Luisita Union Leader Shot Dead

BY ABNER BOLOS
Gitnang Luzon News Service / Bulatlat

Posted 10:30 a.m. March 17, 2006 

TARLAC CITY--Motorcycle-riding gun men shot and killed a union leader in Hacienda Luisita shortly after midnight today, March 17, 2006. 

Tirso Cruz, 33, member of board of directors of the United Luisita Workers’ Union [ULWU] was shot and killed by gun men on board a Wave motorcycle at about 12:30 am today in Barangay Pando, Concepcion inside Hacienda Luisita, according to Rodrigo Navarro, ULWU officer. 

Navarro said Cruz was immediately brought to a hospital but he was pronounced dead on arrival. Six [6] empty bullet shells were found at the crime scene, Navarro said. 

Cruz, who is also a barangay council member of Pando, is a victim and a key witness in the November 16, 2004 Hacienda Luisita massacre.   The victim is the 14^th Hacienda Luisita martyr. He has received numerous death threats during the strike last year up to the time of his death, ULWU president Rene Galang said Cruz is actively involved in protests against the construction of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway project [SCTEP] and the deployment of soldiers inside the hacienda. 

During the last few days, he led union members and residents in “people power” protests calling for the withdrawal of soldiers inside the hacienda and for the SCTEP construction to stop.

Galang said hacienda residents are protesting the quarrying operations by contractors of the SCTEP in Barangay Asturias and soldiers are being used to stop the protests. 

About 50 Cafgu (Citizens’ Armed Force Geographical Units) members and soldiers from the 71^st ID under Gen. Jovito Palparan are deployed in Barangay Pando and are presently using the management office in the barangay as their headquarters. The soldiers are being used to stop the protests, said Galang.

 “By all indications, this may be another brutal handiwork of soldiers under the 71^st Infantry Division of the Northern Luzon Command who have been deployed in the hacienda since March 2005,” Galang said.

“ULWU holds the Arroyo government responsible for the killing of Cruz and condemns this latest act of brutality against the legitimate leaders of the hacienda people,” Galang concluded. GLNS / Bulatlat 

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