HUMAN
RIGHTS WATCH
Death Squad Behind
Lawyer’s Killing?
Norman Bocar, the
lawyer-activist in
Eastern Visayas
who had called for President Macapagal-Arroyo’s removal, was shot Sept. 1
in the fashion used for the execution of activists in the region and in
Mindoro Oriental. Both places had been placed under the command of now
Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan.
BY AUBREY SC MAKILAN
Bulatlat
Was a former Bayan
Muna regional coordinator in Eastern Visayas killed by a death squad
allegedly formed by the controversial Army officer, Maj. Gen. Jovito
Palparan?
This question
surfaced following the Sept. 1 assassination of lawyer Norman Bocar,
formerly of Bayan Muna (BM or people first) and chair of the regional
chapter of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan – New Patriotic Alliance).
Bocar, who was also
Samar province’s environment and tourism official, had just stepped out of
an interagency meeting in Borongan, Eastern Samar, central Philippines
before dawn of Sept. 1 when two armed men on a motorcycle shot him several
times. He sustained several bullet wounds including on his head.
Manolito Serrano,
former Pamalakaya secretary general, had earlier accused President Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo and the military top brass of giving their “blessings”
for the formation of a liquidation squad in Mindoro Oriental, where
Palparan served as the commander of the 204th Brigade of the Philippine
Army (PA). Serrano said Palparan was behind the formation of the squad as
his “pilot project.”
Nestor Nirza,
spokesperson of Bayan-Eastern Visayas, likened the slaying of Bocar and
other mass leaders and organizers in the region to similar political
executions in Mindoro Oriental. Two BM leaders in Eastern Visayas were
shot and killed by men on motorcycles and using .45 cal. pistols, he told
Bulatlat.
Nirza called for the
investigation of death squads operating in Eastern Visayas. Palparan, who
has been transferred to Central Luzon, had upon assuming the Eastern
Visayas command in February this year vowed to stop the communist
rebellion in the region in six months.
Nirza also said that
Bocar’s killing only showed “there is a continuing reign of terror despite
the transfer of Palparan.”
Frontline
Bayan Muna Rep. Satur
Ocampo, said Bocar had been “in the frontline of protests across the
region, all calling for the removal of Arroyo from the presidency.” The BM
party holds Macapagal-Arroyo and the armed forces chief accountable for
Bocar's murder, he also said.
"President Arroyo is accountable for this latest murder of an innocent,
civilian, unarmed leader of Bayan and Bayan Muna,” he said. “She knows
full well the spate of murders of activists and other political dissenters
in Eastern Visayas and elsewhere but she has refused to use her powers to
stop it."
The killing of
activists and other government dissenters is included in the list of
crimes appended to the amended impeachment complaint against the president
under the charge of "culpable violation of the constitution."
Meanwhile, Rev. Raul
Domingo, a United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) pastor
and secretary-general of the human rights group Karapatan in Palawan,
is now in a state of coma after he was shot by suspected military
agents last Aug. 20.
The Promotion of
Church People’s Response (PCPR) said Domingo actively exposed and opposed
the abuses of military, mining companies and destructive projects of the
government against the poor peasants and national minorities in the
province.
Palparan, who is
described by human rights watchdogs as the “Butcher of Mindoro,” has been
reportedly reassigned to Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija. During his stint
in Eastern Visayas from February to May this year, Karapatan recorded 76
cases of human rights violations per month,
more than 17 cases per week and more than two cases per day.
As of August,
Karapatan-Eastern Visayas has documented 40 cases of forced evacuation in
Samar affecting 2,433 individuals or 1,786 families, and 513 other cases
of violations of international humanitarian law. Before Bocar’s killings,
25 cases of summary execution and seven cases of frustrated killings were
recorded. Bulatlat
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