Protesters Condemn Bicol Killings

BY DEE AYROSO
Posted Jan. 24, 2007, 2:02 p.m.

Activists condemned the continued killings of activists by suspected military agents, the latest of which were three Bayan Muna party-list members slain separately in Albay and Sorsogon provinces in the Bicol region in the past three days.

The latest slayings bring to 824 the victims of extrajudicial killings under President Arroyo.

A report by the Karapatan (Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights) said killed at noon yesterday was Ruben Ermino, 52, a tricycle driver of Tabi village, Gubat, Sorsogon and a Bayan Muna member, who was shot dead by motorcycle-riding men. At 7 pm, Demetrio “Don” Imperial, 26, was having dinner with his wife and child in Sogoy village, also in Sorsogon, when armed men in ski-masks barged into their home of and shot him.

The Karapatan report said on Monday, Jan. 21, Ananias Burce, village chief of Oras, Tabaco City, Albay was shot dead with eight gunshot wounds in Bantayan village, in the same town.

Some 50 activists led by the Bayan Muna Party-list picketed the gate of Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City, accusing the military of perpetrating the killings. Camp Aguinaldo houses the Department of National Defense and the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The protesters burned pictures of President Arroyo and AFP chief Hermogenes Esperon.

Atty. Neri Colmenares of Bayan Muna said the killings are “not only a violation of human rights, but a violation of the electoral rights of the people.” He said that Arroyo had done nothing to stop the killings, and in spite of condemnation by international bodies.

On Jan. 19, in Catarman, Northern Samar, university professor and human rights worker Jose Ma. Cui was gunned down in his classroom. (Bulatlat.com)