No suspects yet in Iloilo activists’ shooting, abduction

ILOILO CITY – Police were still clueless on the identities of those who shot a human rights activist and abducted two fellow militants last Thursday.

Senior Superintendent Melvin Mongcal, Iloilo police director, admitted yesterday that they still had no information on who shot Jose Eli Garachico, vice chairman of the human rights group Karapatan, and snatched Nilo Arado, Panay chairman of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan), and Ma. Luisa Posa Dominado, an officer of a support group for former political detainees.

"As to who or what group is keeping Arado and Dominado, we don’t know yet," Mongcal told The STAR, adding though that his investigators were following up some leads.

The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) has joined the provincial police in investigating the incident.

Mongcal said he and CIDG probers failed to talk to Garachico Saturday because the latter was not in a condition to accurately recall how the gunman looked like.

"We will wait until he recuperates, and only then will we talk to him," said Superintendent Renato Gumban, chief of the 6th CIDG.

Garachico is still under intensive care at the Iloilo Doctor’s Hospital.

Although facing a dearth of information on the whereabouts of Arado and Dominado, Mongcal said police were still searching for them.

Mongcal said he has alerted police units in the different towns to help in the search for the two activists.

The militants were on their way back to Iloilo City from San Jose, Antique where they campaigned for the Anakpawis party-list group when a Mitsubishi L-300 van blocked the path of their pick-up.

One of the van’s occupants dragged Garachico out of the pick-up and shot him, leaving him for dead. Arado and Dominado were then forced to board the van.

Police found the victims’ pick-up, portions of it burned, in Janiuay town the following day.