Activist priest slain in Tarlac

TARLAC CITY — An activist priest of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) was killed in an ambush yesterday morning while he was on his way home after officiating Mass in La Paz town.

The victim, Rev. Fr. William Tadena, 37, a native of Victoria town, chaired the local human rights committee of IFI, commonly known as the Aglipayan Church, and was actively involved in Karapatan, a human rights group, and Bayan Muna and Anakpawis, both party-list groups.

Reports said two motorcycle-riding men chased and fired at Tadena who was on board his owner-type jeep between 8:30 to 9 a.m.

Two of Tadena’s companions, identified as Binbin Domingo and Junjun Bartolazo, sustained minor gunshot wounds.

Witnesses said the gunmen used short firearms which police believe were caliber .45 pistols.

Tadena died while he was being treated for multiple bullet wounds at the Central Luzon Doctors’ Hospital here.

The Aglipayan priest was the second activist slain in this province this month. Last March 3, Tarlac City councilor Abelardo Ladera, a local Bayan Muna leader, was gunned down in Barangay Paraiso here.

A shadowy vigilante group calling itself the Nagkakaisang mga Biktima ng Karahasan ng NPA (New People’s Army) has claimed responsibility for Ladera’s killing.

The group accused Ladera of being a supporter of the NPA, armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), and his brother Danny as a local ranking officer of the underground movement.

Another anti-communist vigilante group being linked to the Ladera murder was the previously unheard of Kasama-Kayabe-Kadua (the Tagalog, Pampango and Ilocano term, respectively, of "friend"). Police, however, believe both groups are one and the same.

The military has long tagged Bayan Muna as a "legal front" of the CPP-NPA.

Last March 3, armed men kidnapped presidential relative Danilo Macapagal, a Bayan Muna leader in Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija. He remains missing.

Six days later, Romeo Sanchez, Bayan Muna’s Ilocos coordinator, was gunned down in Baguio City.

Emil Paragas, Karapatan’s Tarlac spokesman, has pointed an accusing finger at the Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command for the killings and the creation of the vigilante groups.

But Lt. Gen. Romeo Dominguez, Nolcom commanding officer, denied it, saying, "This is not how your military operates." — With Ric Sapnu and Cecille Suerte Felipe