Former Bayan Muna head gunned down

From the Manila Times (Jun 17, 2019): Former Bayan Muna head gunned down

LEGAZPI CITY: Three Bicolano activists, including a former Bayan Muna regional head, were killed in a span of a few days in the provinces of Camarines Sur and Sorsogon after the midterm polls here.

Maria Luisa Calubaquib, Philippine National Police Bicol region spokesman, said Neptali Morada, 40, was gunned down by still unidentified gunmen at San Isidro village in Naga City at 7:30 a.m. on Monday while driving his motorcycle.

Calubaquib said Morada was on his way to the provincial capitol of Camarines Sur in Pili, where he was employed as a staff of former vice governor Fortunato Peña, when he was shot by suspects aboard a white vehicle.

Morada also served as the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) campaign committee head in Camarines Sur and thw regional coordinator of Bayan Muna in Bicol.

Vince Casilihan, Bayan-Bicol information officer, said Morada left Bayan in 2000 to work for Peña.

The killing of Morada took place a few hours before Sorsogon Bishop Arturo Bastes officiated and offered Mass for the untimely deaths of human rights activists Ryan Hubilla and Nelly Bagasala.Hubilla and Bagasala, staffers of the human rights group Karapatan, were repeatedly gunned down in a broad daylight on Saturday by still unidentified men while paying for their tricycle fare in Sorsogon City.

Meanwhile, a high-ranking official of the New People’s Army (NPA) was killed at Purok 5, Barangay Incarizan, Magallanes town in Sorsogon a few days ago.

Maj. Anthony Aguilar, spokesman of the Army’s 9th Infantry Division, said Edwin Dematera, alias “Dupax,” deputy secretary of Larangan 2, Komiteng Probinsiya 3 of the NPA, was killed in a three-minute encounter with government troops.

Dematera, according to Aguilar, was facing a warrant of arrest for murder and frustrated murder charges.

The Bicol region was known as a rebels’ lair in the past decades, but their numbers dwindled in early 2000, according to military reports.

The leftist groups Karapatan, Bayan and Bayan Muna were being tagged by government authorities as supporters of the 50-decade communist movement in the country, which included the Communist Party of the Philippines, NPA and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

https://www.manilatimes.net/former-bayan-muna-head-gunned-down/571067/