HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Baguio Council Condemns Killing of Kalinga Peace Pact Holder 

The continued killings of activists nationwide has alarmed even the Baguio City council, specially since a recent victim in the region is an indigenous tribal leader who held a peace pact among tribes.

BY ARTHUR ALLAD-IW
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat

BAGUIO CITY – The City Council here (246 kms from Manila) on Monday, July 3, recognized the valuable effort of a Kalinga pangat (peace pact holder) in local peace making and governance among the Cordillera tribes and condemned his killing last month in Isabela province.

Through the  resolution, the council strongly “condemns the senseless killing of Mr. Rafael Markus Bangit, a coordinator of the elders’ desk of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) and also the Bodong Pongors Association (BPO), a federation of Cordillera tribal elders affiliated with the CPA.

Councilor Perlita Rondez, who introduced Resolution numbered PR 109-06, said that: “The never-ending killing of activists and innocents civilians is alarming, whereby curtailing and threatening our democratic rights in the Philippines.”

Bangit was shot to death on June 8 by unidentified armed men in a van, who tailed him and his son from Tabuk town to San Isidro, Echague, Isabela. Bangit had just eaten dinner at a restaurant and was about to board the bus when fired upon by the suspects. School principal Gloria Casuga, another passenger screamed and was also shot dead by the suspects.

Bangit was a peace pact holder of his Tomiangan tribe and the Dangtalan tribe, both Kalinga tribes. As a young peace pact holder, he had been instrumental in restoring tribal conflicts among different tribes in the bodong practicing areas in the Cordillera.

His colleagues from the BPO claimed that he is a big loss among the few who are genuinely concerned with establishing peace in the region.

A month after the killing, the police are yet to release a report on the investigation of the Bangit-Casuga killings.

In 2005, the city council also adopted a resolution condemning the killing of Bayan Muna Ilocos region coordinator Romeo Sanchez who was shot dead at a city market here. Northern Dispatch / Posted by Bulatlat

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