Ricky Basig during a dialogue with barangay officials on alleged military atrocities. (Karapatan-SMR photo by Lam Banuag)
A community leader in a Davao Oriental town was gunned down Thursday evening allegedly by government soldiers, Southern Mindanao chapter of the human rights organization Karapatan said.
Ricky Basig, purok leader of Sitio Kaputian in Baganga town was sitting at the veranda of his house when he shot around 6 p.m., allegedly by troops of the 67th Infantry Battalion led by a Private First Class Maca, described as team leader of the unit’s Peace and Development Operation Program in the community, Karapatan-SMR said.
Basig belonged to the Mandaya tribe and was also a member of Barug Katawhan, an organization of survivors of typhoon Pablo in Davao Oriental and Compostela Valley.
Karapatan noted that Basig was slain less than a month after he testified at a dialogue between village officials and members of a fact-finding mission mounted by the Exodus for Justice and Peace, during which he recounted being harassed by soldiers of the 67th IB and, in one instance, made to guide the unit’s troops.
Before this, Karapatan-SMR said, a soldier of the 67th IB it identified only as Gatchalian summoned Basig and accused him of being a member of the New People’s Army.
Basig, said Karapatan-SMR, had been active in rebuilding efforts in his community, helping build water lines and helping organize farming cooperatives.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/113122/community-leader-murdered-in-davao-oriental-after-red-tagging---karapatan
One has to be circumspect about allegations of HR abuses by the Philippine military that come from KARAPATAN. The organization is the main CPP-affiliated HR front and much of the "testimony" and "eye witness" accounts that are used by KARAPATAN come family members of the alleged victims or from CPP/NPA mass base supporters. And given KARAPATAN'S penchant for engaging in anti-government/military propaganda/disinformation, the veracity of any allegations made by the group tend to be highly suspect.
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