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Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Militant leader in Pangasinan slain in ambush
MANILA -- Another member of the left-leaning party-list group Bayan Muna was killed while his brother was wounded when unidentified persons fired at them in San Nicolas town in Pangasinan Tuesday morning.
Police identified the fatality as Jose Doton, 70, Bayan Muna secretary-general for Pangasinan province and a resident of Barangay Cabaluan in San Nicolas.
Doton is the fifth activist to be slain within the week and 585th since January 2001 when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took office, based on records of the militant organization.
The PNP's Task Force Usig, an interim body headed by Deputy Director General Avelino Razon tasked to look into the spate of killings, said however that Doton is only the 123rd leftist official and member to be slain since 2001.
The two victims, on board a motorcycle, were reportedly traversing Anong Road in Barangay Camangaan, San Nicolas, at about 10:45 a.m. when the perpetrators shot them. Doton was hit in the head and died instantly.
Doton's brother Cancio sustained two gunshot wounds at the back and is reportedly in critical condition.
Bayan Muna secretary general Roberto de Castro said Doton was a "very active" member of the group. "He was very active in the Oust Arroyo movement. He was also involved in the San Roque Dam issue," de Castro said.
The task force denied accusations by militants of a government crackdown on left-wing activists saying that the murders are not connected to each other.
The National Democratic Front (NDF) pointed to the Cabinet Oversight Committee for Internal Security (Cocis) headed by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita as responsible for the spate of killings of leftists.
In a statement, NDF chief negotiator Luis Jalandoni said the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People's Army (NPA) has nothing to do with the murders as claimed by military and police authorities.
"The regime's Cabinet Oversight Committee for Internal Security plans and directs the extra-judicial killings of suspected members of supporters of the revolutionary movement," claimed Jalandoni, a former priest.
The members of Cocis include National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr., Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz, Armed Forces Chief Generoso Senga, and PNP Chief Arturo Lomibao.
Jalandoni noted that most of the killings were perpetrated by motorcycle-riding assassins, which were allegedly common from 1986 to 1988 when Ermita was Armed Forces deputy chief of staff for operations.
He also said the killing is similar to the Operation Phoenix program in Vietnam in the 1960s. Ermita, Jalandoni said, was then in Vietnam along with current US Central Intelligence Agency chief John Negroponte.
Jalandoni bolstered the claims of various human rights groups that military and the police personnel executed the murder of over 500 leftist militants since January 2001. But the police said only over 100 activists were killed during that period.
"We have reliable reports that the regime is now preparing to start murders of civilians on the national level in the Metro Manila area and other major cities. It seeks to destroy the legal democratic movement and to weaken the revolutionary armed struggle," he added.
Jalandoni said allegations by Gonzales and by top military and police officials that the executions were part of a communist purge is an indication that government officials are determined to pursue the killings. (VR/LCMY/Sunnex)
(May 17, 2006 issue)
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