BY EMILY VITAL
Bulatlat.com
In a videotaped testimony presented before media today, Dr. Constancio “Chandu” Claver pointed to military-backed death squads as perpetrators of the July 30 shooting that killed his wife, Alyce. The tape was presented by the fact-finding team that investigated the killing.
Two assassins fired at the van of the Claver family morning of July 31. His wife Alyce, who sustained 26 gunshot wounds, died a few hours after the incident.
Their daughter Cassandra, though physically unharmed, suffers from trauma.
“We believe that the killers of my wife were members of the death squad brought here by military and the Arroyo regime to try to quell insurgency,” Claver said in his testimony, referring to the Cordillera region.
A fact-finding team that investigated the incident concluded that Chandu was the main target of the assassins. The groups Health Action for Human Rights and the Health Alliance for Democracy led the team.
Claver also said, “This is not an isolated incident. This is a systematic and continuous program of the Arroyo regime.”
“We are being branded as terrorists. Do terrorists work for the people? This is a very hard thing for us to accept.”
Claver has been practicing medicine in Kalinga for 25 years and has been one of the active proponents of programs that encourage doctors stay in the countryside. Bulatlat
