HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH

Slain Cagayan Peasant Leader was ‘Marked for Liquidation’

Before he was killed, Joey Javier, 44, human rights officer and peasant leader had received several death threats – including text messages telling him he was up “for liquidation.” These, his colleagues said, stemmed from the military’s having tagged him as a key peasant organizer in Cagayan, northern Philippines.

BY ABE ALMIROL
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat

Before he was killed, Joey Javier, 44, human rights officer and founding chair of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP or Philippine Peasant Movement) affiliate organization KAGIMUNGAN, he had received several death threats – including a number of text messages telling him to watch out as he was a target “for liquidation.” These, his colleagues said, stemmed from the military’s having tagged him as a key peasant organizer in Cagayan, in northern Philippines.

KAGIMUNGAN adviser Isabelo Adviento said that sometime in October, Army soldiers had harassed and verbally threatened Javier in public. This happened near the Baggao Centro Market, Adviento said.

Weeks before he was killed on Nov. 11, unidentified and heavily-armed men tried to burn down the office of the Sto. Domingo Multi-purpose Cooperative, of which Javier was one of the founders. Javier slept in that building the night before he was killed.

Javier was shot dead around 8 a.m. last Nov. 11 by two unidentified gunmen while boarding a motorcycle on his way to Baggao town in Cagayan province. He died on the spot from a single bullet that entered his nape and exited his forehead.

Adviento said Javier alighted at the Bagunot Bridge because the road was muddy and uphill. He was about to ride again with his companion when two men approached them and pulled out guns.

One gunman fired the fatal shot from two meters away. The other gunman then fired two more shots at Javier, but the bullets lodged in his bag and in his back-pocket's wallet. Javier’s companion escaped unhurt.

Witnesses said the gunmen fled on foot along the riverbank, and boarded a boat waiting about 200 meters upstream.

Adviento noted that local police and Army soldiers were too slow in responding to the shooting, in effect enabling the gunmen to escape. "The Army camp is atop a hill overlooking the spot where Joey was shot and the croplands where the gunmen casually fled,” he said. “The soldiers could have killed the gunmen if they fired at them."

He added local police went to the crime scene several minutes after the shooting. A witness saw three heavily armed men at the direction where the gunmen fled. The police avoided engaging the gunmen, and they just returned to the station, the witness said. Adviento added that police authorities are not seriously investigating Javier’s case.

The Bagunot Bridge, where Javier was killed, is about 150 meters from the Baggao town proper and 100 meters from the Philippine Army's 17th Infantry Battalion camp.

Javier served as chair of KAGIMUNGAN from 2000 to 2003. He had just been elected last August as KAGIMUNGAN human rights officer.

In 2003, Javier and three other peasants survived a hacking attempt by assailants believed to be soldiers of the Philippine Army’s 21^st Infantry Batallion, which is stationed in Tabuk, Kalinga.

He is survived by his wife Dominga, 54, and 14-year old daughter Helen Joy. Javier's remains were buried last November 18 after a march-rally and short program condemning his brutal killing and the continuing political killings. With reports from KAGIMUNGAN / Northern Dispatch / Posted by Bulatlat

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