HUMAN
RIGHTS WATCH
Courage-EV Head Slain
The
killings of members of progressive organizations remain unabated, the
latest casualty being Pax H. Diaz, chairperson of Confederation for the
Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (Courage)
–Eastern Visayas. The brutal assassination of Diaz was the fourth incident
of violence in four days in Nueva Ecija, Pampanga and Batangas provinces
and in Tacloban City, Leyte.
BY
JOHANN HEIN B. ARPON
Bulatlat
The killings of members of progressive organizations remain unabated, the
latest casualty being Pax H. Diaz, chairperson of Confederation for the
Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (Courage)
–Eastern Visayas. The brutal assassination of Diaz was the fourth incident
of violence in four days in Nueva Ecija, Pampanga and Batangas provinces,
and in Tacloban City, Leyte.
Pax H. Diaz during the International
Solidarity Mission, 2005 |
Last July 6 at around
6:30 pm, while Diaz was waiting for a friend to fetch him, two
motorcycle-riding men suddenly approached him. The back rider pulled out a
.45 caliber gun with silencer and shot him twice, hitting his left cheek
just below his eye and his left forearm. The second bullet went through
his chest and pierced his heart. He was brought to the Bethany Hospital by
his relatives but was declared dead on arrival.
The incident happened
just a few meters from his house.
P/Supt. Anacleto S.
Limbo, Tacloban city police chief, said in an interview with Bulatlat
that they are finishing the artist’s sketches of the assailants and will
be releasing them the soonest possible time. But because the driver was
wearing a baseball cap and the back rider was the triggerman was wearing a
bonnet-type crash helmet, the sketch might not be a big help, Limbo added.
Gen. Eliseo de la Paz, regional commander of the Philippine National
Police has already instructed a close coordination with the National
Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Civilian Intelligence and Detection
Group (CIDG).
|
Based on data from
Katungod-Sinirangan Bisayas, the Eastern Visayas chapter of the human
rights group Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights),
Diaz was the 11th activist killed in the said region for this
year and the 51st since 2005.
Motive for the
killing
Military officials in
the region have denied involvement in the assassination, but Courage-EV
has pointed to armed “agents of the state” as the perpetrators. “The
military has all to gain for the death of Pax, which is a loss to us
government employees and the entire people of Eastern Visayas,” said
Courage-EV secretary-general Ricky Palencia.
Diaz had been an
active member of Courage even in the early 1990s. At the organization’s
regional congress in 2003, he was elected as chairperson.
Since then he has
been very active in consolidating and expanding the ranks of Courage in
the different government agencies in the region. He was very much active
in the struggle of the employees and consumers of the Leyte Metropolitan
Water District (LMWD). He helped in the struggle of the teachers at Dulag
National High School and at the time of his death, he was also into the
issue of better services and lower electricity rates in a local electric
cooperative in Tacloban, among others.
But aside from
carrying the issues of the government employees, Pax played an active
support role in the struggles of the other sectors especially the urban
poor and the peasants. He was in almost all fact-finding missions for
human rights violations committed by the military against peasants, in the
frontline of multi-sectoral mobilizations where he was known as a very
fiery speaker. In many alliances and fora launched on various issues from
value-added tax (VAT), anti-militarization, U.S. war of aggression and
many others, he was always a prominent figure.
“The involvement of
Pax – that is, being an officer in an organization tagged by AFP as front
of the CPP, participation in issues outside his sector, joining alliances,
participating as well as giving in-puts, could be found in the Oplan
Bantay Laya’s checklist of target research and neutralization” said Pong
Acbo, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance)-Eastern
Visayas spokesperson. “As such, only the AFP could possibly order the
neutralization of Pax.”
Incident condemned
Even citizens’ groups
in the region are alarmed with the killings. In particular, the Citizens
Anti-Crime and Assistance Group (CAAG) led by Lulu Palencia has expressed
anger over the incident. “The pattern has been the same: hit men on
motorcycle, perpetrators being able to escape and case not being solved –
when will this end?” she said. And with the present leadership of the
Philippine National Police (PNP) in the region, Palencia says, she is very
about whether the case will be solved.
“(But still), I’m
asking the citizens to help identify the perpetrators so that the
apprehending officers could do their job,” she said.
Abet Hidalgo,
president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP)-Leyte Chapter has
also condemned the killings. And with the rising number of activists being
killed, he poses a question to the government: “Is this government still
worth the taxes of the people? We are paying from our hard-earned money.”
“This policy of
killing (whoever the perpetrators are) is not good because it will just
push people to make extreme moves, and do we want to have a revolution?”
Hidalgo further said.
He also gave his
assurance that their free legal services will be extended for this
particular case and they will help prosecute if “only to show that our
justice system is still working.” Bulatlat
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