25 June 2006
LEGAZPI CITY—The Stop the Killings campaign, which was organized by Karapatan-Bikol and supported by some religious groups (both Catholic and Protestant), militant groups, and friends and family members of slain activists, was launched here on Friday.
The six-month campaign, which ends Dec. 10, aims to strengthen the call for justice and to stop extra-judicial killings in the region and in the country.
John Concepcion, spokesperson of Karapatan-Bikol, said the Bicol region is one of those places with the most number of political killings, citing that 89 of the around 600 cases happened in the
Bicol region as of the last week of May—the most recent of which was the killing of former communist leader Sotero Llamas in Tabaco City.
“It may really be an irony that we are now asking justice from the government, which we also have been pointing out to be the possible perpetrators behind these killings. But we believe it is the government’s responsibility to bring justice to the victims and their families,” Concepcion said.
He added that they were strongly suggesting an independent committee composed of the church, media and other NGOs to be formed to help the government look into these killings if the public wants a fair investigation of these unresolved cases.
In the campaign, families of slain activists, church people, and human rights advocates will meet every third Saturday of the month in public places to protest the series of killings under the Arroyo regime.
The launch of the campaign also held venue for testimonies of the relatives of the slain activists.
On the same day, the same group criticized the Arroyo administration’s allotment of P1 billion to finance an all-out war against communist insurgents, saying it will just be used to intensify the killings of political activists which the administration has branded as “enemies of the state.”Ephraim Aguilar, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau
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