Maybe they killed themselves, says Palparan of slain activists

FORT MAGSAYSAY, Palayan City — "Baka pinatay nila ang sarili nila (Maybe they killed themselves)."

With this, Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, the controversial commanding general of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division, dismissed as another piece of propaganda the claim of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) that the soldiers under his command were behind the killings of 34 members of their group and Anakpawis.

Palparan said the figure was too big to be believable.

"Marami silang kaaway (They had many enemies)," he told The STAR in a phone interview.

He said Bayan’s claim is only propaganda and that its leaders are just becoming paranoid.

Meanwhile, Bayan Muna’s vice chairman in Pangasinan was gunned down in Villasis town Tuesday night.

Authorities said motorcycle-riding men shot Mariano Sepnio, 45, an employee of the Villasis Water District, in the lower back with a caliber .45 pistol as he was about to alight from his owner-type jeep.

Earlier, Betty Perido, Bayan chairwoman in Nueva Ecija, claimed that at least 34 members of their group and Anakpawis have been killed since last year.

She also linked the military to a supposed aborted assassination attempt on Guimba, Nueva Ecija councilor Marsolito Velasco late last month.

Perido named some of those abducted and killed as Danilo Supena and wife Maribel, Armand Javier, Tito Makabita, Alvin Cucio, Priscilla Esteban, Felix Domingo and Clarita Ramirez.

Domingo and Ramirez were found dead last November, and the Supena couple, Javier, Makabita and Esteban last October. Cucio was abducted and found dead in September.

Perido said most of the victims were seized from their homes by armed men on board motorcycles or vans and clad in dark suits and combat boots.

She said these incidents have taken place since Palparan put up a military detachment in the province.

She said Bayan and the human rights group Karapatan have fully documented these cases, which they intend to submit to the Commission on Human Rights.

Palparan, however, said Bayan is resorting to black propaganda because of his "decisive and determined" efforts at wiping out so-called enemies of the state.

He challenged Perido’s group to produce evidence that would prove that he was behind the killings and the abductions.

But he said he would not step down should his detractors prove their accusations, describing such a move as "usapang bata lang (just an agreement among kids)."

"Unless we are legally removed or pag namatay ako (I die)," he said. — With Eva Visperas