Rights group says military, not NPA, killed barangay chief

ANGELES CITY – Contrary to police claims that the New People’s Army (NPA) was responsible for the killing of the chairman of Barangay Atlag in Malolos, Bulacan last Friday, religious and local leaders in the area have cited a police "progress report" putting the blame on the military instead.

Rev. Fr. Rolando de Leon, spokesperson of the human rights group Alyansa ng Mamamayan para sa Karapatang Pantao (ALMMA) in Bulacan, quoted a "progress report" of the Malolos police, headed by Superintendent Manuel Lukban Jr., as saying that "it is not the NPA but the military that is likely behind the recent assassination of Atlag Barangay Captain Reynato Estrella."

De Leon’s group specifically blamed the 3rd infantry battalion of the army, headed by Col. Gerals Velez, for the killing.

Lukban earlier suspected the NPA for the killing of Estrella, but De Leon said that the police progress report also noted that "80 percent of the population of Atlag and neighboring barangays blame the killing on the military."

"The killing took place only 100 meters away from the temporary detachment of the Philippine Army’s Special Operations Team and that the get-away motorcycle of the suspects was parked at the corner almost 50 meters away from the said detachment", the police report said.

ALMMA also condemned the killing of Severino Torres, 51, and his wife, Teresita, 56, who were gunned down allegedly by elements of the 24th Infantry Battalion and the PNP Special Action Force at Sitio Nagdasig, Barangay San Jose, Calumpit, Bulacan last Nov. 22 on suspicion that they were supporters of the NPA.

Citing police progress report dated Dec. 15, ALMMA said, "that since the arrival of the military in the barangay in May 2006, Estrella had been at loggerheads with the former because of their abuses against his constituents." According to ALMMA, such finding confirmed a June 14, 2006 report of the Community Social Welfare Development Office of Malolos City, through Ma. Consuelo Roque, Social Welfare Assistant, concerning complaints aired by Estrella against military abuses in his barangay, which frequently put him at odds with the soldiers.

"Dapat nilang igalang ang buhay at karapatan ng tao," De Leon, the spokesperson of ALMMA told The STAR in a interview after a Christmas Party with victims of human rights violations housed at Domus Dei here.

"Wala kaming hinihiling kungdi ang sundin nila ang batas na kanilang dapat ipatupad," De Leon said.

Domus Dei is a refugee center for alleged victims of militarization in the province.

As this developed, the military remains silent on the issue after The STAR tried to contact them, while Malolos City police told Bulacan reporters that the NPA remain as their primary suspects in the killing of Estrella.

Lukban told reporters that ALMMA’s claims is not true and that he did not said in his report that soldiers killed the barangay chairman. — With Dino Balabo