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2 activists killed in 11 hours

Militants blame GMA, AFP for liquidation

BAGUIO CITY (Nov. 30) — The city’s militant organizations including those from Ilocos Sur and Abra held an indignation rally here on November 30 to condemn the political assassination of Ilocos and Cordillera Rural Missionaries Program Coordinator Jose “Pepe” Manegdeg and Abra human rights worker and union leader Albert Terredaño on November 28 and 29 respectively.

Manegdeg was shot by an unidentified gunman in Brgy. Apatot, San Esteban, Ilocos Sur on Nov. 28 at around 10 pm. According to the autopsy report, he obtained 22 gun shot wounds from a .45 semi automatic pistol that lacerated his lungs, liver, stomach and colon. He is survived by his wife and children, ages 9 and 6.

According to Beverly Longid of the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA), before Manegdeg was shot, he just came from a Paralegal Training Seminar at the Ursa Major Resort in Apatot sponsored by the Ilocos Human Rights Alliance (IHRA)-KARAPATAN, where he was a speaker-trainer.

Manegdeg’s remains were brought on December 2 to his hometown in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte where he will be buried on Tuesday, December 6. His remains were earlier laid at the Baguio Church of the Resurrection, Twin Chapels of the Risen Lord.

Meanwhile, unidentified gunmen aboard a motorcycle shot Terredaño in front of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) building in Bangued, Abra at daylight (8:45 AM). He died at 3:45 p.m. of the same day after battling for his life at the Seares Memorial Hospital in Bangued. His wife and two children survive him.

Terredaño sustained a single gunshot wound from also a .45 semi automatic pistol that entered his chest and exited his right armpit piercing his lungs.

Terredaño was also the current president of the Department of Agrarian Reform Employees Association (DAREA) and main convener of the Provincial Organizing Committee for the Confederation of Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (COURAGE)-Abra.

Militant organizations condemned the brutal killings of Manegdeg and Terredaño and held the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) regime and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) accountable for their deaths, stressing that the incidents are not isolated cases in the nationwide spate of killings against members of militant organizations. The deaths of Manegdeg and Terredaño are but proof of the GMA regime’s mounting political repression against the militant mass movement, and all those who criticize GMA’s anti-people policies, they added.

Longid stressed that the GMA administration has done nothing to address the continuous political killings. She said, “GMA has instead legalized the killings through her policies such as the Anti-Terrorism Bill and her executive orders such as the calibrated preemptive response (CPR).”

“In fact she (GMA) has promoted Gen. Jovito Palparan despite his track record of human rights violations,” Longid stressed.

The Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) said in a statement that it has only been nine months since Romy Sanchez of Bayan Muna- Ilocos and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Ilocos was assassinated in the Baguio City market, and already another two human rights workers were slain by the fascist regime.

Tributes were said for them in Baguio City and Abra this week.

The militant groups called for intensified vigilance against the worsening repression of the GMA regime at the closing of the indignation rally. # Kim Quitasol and ATBengwayan for NORDIS

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