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Thursday, April 05, 2007
2 missing militants found dead
MANILA -- Two left-wing peasant leaders, missing since last week, were found dead and stuffed into garbage bags on a northern Philippine riverbank Wednesday, police said.
Chief Superintendent Geary Barias, head of a national police task force looking into extrajudicial killings of left-wing activists, condemned the slayings and mobilized regional and provincial officers to investigate.
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The bodies of Arthur Orpilla and Dionisio Battad -- from the local chapter of the National Peasant Movement, or KMP, in Cagayan province -- had multiple stab and bullet wounds, said provincial police chief Pedro Danguilan.
Vendors found the bodies beside the Cagayan River in Lal-lo town, about 30 kilometers from Baggao municipality where soldiers had allegedly abducted them on March 27, said KMP spokesman Carl Ala.
The two reportedly had been campaigning for Anakpawis, or Toiling Masses, a political party of workers and farmers seeking seats in the House of Representatives in May elections.
Colonel Roberto Morales, head of the 501st Infantry Brigade that operates in the area, denied soldiers were involved in the killings.
Ala alleged KMP members have been put on a military list of suspected supporters of the underground Communist party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People's army, which has a strong presence in Cagayan, about 380 kilometers north of Manila.
He said more than 60 KMP leaders have been killed since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took office in 2001 and ordered an intensified counterinsurgency campaign by the military.
The human rights group Karapatan has reported more than 800 people have been killed and another 200 abducted and missing nationwide since 2001.
In Manila, the government released a copy of an order from Arroyo directing a fact-finding commission -- which investigated political killings last year -- to continue its work and go into "the root causes of the extrajudicial killings and submit a final report detailing its policy recommendations that will break the cycle of violence and prevent its recurrence."
Preliminary reports from the commission and the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings both concluded in February that Philippine soldiers were involved in many of the political killings.
Military officials said the reports were unfair and instead pointed to the communist rebels as responsible for most of the killings as part of an internal purge. (AP)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Iloilo. (April 5, 2007 issue)
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