Nueva Ecija militant leader shot dead

BAGUIO CITY — A leader of the militant party-list group Anakpawis was gunned down in Nueva Ecija last Sunday night.

The victim, Armando Javier Jr., a resident of Sta. Clara, Cuyapo town, was shot dead at about 9:45 p.m., according to a report of the national office of Anakpawis and the Ecumenical Movement for Justice and Peace (EMJP).

Meanwhile, Celia Esteban, another Anakpawis leader in Nueva Ecija, was seized from her house in Lennec, Guimba town.

Quoting witnesses, the EMJP and Anakpawis said she was dragged into a light blue van, which took off toward an unknown destination.

Anakpawis noted that the two incidents occurred two days after Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, the new chief of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division, reportedly said that he would use the coercive power of the state to terrorize the "bad elements" of society. — Artemio Dumlao