“While the show is still on and the Aquino government is still ‘in the mood’ to look into cases of extrajudicial killings following the US government’s report on human rights violations, Karapatan dares Malacañang to look into the cases of killings of victims of typhoon Pablo, Cristina Jose and Pedro Tinga and punish their perpetrators,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay.
“While the show is still on and the Aquino government is still ‘in the mood’ to look into cases of extrajudicial killings following the US government’s report on human rights violations, Karapatan dares Malacañang to look into the cases of killings of victims of typhoon Pablo, Cristina Jose and Pedro Tinga and punish their perpetrators,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay.
Cristina Jose was killed a year ago, on March 4, while Pedro Tinga was slain nine months later, on December 6. Both were involved in a series of protests exposing corruption, inefficiency and discrimination in the distribution of relief goods among survivors of typhoon Pablo.
“The prosecution and jailing of the perpetrators of these killings are significant in the light of the recent red tagging of typhoon victims of Yolanda by the ‘rehabilitation czar’ himself, Gen. Panfilo Lacson,” Palabay added.
“We are alarmed on the government’s red tagging to justify the violations and cover up its negligence on the plight of the typhoon survivors. Such red baiting resulted to the killing of people like Cristina Jose and Pedro Tinga,” Palabay said.
On February 20, Lacson branded the protesting Yolanda victims as ‘communist pawns’. The Yolanda victims are in Manila to call the attention of the national offices of different government agencies in-charge with relief and rehabilitation in Yolanda-stricken areas.
Before Cristina Jose was killed, she also exposed the military’s control over the distribution of relief goods in her town and their use of red tagging tactics to deny the typhoon victims relief goods. She was a subject of military harassment. Cristina Jose was shot dead by unidentified men on a motorcycle. Tinga, also a Mansaka tribal leader like Jose, was killed in a military operation led by elements of the 71st Battalion Alpha Company-Philippine Army.
Cristina Jose was tagged by the 67th IB-PA commander Lt. Col. Krishnamurti Mortela as ‘councilor of the NPA’.
“None of the perpetrators of extrajudicial killing, 169 of them under the Aquino regime, has been prosecuted and jailed. Majority, if not all of those involved in the killing are from the units of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and its adjunct paramilitary groups,” Palabay concluded. ###