Roman Polintan, Bayan’s Central Luzon chairman, said the gunmen pretended to be buying cigarettes from the store of Bayan leader Flor Collantes in Barangay Tuec and then fired at him at close range in front of his wife. They escaped on board a motorcycle.
The bullet hit Collantes’ nape and exited through one of his cheeks, Polintan said, quoting reports.
Collantes was brought to a hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival, Polintan said.
Chief Superintendent Alejandro Lapinid, Central Luzon police director, said probers were still clueless on the killing.
"We don’t want to (make any conclusions) yet, but the pattern of the recent killings of people identified with militant groups seems to indicate military involvement," Polintan said.
He said Collantes was the 12th person identified with militant organizations slain since Brig. Gen. Jovito Palparan was appointed last September as commander of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division whose jurisdiction covers Tarlac.
"We still have to investigate the killing of Collantes but we fear that the incident could have something to do with Palparan’s policies which do not distinguish between legal militant organizations and underground rebel movements," he said.
Sister Cecille Ruiz, who chairs the human rights group Karapatan-Central Luzon, recalled that Palparan started his career in Central Luzon way back in the 1980s when he was the commander of the Army’s 24th Infantry Brigade which covered Pampanga, Bataan and Zambales.
"Militant groups accused him of equating legal militant organizations with rebel groups, setting them as military targets," she said.
Karapatan alleged that Palparan founded and "directed" at least two vigilante groups in Pampanga in the late 80s, namely the Angelo Simbulan Brigade based in the town of San Fernando and the Faustino Sabile Brigade based in Mabalacat.
Citing records, Ruiz said human rights violations in Central Luzon had been significant even before Palparan’s reassignment to Central Luzon.
"Since the Hacienda Luisita strike last year, there have been 16 cases of ‘salvagings’ or summary executions, 11 frustrated ‘salvagings,’ seven forced or involuntary disappearances, six illegal searches and arrests, and hundreds of (cases of) harassment, threats and coercion," she said.