HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
One year after:
Justice Still
Eludes Slain UCCP Pastor
Emma Lapuz laments the
fact that one year after the assassination of her husband, Rev. Edison
Lapuz, conference minister of the North East Leyte Conference, United
Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP), the killers have yet to be
brought to justice.
BY JOHANN HEIN B. ARPON
Bulatlat
Emma Lapuz laments
the fact that one year after the assassination of her husband, Rev. Edison
Lapuz, conference minister of the North East Leyte Conference, United
Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP), the killers have yet to be
brought to justice.
A YEAR WITHOUT
JUSTICE: Rev. Edison Lapuz |
“Our present regime
is not serious in cracking down on these bad elements that destroy the
peace and order of our country,” Mrs. Lapuz said in a May 12 forum at the
College of Health
and Sciences, St. Scholastica’s College in Tacloban City. “Police
authorities promised that they will do their best to identify and arrest
the assassins but that was a year ago and since then, none of them have
been arrested.”
Reverend Lapuz, at
the time of his assassination, was the chairperson of Katungod, the
Eastern Visayas chapter of the human rights group Karapatan (Alliance for
the Advancement of People’s Rights) and a founding member of the Promotion
of Church People’s Response-Eastern Visayas (PCPR-EV).
He was also the main
convenor of the Justice for Attorney Dacut Alliance. Lawyer Felidito Dacut,
regional coordinator of Bayan Muna (People First)-Eastern Visayas, was
killed a few weeks before Reverend Lapuz.
Reverend Lapuz had just come from his
father-in-law’s burial in San Isidro, Leyte on May 12 last year when he
was shot by two unidentified men wearing what appeared to be long-sleeved
shirts. Both were standing about two meters away from him. He
sustained a bullet wound each in the left temple and the stomach: the shot
to his left temple killed him on the spot.
|
A companion, Alfredo
Malinao, a peasant leader in the same town, was shot in the chest. He was
rushed to the nearest hospital where he died.
Then Maj. Gen. Jovito
Palparan Jr., who at that time was assigned to
Eastern Visayas
as commanding officer of the regional Philippine Army command, said the
underground New People’s Army (NPA) killed Reverend Lapuz and Dacut to
gain the sympathy of the people.
A report by a UCCP
documentation team that visited San Isidro last year following Reverend
Lapuz’s assassination, revealed that Lapuz was one of 30 Eastern Visayas
personalities in the military’s order of battle at the time he was killed.
The same documentation team also reported that a few months before
Reverend Lapuz’s assassination, soldiers had been frequenting the house of
his father, introducing themselves as UCCP members, and fishing for
information on his activities and whereabouts.
UCCP pastors led the
liturgy at the forum at St. Scholastica’s College. During the homily they
praised Rev. Edison Lapuz for giving the “ultimate sacrifice of becoming a
people’s martyr – a true pastor who preached and lived the Gospel’s
teaching of peace based on justice.”
“Reverend Lapuz’s
death was not only a loss to our human rights alliance but for all
Filipinos who aspire one day to live the fullness of God’s creation here
on earth by struggling for justice and peace,” a statement by Katungod
read. “His life served as inspiration to fuel our continuing struggle to
advance human rights as the people of the region banded together and
successfully kicked Palparan out of the region in August 2005.”
As co-convenor of the
Justice for Attorney Dacut Alliance, Abet Hidalgo, chairperson of the
Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) chapter in Leyte, shared how they
and Reverend Lapuz came up with the idea of continuing Dacut’s legacy of
lawyering for the poor. He said that though Reverend Lapuz was killed, his
hope for lawyers for the poor is alive now with their active legal aid
program.
The IBP-Leyte
chapter’s Legal Aid Program is handling the case of the Palo Massacre
committed by the 19th Infantry Battalion against peasants in
Palo, Leyte.
As part of the call
to action, the participants were invited to the launching of the Movement
of Concerned Citizens for Civil Liberties (MCCCL)-Eastern
Visayas as the “continuing
expression of the people’s search for justice and their struggle against
the onslaught of state fascism under the Arroyo administration.”
Bulatlat
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