Bayan Muna leader, wife killed in crackdown

Another local leader of the militant Bayan Muna was slain together with his wife Monday by suspected government troopers in what human rights advocates believed to be part of an ongoing crackdown on the left-leaning party-list group.

The human rights group, Karapatan, identified the victims as Expidito Albarillo, 48, a municipal coordinator of Bayan Muna’s chapter in San Teodoro town in Mindoro Oriental; and his wife, Manuela, 45, a leader of a local women’s organization affiliated with the party-list group. The two victims were also members of the militant Katipunan ng mga Samahang Magbubukid sa Mindoro Oriental (KASAMA-MO), a local ally of the left-leaning Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), an associate group of Bayan Muna. They had eight children, the youngest of whom is Adelisa, who is only 10 years old.

Karapatan said that the entire incident was witnessed by the victims’ neighbors, Lorna Pantoja and her husband.

According to Pantoja, it was around 5 a.m. when eight heavily armed men arrived at their village in Sitio Ibuyi in Barangay Caisapa, San Teodoro. She said that all of the armed men were wearing complete military uniforms, with some concealing their faces with bonnets. Thirty minutes later, she said that the armed men took Albarillo and his wife out of their house. Afterwards, several gunshots were heard.

When the armed men left, Pantoja and other neighbors saw the couple’s lifeless bodies some 200 meters away from their house. Albarillo had a big wound in his left arm, believed to have been cut with a knife, four gunshot wounds in the left part of his body, another in the armpit, and three other gunshot wounds in the back. One of his eyeballs was also missing. His wife had a gunshot wound below her right eye, another in her left armpit and her neck. — Benjie Villa