HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Militants Blame GMA, AFP for Killing of Church Worker, Union Leader 

The killing of two activists in Ilocos and Abra has brought to 150 the total number of politically-motivated executions this year.

Kim Quitasol and A.T. Bengwayan

NORTHERN DISPATCH

Posted by Bulatlat

BAGUIO CITY—The city’s militant organizations, joined by others from nearby Ilocos Sur and Abra provinces, held an indignation rally here Nov. 30 to condemn the “political assassination” of Ilocos and Cordillera Rural Missionaries Program coordinator Jose “Pepe” Manegdeg and Abra human rights worker and union leader Albert Terredaño Nov. 28 and 29, respectively.   Manegdeg was shot by an unidentified gunman in Barangay (village) Apatot, San Esteban, Ilocos Sur on Nov. 28 at around 10 p.m. Based on the autopsy report, he sustained 22 gunshot wounds from a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol that lacerated his lungs, liver, stomach and colon. He is survived by his wife and children, aged nine and six.   Beverly Longid of the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA) said that before Manegdeg was shot, he just came from a Paralegal Training Seminar at the Ursa Major Resort in Apatot, sponsored by the Ilocos Human Rights Alliance (IHRA)-Karapatan, where he was a speaker-trainer.

MURDERS IN THE NORTH: Ilocos and Abra activists rally to condemn the killings of church worker Jose "Pepe" Manegdeg and union leader Albert Terradaño, Nov. 30 NORDIS PHOTO

Manegdeg’s remains were brought on Dec. 2 to his hometown in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte where he will be buried on Dec. 6. His remains were earlier laid at the Baguio Church of the Resurrection, Twin Chapels of the Risen Lord.

Meanwhile, unidentified gunmen aboard a motorcycle shot Terredaño in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) building in Bangued, Abra at around 8:45 a.m. He died at six hours later after battling for his life at the Seares Memorial Hospital in Bangued. His wife and two children survive him.

Terredaño sustained a single gunshot wound also from a .45 semi automatic pistol that entered his chest and exited his right armpit piercing his lungs.

Terredaño was also the president of the Department of Agrarian Reform Employees Association (DAREA) and main convener of the Provincial Organizing Committee for the Confederation of Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (Courage)-Abra.

Militant organizations condemned the brutal killings of Manegdeg and Terredaño and held the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo government and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) accountable for their deaths, stressing that the incidents are not isolated in the nationwide spate of killings against members of militant organizations. The deaths of Manegdeg and Terredaño are but proof of the Arroyo regime’s mounting political repression against the militant mass movement, and all those who criticize President Macapagal-Arroyo’s anti-people policies, they added.

Longid stressed that the Arroyo administration has done nothing to address the continuous political killings. She said, “GMA has instead legalized the killings through her policies such as the Anti-Terrorism Bill and her executive orders such as the calibrated preemptive response (CPR).”

“In fact she (Macapagal-Arroyo) has promoted Brig. Gen. Jovito Palparan despite his track record of human rights violations,” Longid stressed.

In a separate statement, the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) said that it has only been nine months since Romy Sanchez of Bayan Muna (people first)-Ilocos and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance)-Ilocos was assassinated in the Baguio City market, and already another two human rights workers were slain by suspected military hitmen.

A tribute will be held for them in Baguio and Abra this week. Northern Dispatch/Posted by Bulatlat

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