Relentless violence against progressive forces
There has been no letup in the violence inflicted on leaders, activists and supporters of democratic mass organizations. A union leader and a Bayan Muna (BM) supporter were killed while another Bayan Muna officer survived an assassination attempt in the Visayas in the second week of April. Two of the victims were from Eastern Visayas and were targeted by elements of the 8th ID under Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan.
Bayan Muna supporter Alfredo Davis, 45, was killed on April 15 in Barangay San Vicente, Mahaplag, Leyte. Davis was riding a multicab with his wife Imelda when he was shot by two motorcycle-riding gunmen. Davis� wife was wounded in the attack.
Prior to this, gunmen pumped 22 bullets into Edwin Bargamento, 46, National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) auditor and member of the NFSW Regional Executive Committee. Bargamento was shot and killed in Barangay Tortosa, Manapla, Negros Occidental on April 13 by suspected elements of the RPA-ABB. He had just come from a meeting in Bacolod City with his comrades in the NFSW and had joined a picket to demand a `125 increase in the minimum daily wage.
Meanwhile, Bayan Muna-Eastern Samar provincial coordinator Alden �Boy� Ambida was seriously wounded after being shot on April 9 in Borongan, Eastern Samar by two men aboard a motorcycle.
Up to 70 officials and members of progressive organizations have been killed while 14 have been missing since 2001. Thirty-seven of them were killed this year alone.
Among those killed were Aileen Caparro, wife of Fr. Allan Caparro of the Promotion of Church People�s Response (PCPR)-Eastern Visayas who was shot in Abuyog, Leyte on February 27; and Carlos Barsolaso, 38 and Charlie Gabriel, 24, who were with Fr. William Tadena when he was shot in La Paz, Tarlac on March 13.
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