"With BS Aquino’s 743 more days in office, and his Oplan Bayanihan ends with his term, we ask: how many more will be killed? Bodies of Aquino’s victims are piling up. Yet, Aquino has not owned up to his accountability," Karapatan Chairperson Marie Hilao-Enriquez said. “In all his years in power, Aquino has treaded the path of war and blocked all roads to peace.”
Hilao-Enriquez said the arrest and detention of Em Mijares on Independence Day showed the public one of the Aquino government’s practices to gag his critics. Others get killed.
"With BS Aquino’s 743 more days in office, and his Oplan Bayanihan ends with his term, we ask: how many more will be killed? Bodies of Aquino’s victims are piling up. Yet, Aquino has not owned up to his accountability," Karapatan Chairperson Marie Hilao-Enriquez said. “In all his years in power, Aquino has treaded the path of war and blocked all roads to peace.”
Hilao-Enriquez said the arrest and detention of Em Mijares on Independence Day showed the public one of the Aquino government’s practices to gag his critics. Others get killed.
She cited the killing of Dionisio Garete, a farmer member of Panay Fair Trade Center and colleague of slain Romeo Capalla. On May 26, Garete was gunned down while driving his pick-up truck to deliver sugarcane to a muscovado mill of Janiuay-Badiangan Farmers Association (Jabafa). The Revolutionary Proletariat Army-Alex Buncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB) was believed to have perpetrated the killing. Last January 2014, Garete received a “warning” from a member of the RPA-ABB, allegedly for “being too active in the other side.” Another relative reported that suspected RPA-ABB members had been tailing Garete outside his house. The RPA-ABB is a paramilitary group of the Philippine Army.
On June 4, Wilfredo Estrebillo, a motorcycle driver was found dead in Sitio Pandulian, Barangay Mabantao, Municipality of Kapalong, Davao del Norte, his body riddled with 17 bullets. Estrebillo’s wife said in April and May, military intelligence agents of the 60th IB-PA accused Estribillo of being a sympathizer of the New People’s Army. An Order of Battle maintained by the military had names of motorcycle drivers in relation to the capture of Cpl. Rogelio Rosales by the NPA.
To date, there are 199 victims of extrajudicial killings. Estrebillo is among the seven victims of EJK documented by Karapatan from April to mid-June 2014.
- Ricardo Tuazon Jr. was killed on April 27 while hunting for birds at Sitio Dugyaman, Brgy. Anticala, Butuan City. After he was killed, a certain Capt. Maglinao of the 29th IBPA announced over the local radio program Radyo Trumpeta that they killed a member of the New People’s Army, referring to Ricardo Tuazon Jr.
- Arnel Tanduyan was killed by suspected elements of the 73rd Infantry Battalion Philippine Army inside his house on May 7, 2014 in Malita, Davao Occidental. Riding a motorcycle on his way home, Arnel found logs blocking the road. Suddenly, he heard gunshots and found his foot hit. He was still able to ride back to his motorcycle and went straight home where he hid at the roof. The perpetrators followed Tanduyan and sprayed bullets in his house.
- On May 21, also in Malita, Davao Occidental, Tony Bago was riding his motorcycle to buy fish when two men wearing ski masks stopped him and shot him four times in the head.
- On May 23, 2014 in Sitio Hucdong, Brgy. Balocawe, Matnog, Sorsogon, soldiers from the 5th Scout Ranger Company of the 31st Infantry Battalion under the 903rd Brigade sprayed bullets at the house of Elias and Cynthia Garduque. This immediately killed Elias who, at that time, was carrying his one-year-old son, Eddie. The child was hit in the thigh. Ironically, Cynthia now faces a charge of illegal possession of explosives.
- A farmer and Municipal staff of Bayan Muna, Flaviano Morales was killed inside his house in Brgy. Napungas, Municipality of Asuncion, Davao del Norte on June 13. Before the killing, elements of the 60th IBPA interrogated him twice.