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Saturday, December 11, 2004
Gunman kills activist, wounds 4 other rallyists
MANILA -- A masked gunman opened fire at an international Human Rights Day rally Friday, killing a left-wing activist and wounding four people, including a 10-year-old, police and organizers said.
The gunman apparently fired randomly at about 600 people in Daet, the capital of Camarines Norte province, said Nancy Cabug, the coordinator for the human rights group Karapatan.
She said Edmundo Salcedo of the Peasant Movement of the Philippines was fatally shot and at least three people were hospitalized with gunshot wounds, including a 10-year-old boy. An elderly woman also was wounded, but she got lost during the ensuing commotion.
Provincial police chief Efren Yebra said the gunman fired at least three times, hitting Salcedo in the head. He then escaped on foot.
Cabug suspected the gunman was an agent of the military, which has been blamed by Karapatan for the deaths of 56 suspected communist rebel supporters and human rights workers since 2001 in the Bicol region.
Military officials have accused some human rights organizations and left-wing activists of being clandestine supporters of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its military arm, the New People's Army. But the groups have routinely denied any links to the rebels.
Military spokesman Lt. Col. Buenaventura Pascual said he was not immediately informed about the incident, which occurred 220 kilometers (135 miles) east of Manila, but denied the military could have been involved.
Cabug said several people tried to chase the gunman. During a melee, unidentified men also allegedly tried to abduct Beverly Quintillan, the regional spokeswoman for the left-wing group Bayan, she said.
Cabug said the shooting was the latest in a series of attacks against human rights advocates. On Nov. 10, a regional coordinator for the Promotion for Church People's Response, a group backed by the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches, was gunned down in his Bicol house. (AP)
(December 11, 2004 issue)
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