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Innabuyog condemns killing of Timmawa leader

The killing of 61 year-old Jose Doton, chairperson of Timmawa, a peasant organization in Benguet and Pangasinan, that resulted from the opposition of the San Roque Multi-purpose Dam last May 16 adds to the growing list of victims of political killings under the Arroyo government. Karapatan, a national human rights organization puts the statistics at 585 since Arroyo’s presidency in 2001. At least five of these were killed last week.

Shouldn’t this be enough bases to say that indeed this spate of political killings is a clear national policy of the Arroyo government? The Arroyo government has truly run amok to keep on attacking defenseless civilians. It does not distinguish legal people’s organizations from revolutionaries. The Arroyo government is indeed a ruthless government, which does not have any little regard for human rights. It is indeed abhorrent to watch another leader fall from the bullets of coward state agents aboard a motorcycle.

The killing of Lakay Doton left a widow in pain, another woman has been added to the list of widows who is left to shoulder the burden of managing their families while continuing community service and attending to other responsibilities. Old people like Lakay Doton are not excused from the death squads of the Arroyo government.

It is adding insult to injury when Mrs. Arroyo’s generals and implementors in the AFP and PNP are escaping their responsibility by saying that the killings are results of the rifts within the Communists movement without even conducting an investigation. To justify their lies, they are twisting facts like saying that Nicanor delos Santos, a Dumagat leader was killed in an armed encounter between the NPA and the government military when Tatay Kanor was killed in 2001 in a MetroManila market while buying food for the Aurora delegation to the International Human Rights Day activity.

The Arroyo government has further justified its senseless and malicious attacks to people’s organizations and their leaders by including national people’s organizations and alliances in the list of their enemies of the state. Rebellion charges have been lodged on national leaders, among them Rep. Liza Maza of the Gabriela Women’s Party, and Tita Eliza Lubi and Emi de Jesus both of Gabriela.

The Arroyo government has indeed distanced itself from the Filipino women and people. Innabuyog urges freedom-loving women and citizens in Baguio and the Cordillera to take part in actions to demand Mrs. Arroyo’s accountability to the human rights violations and for her final ouster from Malacañang. #

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