This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com).
Vol. VI, No. 25, July
31, 2006
Kalinga Bayan Muna
head wounded, wife killed in death-squad ambush
BY JUN
VERZOLA
NORTHERN DISPATCH
Posted by Bulatlat, 3:10 p.m., July 31, 2006
Mrs. Claver, 42, expired at around 12:30 pm, despite efforts to save her life by
attending physicians at the Kalinga Provincial Hospital, where the couple was
rushed after the shooting. Dr. Claver was declared out of danger earlier this
morning.
The Clavers had just come out from St. Toni’s College, where they dropped off
their their older daughters for classes, and were taking a U-turn at the Bulanao
junction when the armed men, reportedly riding on
two Delica vans, fired on their car.
Claver suffered multiple gunshot wounds in the left arm and chest, while Alice
was shot four times in the head, neck and shoulders. Their seven-year-old
daughter, who was with them, was dazed but unhurt. Janice
Ewag, 23, a student bystander, was also hit by stray bullets. Local police said
they recovered M16 rifle shells at the site.
Claver, a medical doctor who is more popularly known by his native Igorot name
Chandu, is a scion of a prominent Cordillera clan that includes former Kalinga
congressman William Claver and Bontoc mayor
Louis Claver.
The 49-year old Chandu has been long active in community-based health
initiatives and indigenous peoples’ concerns since the Marcos era. He is also
the vice chairperson of the Kalinga chapter of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance.
In an interview by nationwide radio station dzRH, PNP Kalinga chief Pedro Ramos
claimed that Claver was a member of the communist-led National Democratic Front
(NDF).
Interviewed by phone, relatives and colleagues denied this police allegation as
totally unfounded. They alluded to earlier incidents where Chandu reportedly
received veiled warnings from local authorities that
“he would be next if he did not get out of Kalinga soon.”
This, they presumed, was in reference to the earlier killing of Rafael Markus
Bangit, another militant CPA leader and elder of the Kalinga Malbong tribe.
Bangit was shot dead on June 8 at a bus stopover in
Isabela, also by van-riding masked men, on his way from Kalinga to Baguio City.
A CPA fact sheet on the incident said Dr. Claver noticed intensified
surveillance and harassment after Bangit’s killing. Alice also received a
harassing text message from an anonymous cellphone caller that said, “Matapang
si Doc. Hindi niya kayo mahal.” (“Doc is brave. He doesn’t love you.”)
Alice herself was an active member of the CPA as a college student in Manila.
She remained a staunch supporter of the indigenous people’s organization when
she returned to Tabuk, married Chandu, and raised
three daughters, the CPA said.
Regional PNP authorities denied that there is a pattern of political killings in
Kalinga, amidst widespread allegations by human rights groups that the province
was turning into a “killing fields” and that locally-based death squads were
being coddled by certain military and police officials. Nothern Dispatch/Posted by Bulatlat
© 2006 Bulatlat ■ Alipato Media Center
Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.