PRESS RELEASE
Information Bureau
Communist Party of the Philippines

CPP condemns shooting and abduction of activists in Iloilo
April 14, 2007

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today condemned the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and its death squad operatives for the ambush of three activists in Oton, Iloilo Thursday evening. "This latest act of state terror shows the Arroyo regime's fascist obstinacy at silencing its critics, especially the most militant forces demanding its ouster."

At around 9 pm last Thursday, armed men aboard a green colored Mitsubishi L-300 van chased and waylaid a pick-up truck at the Barangay Cabanbanan segment of the Oton municipal road, and at gunpoint forced the driver and two passengers to alight.

The driver, Karapatan-Panay chair Jose Ely Garachico, was dragged out of the truck, shot in the nape and was left for dead. The armed men then drove away with the truck, forcibly taking with them the two other passengers- Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan)-Panay chair Nilo Arado and SELDA-Panay spokesperson Maria Luisa Posa-Dominado. Arado is concurrently an officer of the Anakpawis party in Panay and a national council member of the Kilusang Mambubukid ng Pilipinas. Their pickup truck was later found burned in Barangay Guadalupe in Janiuay town.

The three activists were on their way back to Iloilo City from San Jose City, Antique, where they attended an Anakpawis assembly.

The wounded Garachico was found sprawled on the roadside by the Cabanbanan barangay chair who later brought him to a hospital. Garachico remains in critical condition at the Iloilo Doctor's Hospital. He was able to disclose to Iloilo provincial Board Member Domingo Oso as well as to police investigators information about the incident. He described the assailants as fluent in Tagalog, armed with automatic handguns and dressed in civilian clothes.

CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal said "The CPP and the entire revolutionary movement hold the AFP and its death squads responsible for the April 12 shooting of Garachico and abduction of his two other activist companions in Iloilo."

"This fascist crime, which is but the latest reprehensible attack by state forces against activists, only goes to show that the Arroyo regime remains unrepentant with its policy of extrajudicial killings of activists and critics despite widespread national and international condemnation, " said Rosal. "The Arroyo regime remains totally deaf to the Filipino people and the international community's cry for it to end its campaign of brutal killings."

"In its desperation to cling to power, this regime continues with to carry out extrajudicial killings and abductions of unarmed activists who militantly expose and oppose gross abuses of human rights and economic plunder.

Rosal reiterated the CPP's instructions to the New People's Army (NPA) to carry out more tactical offensives against fascist targets and further intensify people's war.

"Local units of the NPA should identify the specific AFP units and their commanding officers and higher-ups responsible for these brutal murders and abductions," Rosal said. "They must be arrested and made to answer for their fascist crimes."

"At the same time, the NPA must further intensify tactical offensives nationwide to punish the Arroyo regime itself as the mastermind of these crimes and hinder it from committing further state terrorism against the people."

Reference:
Marco Valbuena
Media Officer
Cellphone Numbers: 09179776392 :: 09282242061
E-mail:cppmedia@ gmail.com