Fernandez, why were his belongings and money still intact and why
were they still within the area considering that the composite team of RMG and
PNP has been in hot pursuit since Thursday afternoon?” the source said.
Meanwhile, an
initial autopsy report showed that Batolina sustained multiple gunshots wounds
with varying points of entry indicating that more than one person fired at him.
A police blotter report from PNP-Manapla showed that eight empty shells and two
slugs of caliber .45 pistol were recovered from the crime scene. Batolina was
an active mass organizer and federation president of the NFSW in the haciendas
of Begonia, Candelaria and Navidad in the municipality of Manapla.
Perpetrators As of
presstime, PNP investigators have yet to present any findings on the case and
have only promised to bring the perpetrators to justice. However, NFSW,
KMP and Karapatan pinned the blame on the RPA, PNP-RMG and units of the AFP.
John Lozande, secretary-general of NFSW-Negros, said that they have witnesses to
pin the RPA rebels and the government troopers. In addition, Lozande said,
circumstances prior to the killings showed attempts from the RPA to silence the
militant organizers. Bargamento
was nabbed and detained by RPA elements in Talisay in the middle of 2004. While
detained, Lozande said, Bargamento was interrogated and harassed, with a threat
that he would be killed if he continued organizing for the NFSW. Bargamento’s
cousin, Eduardo, a local president of NFSW, was visited by the RPA a week after
Edwin’s killing and was threatened to stop organizing in the haciendas. The same was
experienced by Batolina and Fernandez. In February 2004, they were nabbed by RPA
elements in Hacienda Salone 2, Barangay 10, Victorias City. They were forced to
walk blindfolded for hours through the sugarcane fields up to upland Barangay
Concepcion, Talisay City. At the RPA’s
bivouac, they were interrogated about their areas of organizing, their alleged
links with the New People’s Army (NPA), and who their companions are. Before
they were released, they were warned to bolt the NFSW and instead join the
Democratic Alliance of Labor Organizations (DALO), an organization believed to
be backed by RPA, or else they will be executed. Stephen
Paduano (who is also widely known as Lualhati Carapali, national commander of
the RPA), denied the RPA’s responsibility in the killings. He insinuated instead
that the killings of NFSW organizers stemmed from internal conflicts within NFSW.
Lozande
however lambasted Carapali saying “his denial of the RPA’s crimes is nothing but
part of diversionary and psychological operations. How can he deny these when
they, together with the PNP and AFP, have been engaging in a campaign of
threats, intimidations, arrest and detentions of our leaders and members?”
Killing fields In the past, northern
Negros Occidental was tagged as “the killing fields of Negros” not only for the
many killings that took place, but also for the brutality in which they were
carried out. Local
political analysts said that the land ownership in northern Negros is more
concentrated than in other parts of the region. In addition, there is the
presence of relatively developed and bigger sugar mills like the Victorias
Milling Company. These are said to make the landlords more consolidated in their
economic and political interests and more brutal in dealing with the labor
movement and insurgency. Northern
Negros has also been known for the presence of death squads, vigilante groups,
paramilitary units and criminal syndicates that are known to have been
organized, trained and operated by the military and police units, and financed
by the big sugar planters. Most brutal
killings and assaults on militant activists in recent years reportedly took
place in northern Negros.
Planned and
systematic terror campaign Fred Cana of
Karapatan-Negros said that the killings which have reached alarming proportions
can no longer be viewed as isolated, but a planned and systematic campaign of
terror against members and leaders of the militant organization in the region. Cana stressed
that the militant mass organizations like NFSW and KMP which are among the most
outspoken in exposing human rights violations and defending the people’s rights
are natural targets of harassment and repression by the hired goons and armed
elements of the big landlords. The fact that
there have been no victims from moderate and pro-administration organizations
and that the militant organizations have been the government and RPA’s subject
of nationwide terror campaign to vilify, demonize and decapitate, are enough
proofs that only the RPAs and the military are the chief perpetrators of this
terror, Cana added. The reason
why the military and the police appear helpless in getting the perpetrators is
that they are part of the entire killing machine, Cana said. Cana also hit
the Macapagal-Arroyo administration for its lack of seriousness in honoring the
Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL)
between the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the
Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).
CHR alarmed The
Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in Negros expressed alarm over the trend of
political killings against the progressive movement, and called on the culprits
to “immediately stop the killings.” “This should
be stopped because this only worsens the already highly volatile economic and
political situation in the region,” said Romeo Baldevarona, officer-in-charge of
CHR-Bacolod. He also
doubted the government’s capability to end political killings since even the
government protection program does not appear to give enough assurance to the
witnesses in the killings to come out and help solve the killings. Baldevarona
cited the case of an alleged witness to the killing of Bargamento who hesitated
to come out in the open because of distrust in the protection of the government
and of the CHR. Bulatlat © 2004 Bulatlat
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