Slain Dutch aid worker buried in Aurora

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippines  – Some 1,000 mourners attended the burial of Willem Geertman in Baler, Aurora on Sunday as calls for justice rang out for the slain Dutch missionary.

Journalist Fred Villareal, who witnessed the shooting of Geertman at his Alay Bayan Inc. office in Barangay Telebastagan, San Fernando last July 3, said eight priests officiated a concelebrated Mass for the Dutchman at the San Luis Obispo Parish before he was laid to rest at 3 p.m. at a Catholic cemetery in the capital town.

The mourners, including Geertman’s relatives, allies, peasants, indigenous people and professionals, joined the funeral Mass, Villareal said.

Meanwhile, the Norway-based Defend International (DI) has joined the calls against a “whitewash” in the Geertman case.

“We condemn the maneuvers of the Aquino regime to whitewash the case by weaving a scenario of robbery gone wrong,” DI said in a statement, noting “the manner by which he was killed is akin to the operation of killers of human rights advocates, progressives and political activists.”

Reports said that Geertman had helped Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Ma. Sison obtain asylum in the Netherlands.

“As a Dutch national, he was a staunch defender of the rights of progressives and Filipino refugees in the Netherlands. He encouraged and supported Prof. (Jose Maria) Sison and others in their efforts to obtain asylum and in their struggle against persecution and terrorist-labeling,” it said.

Meanwhile, Grace Punongbayan of Migrante based in Amsterdam said Filipino members of a group called the Red Tomorrow held protest rallies at the Philippine embassy in The Hague to protest the killing of Geertman.

The militant Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) and Anakpawis party-list yesterday urged the Dutch embassy in Manila to “file a diplomatic protest against the Philippine government over the brutal murder of Geertman.”

Pamalakaya vice chairman Salvador France and Anakpawis party-list vice chairperson Fernando Hicap said the Dutch embassy “should lead a diplomatic campaign in the international community strongly rebuking the policy of extrajudicial killing under the Oplan Bayanihan regime of President Aquino.”

Dutch Ambassador Robert Brinks said he was “shocked and saddened” by the murder of Geertman, adding that “human rights remain one of the important pillars of Dutch foreign policy.”

Police have traced the license plate of the car allegedly used by the cohorts of the killers of Geertman.

Senior Superintendent Edgardo Tinio, Pampanga police provincial director, said the Special Investigation Task Group Geertman said footage captured by a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera installed at the compound of Geertman’s office in L&S Subdivision showed a Mitsubishi Gallant tailing Geertman’s pickup truck prior to the killing.

Tinio said that a check with the Land Transportation Office in Region 3 showed that the Gallant’s license plate TRS-719 was also assigned to a black Toyota Corolla.

Tinio said that Superintendent Ricardo David, chief of the Investigation Detection Management Branch, went to San Pedro, Laguna to locate the registered owner of the Mitsubishi Gallant.

Geertman came from a Metrobank branch in Angeles City where he reportedly withdrew P1.2 million before he was shot dead outside his office.

Deeper probe

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Nicanor Bartolome has ordered the Pampanga police to broaden their investigation into the murder of Geertman from robbery to other possible angles.

“I have given instructions (to the regional director and the provincial director) to consider other motives. There have been other pronouncements pertaining to other reasons that may have caused the killing, but initially the result points to robbery because of the money claims,” said Bartolome. – With Ding Cervantes, Cecille Suerte Felipe