This story
was taken from Bulatlat, the Philippines's alternative weekly
newsmagazine (www.bulatlat.com, www.bulatlat.net, www.bulatlat.org).
Vol. V, No. 6, March 13-19, 2005
Assassination Attempt on UN Judge Puts NDFP-GRP Talks in Peril In
the Philippines, even a United Nations judge is not spared from harassment and
intimidation. The assassination attempt on UN Judge ad litem Romeo Capulong sent
signals that the peace negotiations between the NDFP and the Government of the
Republic of the Philippines would end irrevocably. BY
DABET CASTAÑEDA AND ABNER BOLOS (March 14, 2005) -
Prominent human rights lawyer and United Nations ad litem Judge Romeo Capulong
has become the target of assassination by hired killers in the wake of the spate
of killings in Tarlac. Capulong is serving as
senior legal consultant of striking farm and milling workers of Hacienda Luisita
in Tarlac and the attempt on the life of the lawyer was connected to the labor
dispute, the lawyer himself told reporters March 14. In the press briefing,
Capulong – an ad litem judge of the Hague-based International Crime Tribunal for
the Former Yugoslavia – narrated that around midnight of March 7 while resting
in his Nueva Ecija home along the national high way, a red Revo van coming from
Cabanatuan slowed down in front of his house. Barangay (village) tanod
men, who provided security for Capulong that night, said they immediately cocked
their guns when they saw the two occupants of the van roll down the windows.
Upon hearing the cocking of rifles, one of the car occupants was heard saying “Ay,
may tao pala!” (Oh, there are people around!). The van sped away at once.
Surveillance of his house
had been going on for several days, Capulong said. An unusual number of ambulant
vendors have been frequenting their place, relatives told him. The assassination attempt
on Capulong came four days after the killing of Tarlac City Councilor Abel
Ladera, a staunch supporter of the striking workers of Hacienda Luisita – the
sprawling 6,443-ha sugar plantation owned by the family of former President
Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino. At exactly 8 a.m. last
Sunday, another supporter of the striking Hacienda Luisita workers, Aglipayan
priest William Tadena, was gunned down in Tarlac City after saying mass. Three
of his companions were wounded with one of them in critical condition. Capulong said the plot
against his life and the recent killings in Tarlac could not have been hatched
without certain people who would benefit from the killings knowing them.
Without categorically
accusing the Cojuangcos for the attempt on his life, the lawyer named elements
of the Northern Luzon command and certain rebels who are now conniving with the
military as “assets” and “hired killers” as also possible suspects. But he also blamed
President Arroyo for tolerating the killings and not lifting a hand to stop the
human rights violations that began with the massacre of seven striking workers
in Luisita on Nov. 16 last year. The President, Capulong said, is afraid of her
own military. NDFP Reacting to the report, the
National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP through chief negotiator Luis
Jalandoni warned any physical harm done on Capulong “will irrevocably end the
peace negotiations.” Capulong has served as senior legal consultant for the
peace talks between the government and NDFP. “The NDFP holds President
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who declared the Hacienda Luisita strike a ‘national
security issue,’ responsible for the assassination threat on Atty. Capulong and
the murders being committed against leaders of democratic organizations,”
Jalandoni said. In a related development,
the TarlacNews.Net online news network reported that a vigilante group, the
Nagkakaisang mga Biktima ng Karahasan ng NPA (New People’s Army), recently owned
the killing of Councilor Ladera. Police authorities, the report added, are also
investigating the possible involvement of another anti-communist group, the
Kasama-Kayabe-Kadua. Meanwhile, church groups
condemned in various protest activities the killing of Tadena, accusing the
military as the mastermind. Rev. Fr. Tadena, 37, the
10th victim of the Hacienda Luisita tragedy, was shot dead at about 8:30 am,
March 13 by still unidentified assailants shortly after saying mass in barangay
Guevarra, La Paz, Tarlac. Tadena’s death is the
latest in a wave of killings which human rights group here claim are overt
military operations meant to silence supporters of the strike in Hacienda
Luisita. Witnesses said Tadena, a
priest of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI), was driving a private jeep
along with three companions about 50 meters away from the church where he had
just said mass when two pistol-wielding gunmen on board a motorcycle approached
them from behind and opened fire on the passengers. Emil Paragas, spokesperson
of KARAPATAN-Tarlac told Bulatlat one of the gunmen first fired successive shots
from the passenger side of the jeep. The assailants then alighted from the
motorcycle, went over to Tadena’s side and fired more rounds that hit the
vehicle’s occupants. Tadena’s companion, Carlos
Barsola, 38, sustained gunshot wounds in the head and is still in critical
condition at the Central Luzon Doctors’ Hospital in Tarlac city while Charlie
Gabriel, 24, a church acolyte, was hit in the right leg. Tadena’s secretary
Ervina Domingo, 20, was unharmed. Tadena, chair of Promotion
of Church People’s Response (PCPR) Tarlac provincial chapter, was an active
supporter of the striking workers’ in Hacienda Luisita. Tadena also chaired the
Human Rights and Social Concerns Committee of the IFI Diocese of Tarlac. 25th
victim He is the 25th casualty in
a series of overt military operations in Central Luzon, according to KARAPATAN-Tarlac.
Records of the human rights watch group reveal that since January of this year
alone, 12 persons have died from extra-judicial executions or "salvaging," five
were reported missing and ten were victims of frustrated killing.
The data does not include
the November 16 violent dispersal at the picket line in Hacienda Luisita which
resulted in the death of at least seven protesters and the wounding and illegal
arrest of more than 100 others. On the same day (March 3)
that Ladera was gunned down, Danny Macapagal, secretary general of Bagong
Alyansang Makabayan-Nueva Ecija was abducted from his home by armed men and is
presumed to have been killed. On March 8, Mer Dizon, chair of the ANAK PAWIS
party in Zambales was likewise abducted but managed to survive upon the
intervention of his family and friends who traced his whereabouts at the police
station in Iba, Zambales. Bulatlat © 2004 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
Bulatlat