Communist rebels hold gov't accountable for bishop's death

By Nonoy Espina
INQ7.net
Last updated 10:51am (Mla time) 10/04/2006

COMMUNIST rebels are holding the government responsible for the Tuesday murder of Philippine Independent Church bishop Alberto Ramento, as it praised the prelate as "a man of peace, a bishop of the poor and a consistent human rights defender."

In a statement, Luis Jalandoni, chief peace negotiator of the National
Democratic Front (NDF), accused President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's
Plotters of “obviously using a new dastardly tactic of assassinating staunch critics and making it appear as a robbery.”

This alleged tactic, Jalandoni said, was intended to "rob any meaning to the life of an outstanding and progressive religious leader."

Jalandoni noted that before his murder, Ramento "had received death threats from Arroyo's military and police forces long before they finally cornered him" in his convent in Tarlac City.

"For a ranking Church leader and peace advocate to be included in the military's hit list only confirms long-standing perceptions that the
Arroyo regime desires no peace and is bent on waging an insane total war against its most effective critics, dissenters and movers for her ouster no matter who gets hurt," he said.

"Once again, the Arroyo regime wants to send a message to those against her regime, including the socially-concerned Church community that they are 'state enemies' and those who resist political persecution are targets of its anti-insurgency campaign," Jalandoni claimed.
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But Jalandoni said the government "was all wrong if it expected its murderous frenzy to silence her political critics."

Continued political killings "will only continue to foment more indignation and fuel bigger mass struggles in the belief that the only way to stop these senseless killings is to oust Arroyo and bring her assassins and butcher generals to people's revolutionary justice," said Jalandoni.

Citing Ramento's work for human rights and social justice, Jalandoni said the bishop "did not die in vain."

"The consistent role that he led in the defense of human rights, peace advocacy and defense of the rights of the marginalized will continue to inspire the people in their struggle for freedom, democracy and a just and lasting peace," he said.


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