Davao rights advocate killed vigilante-style

DAVAO CITY — Twenty-seven-year-old Rashid Manahan had been vocal against "salvagings" (summary executions) by supposed vigilantes that have hounded this city.

But Manahan has been silenced forever. At noon last Tuesday, he was gunned down vigilante-style in front of a local hotel where a human rights forum was to be held.

Manahan, executive director of the Community Resource Development Center, a non-government organization, was reportedly fired at by two motorcycle-riding men while he was walking to Ponce Suites in Doña Vicenta Village to attend a forum on death penalty.

The forum was also expected to tackle the spate of summary executions here of mostly suspected criminals, including drug pushers. Manahan was also the Mindanao coordinator of the Mamamayang Tutol sa Bitay (Citizens Against the Death Penalty).

Some local quarters believe that Manahan’s killing served as warning to groups who have been vocal about the "salvagings."

But a colleague of Manahan in the anti-death penalty group said his murder would not silence them.

The human rights forum also had Martha Alvarez of the Asia Monitoring Team of the European Union and Dr. Nimia Simbulan, executive director of the Manila-based Human Rights Information Center, as speakers.

Believed perpetrated by the so-called Davao Death Squad, the summary executions have so far claimed at least 66 lives since last January alone.

Police continue to face a blank wall on the killings in the absence of witnesses.