HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
GMA’s
Oplan Bantay Laya Blamed for Kalinga Peacemaker Murder
Rafael Markus Bangit, slain leader of the Cordillera People’s Alliance,
was a Malbong pangat (tribe leader) who mediated tribal conflicts
and worked for tribal peace pacts. Activists in Cordillera blame the
Arroyo administration’s so-called Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL) as the culprit
in the killing.
BY
LYN V. RAMO
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat
BAGUIO CITY -
People’s organizations in the Cordillera region blamed the administration
of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) for the killing of Cordillera People’s
Alliance leader and Malbong Pangat (tribe leader) Rafael Markus
Bangit, 47, of Tabuk town, Kalinga province. Activists also blamed
Arroyo’s Oplan Bantay Laya (OBL) as the culprit behind the spate of
killings.
Bangit was
gunned down at 7:30 p.m. on June 8 at the Pines restaurant in San Isidro
in Echague, Isabela, by bonnet-masked men on board a van. Bangit and his
son Banna were on board a non-air-conditioned GL bus to Baguio City when
chanced upon by the assailants at a stopover. The gunmen also shot and
killed Gloria Casuga, principal of the Quezon National High School in
Quezon town, Isabela when she screamed at seeing Bangit get shot.
The younger
Bangit was unhurt.
|
Markus Bangit |
Peacemaker
Bangit was
the coordinator of the CPA Elders’ Desk and the secretary-general of the
Binodngan People’s Organization (BPO), a tribal elders’ federation
formerly called Bodong Pongor’s Organization, which is affiliated with the
CPA.
Bangit was
also with the CPA regional secretariat. For several years he served as
secretary-general of the CPA-Kalinga chapter. He was also a Bayan Muna
party-list provincial coordinator for Kalinga until 2004.
In his native
barangay (village) Dupag in Tabuk to which Tomiangan administratively
belong, Bangit served as its first barangay secretary and later became a
councilman.
Bangit was a
bodong (peace pact) holder of the Dangtalan tribe in Pasil, with
whom his own Malbong tribe in Tomiangan has forged a bodong.
Bangit served
as a local mediator in local tribal conflicts in his native town of
Tomiangan and in other provinces. As an authority in tribal mediation and
conflict resolution, he co-authored a handbook on bodong and became
a lecturer on tribal conflict resolution.
“Isuna ket
mangay-ayat ti talna ken kappia,” (He loved peace and order) CPA
Secretary-general Windel Bolinget said of Bangit in local dialect.
Arroyo accountable
An
indignation rally in Baguio
City on June 9 assailed what they called
the Arroyo administration’s systematic attack on the people’s movement.
The CPA and
the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA) said they hold the state
accountable for Bangit’s slaying. A CPA statement said the state has
become a mass murderer, killing all who threaten it, and demanded that
“the killings must stop and justice must be served to all victims and
their families.”
“We denounce
the killing of Markus Bangit, both as a political crime and a crime
against humanity. It is another barbaric act by a government that
perpetuates itself in power through the might of the gun barrel. Many
others among us activists remain under heavy surveillance and in imminent
danger of assassination by the death squads of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s
government,” the CPA statement said.
Among Cordillera’s finest sons
CPA secretary
general Joan Carling said: “With the death of Rafael Markus Bangit, the
CPA and its allied organizations – indeed, the Cordillera mass movement as
a whole – lost one of its most committed and valuable leaders.”
Bangit is the
682nd victim of state killings since 2001, according to records
of the human rights group Karapatan. On June 2, he performed an
uggayam (native chant) at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani in Quezon City
when human rights advocates held a tribute to desaparecidos and
other victims of human rights violations.
A primer
published by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said that at least the
four regions of Central Luzon, Bicol,
Eastern Visayas
and Southern Mindanao are listed as the priority areas in the
implementation of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Oplan Bantay Laya.
However,
there were also killings in Cordillera and other northern Luzon regions of
Ilocos and Cagayan.
Oplan Bantay
Laya, according to Bayan, aims to destroy the Communist Party of the
Philippines’ (CPP) alleged political infrastructure and its alleged legal
fronts.
A Cordillera human rights advocate said
that under Oplan Bantay Laya, the military and its hired hitmen will
“liquidate five activists per week.” Bulatlat
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