2 Bayan Muna activists killed in Sorsogon

Activists see escalating violence as polls near

By Joel Guinto
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 12:54pm (Mla time) 01/24/2007

MANILA, Philippines -- Two members of the left-wing Bayan Muna (Nation First) party list were gunned down just seven hours apart in Sorsogon province on Tuesday, a party official said, as he expressed fears that violence against leftist militants would escalate during the election season.

The latest killings spurred over two dozen outraged members of the party list and allied groups Karapatan and Kalikasan-People's Network for the Environment to stage a brief picket in front of Gate 2 of Camp Aguinaldo along EDSA in Quezon City Wednesday noon to protest the military's alleged involvement in the murders.

Ruben Ermino, 52, was shot dead by a motorcycle-riding assassin while he was driving his tricycle in Tabi village, Gubat town at around 12 p.m. Tuesday, said lawyer Neri Colmenares, Bayan Muna's third nominee in the May midterm elections.

Then at around 7 p.m., Demetrio Imperial, 26, was shot dead in front of his wife and child while they were having dinner at their house in Sogoy village, Castilla town. The assailants wore ski masks and held the victim's family at gunpoint, Colmenares said.

"The government can't beat Bayan Muna in the elections, that's why they resort to violence," Colmenares told reporters on the side of the picket.

"We fear that the political killings will escalate as the elections draw near," he added.

In the May 2004 elections, Bayan Muna mustered enough votes for six seats at the House of Representatives but the law limits party list representation to three, Colmenares said.

In this year’s elections, incumbent Representatives Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño will be the party's first and second nominee. Colmenares will replace Representative Joel Virador as third nominee.

Colmenares noted that witnesses and "circumstantial evidence" pointed to government forces as responsible for the murders of activists.

"The killings are done in broad daylight, near police and military detachments, and by motorcycle-riding gunmen," he said.

Quoting data from the human rights group Karapatan, Colmenares said 824 cases of extrajudicial killings have been recorded since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed power in January 2001.

Colmenares also dared the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to file electioneering charges against National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, whom he accused of touring military camps to campaign against Bayan Muna, while courting votes for his own Partido Demokratiko Sosyalista ng Pilipinas (PDSP).

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