The killing of Edwin Bargamento, NFSW regional auditor and a member of the Wage Increase Solidarity-Negros, by a motorcycle-riding man brought to 34 the number of political activists slain in the country since last January.
Bargamento was killed just five days after another activist, Alden Ambia, a Bayan Muna leader in Leyte, was seriously wounded in an attack, also by motorcycle-riding men.
The NFSW is affiliated with the radical Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and the militant party-list groups Bayan Muna and Anakpawis.
Bargamento had just come from a protest rally at the labor department’s office in Bacolod City calling for wage increases for sugar mill and sugarcane plantation workers when he was shot several times in Hacienda Emma in Barangay Tortosa, Manapla town.
Police said the NFSW official was shot with a caliber .45 pistol and died while being rushed to the Igka-ayong Lawas Foundation Inc. Hospital in Victorias City.
NFSW secretary general John Milton Lozande said their group and the Kilusang Mayo Uno will conduct their own investigation into the attack.
Last month, at least nine activists were reported to have been slain one after the other throughout the country.
The first was Tarlac City councilor Abelardo Ladera, a local Bayan Muna leader, who was gunned down on March 3. On the same day, Bayan Muna-Nueva Ecija coordinator Danilo Macapagal went missing. He is now presumed dead.
On March 9, Bayan Muna’s Ilocos region coordinator, Romeo Sanchez, was killed in Baguio City. The next day, farmer Ernesto Bang, Anakpawis information officer in Camarines Norte, was assassinated in Labo town.
Three days later, Fr. William Tadena of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (Aglipayan Church), also of Bayan Muna, was killed after celebrating Mass in La Paz, Tarlac.
On March 14, lawyer Fidelino Dacut, Bayan Muna’s Eastern Visayas coordinator, was murdered in Tacloban City. After two days, tricycle driver Joel Reyes, Anakpawis organizer in Jose Panganiban town, Camarines Norte, was killed.
On March 17, Victor Concepcion, Anakpawis leader in Pampanga, was slain in Angeles City.
Last March 22, lawyer Cirilito Juloya, who belongs to Bayan Muna, survived an attempt on his life by a lone gunman who pumped at least eight bullets into different parts of his body in La Union.
On April 6, a Bayan Muna member was hurt when unidentified men lobbed a Molotov bomb at the party-list group’s provincial headquarters in Catarman, Northern Samar.
Militants have accused the military of being behind the series of attacks on their ranks. The Armed Forces has denied this. — With Benjie Villa