Activist’s slay linked to drive vs usurers

TUGUEGARAO CITY — With the police still clueless on last Saturday’s gunslaying of the leader of a local peasant organization, militant groups here suspect that the campaign of his group against what they described as big-time usurers could have something to do with the killing.

The victim, Joey Javier, who headed the left-leaning Caguimungan peasant group in remote Baggao town, led a campaign against usurers victimizing farmers, who were being forced to sell their produce at very low prices just to repay their obligations.

Javier’s efforts, according to his fellow activists, possibly drew the ire of these wealthy and influential usurers.

Militants also suspect that Javier could have also been silenced because of his group’s stand against the presence of military troops in Baggao.

Chief Superintendent Jefferson Soriano, Cagayan Valley police director, said police probers were still establishing the identities of the two men who gunned down the 47-year-old Javier, also the president of the local chapter of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, last Saturday morning.

Soriano gave assurance that his men were doing their best to give justice to Javier’s family.

"I wish to assure (Javier’s) relatives and all others concerned that the police will not be remiss in their duty of finding out and arresting those behind such a senseless killing," he said.

A native of Baggao town, Javier, also a board director of the Baggao-based Santo Domingo Cooperative, sustained three gunshot wounds, including one in the back of the head, from caliber .45 pistols.

Church leaders, including Cagayan Archbishop Diosdado Talamayan and Bishops Sergio Utleg and Ramon Villena, of the Ilagan (Isabela) and Bayombong (Nueva Vizcaya) dioceses, respectively, denounced Javier’s killing, describing it as "senseless, heartless and barbaric, which only evil-minded groups could perpetrate."

They called on President Arroyo to "stop once and for all" these killings, which they said could only worsen the already bad image of the country.

Javier, whom militant groups claimed to be the 765th victim of extra-judicial killings since 2001, had reportedly just attended a meeting with other farmers when he was attacked near a bridge at Old Centro in Baggao, said to be a kilometer away from a military camp.