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Sunday, December 09, 2007
2 gunmen kill Masbate town's vice mayor
MANILA -- Two gunmen barged into a town hall in Masbate and killed the vice mayor, a human rights advocate who had condemned a series of killings of left-wing activists, officials said Saturday.
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Vice Mayor Regolo Moran, already wounded in the close-range shooting Friday, wrestled with one of the attackers but was shot again by the other and died in a car during the two-hour trip to a hospital, said party list lawmaker Crispin Beltran, a friend of Moran.
Two of Moran's employees were wounded in the assault in Masbate province's Dimasalang town, about 350 kilometers (218 miles) southeast of Manila.
The gunmen fled and were being hunted, said Police Regional Director Balligi Tira.
Beltran said he was puzzled how two gunmen could enter the town hall, which contains a police post. He said he was seeking an investigation of policemen near the scene.
Moran, a longtime human rights advocate, had condemned a wave of killings of left-wing activists over the past six years. He had been scheduled to help lead a human rights demonstration Monday in Dimasalang, Beltran said.
"His killing is undoubtedly politically motivated and will add up to more than 800 cases of extra-judicial killings in the country," Beltran's Anakpawis political party said in a statement.
Police have not yet established a motive for the killing, Tira said.The high-profile Philippine human rights group Karapatan has claimed that 887 left-wing activists have been killed since President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo took power in 2001, and that another 185 have disappeared. It has blamed the military for most of the killings.
Philip Alston, a UN expert in extrajudicial killings and political disappearances, issued a preliminary report in February accusing the Philippine military of systematically hunting left-wing activists as part of a four-decade-old conflict with communist rebels. The final report was published recently and retained Alston's initial findings.
The US Senate recently urged the Philippines to prosecute human rights violators - even if they are soldiers - or risk losing military aid.The Philippine military and police force have denied involvement in the killings and disappearances, saying Karapatan exaggerates the number of deaths and arguing that slayings by communist rebels far outnumber those allegedly committed by government troops.(AP)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star General Santos. (December 9, 2007 issue)
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