Militants blame military for slays

BAGUIO CITY — Militant groups are blaming the military for the gunslayings of two activists in Abra and Ilocos Sur this week.

Beverly Longid, vice chairwoman of the Baguio City-based Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA), said the manner by which Rural Missionaries of the Philippines-Ilocos and Cordilleras worker Jose Manegdeg III and Department of Agrarian Reform employee and human rights activist Albert Terredaño, 43, were killed was the same.

Unidentified men aboard a van gunned down Manegdeg in Barangay Apatot in San Esteban, Ilocos Sur last Monday night, minutes after he had left a human rights training seminar sponsored by the Ilocos Human Rights Alliance (IHRA) at the Ursa Major Resort where he was a trainer-educator.

Manegdeg sustained 22 bullet wounds supposedly from a caliber .45 pistol.

Several hours later, at about 9 a.m. the next day, Terredaño, who was on his way to the office, was attacked by motorcycle-riding men in Zone 4 in Bangued, Abra. He later died in the hospital.

Longid claimed that it is only the military which has a motive to have Manegdeg and Terredaño slain because the two figured prominently in protest movements in the Ilocos region and Abra.

"They were high-profile personalities of legal organizations," she said.

The national human rights alliance Karapatan, to which Longid belonged, said 23 human rights workers have been killed since 2001.

At least 40 members and leaders of the militant party-list group Bayan Muna have also been killed since 2001.

The Armed Forces Northern Luzon Command, however, denied having any hand in the killings.

Lt. Col. Preme Monta, Nolcom spokesman, said, "It is not the policy of the Armed Forces to do such killings."

He challenged Longid and leaders of militant groups, who have blamed the military for the series of slayings of activists, to show proof.

"If they have complaints against any member of the military, they should go to the proper courts and we are willing to cooperate," Monta said.