The Makabayang Koalisyon ng Mamamayan (Makabayan) bloc yesterday filed a House resolution strongly condemning what they called the cold blooded assassination of Escalante City Councilor Bernardino “Toto” Patigas Sr., 72, and called for justice for his death.
Patigas, a reelectionist councilor, was driving his motorcycle on his way home from a campaign sortie, when he was waylaid along the highway by two assassins who shot his leg and finished him off with a shot to the forehead while he was sprawled on the ground wounded, in Barangay Washington, Escalante City, Negros Occidental 4:30 p.m. Monday.
Patigas, who was the Escalante City coordinator of Bayan Muna Partylist since 2010, was a long time human rights defender having once also served as secretary general of the North Negros Alliance of Human Rights Advocates. He was also a survivor of the 1985 Escalante massacre.
Before his murder, he had received death threats, was subjected to trumped up criminal charges, vilified and harassed due to his human rights work, the resolution said.
In April 2018 Patigas’ name and picture, together with that of slain human rights lawyer Benjamin Ramos and 60 other individuals and rights advocates, was included in a poster of alleged communist personalities circulated in Negros Island by suspected state agents, the resolution said.
The murder of Patigas, apparently, is just part of an active systematic and lethal campaign against progressive candidates and their supporters in the months leading to the May 13 elections, the Makabayan bloc said, citing killings in other parts of the country.
There is also a visible nationwide vilification campaign directed against members and candidates of the Makabayan, the resolution also said, pointing out that posters and banners with malicious red-tagging are being put up in Metro Manila and in the provinces.
The resolution also said that actual campaign posters of Makabayan candidates are systematically defaced with the same red tagging slogans.
“These virulent attacks are certainly cause for grave alarm as these put the rights and safety of the Makabayan bloc members, campaigners and supporters in jeopardy and serious danger,” the resolution said.
As members of the House of Representatives they should not only condemn these killings and attempts to silence voices of dissent in the country, but should do everything to ensure that justice is given to the victims of state impunity, including Patigas, the Makabayan bloc said.
The resolution was authored by representatives Carlos Zarate (Bayan Muna Partylist ), Antonio Tinio and France Castro (ACT Teachers Partylist), Arlene Brosas and Emmi De Jesus (Gabriela Women’s Party), Ariel Casilao (Anakpawis) and Sarah Jane Elago (Kabataan Partylist).*
http://www.visayandailystar.com/2019/April/25/topstory7.htm
In April 2018 Patigas’ name and picture, together with that of slain human rights lawyer Benjamin Ramos and 60 other individuals and rights advocates, was included in a poster of alleged communist personalities circulated in Negros Island by suspected state agents, the resolution said.
The murder of Patigas, apparently, is just part of an active systematic and lethal campaign against progressive candidates and their supporters in the months leading to the May 13 elections, the Makabayan bloc said, citing killings in other parts of the country.
There is also a visible nationwide vilification campaign directed against members and candidates of the Makabayan, the resolution also said, pointing out that posters and banners with malicious red-tagging are being put up in Metro Manila and in the provinces.
The resolution also said that actual campaign posters of Makabayan candidates are systematically defaced with the same red tagging slogans.
“These virulent attacks are certainly cause for grave alarm as these put the rights and safety of the Makabayan bloc members, campaigners and supporters in jeopardy and serious danger,” the resolution said.
As members of the House of Representatives they should not only condemn these killings and attempts to silence voices of dissent in the country, but should do everything to ensure that justice is given to the victims of state impunity, including Patigas, the Makabayan bloc said.
The resolution was authored by representatives Carlos Zarate (Bayan Muna Partylist ), Antonio Tinio and France Castro (ACT Teachers Partylist), Arlene Brosas and Emmi De Jesus (Gabriela Women’s Party), Ariel Casilao (Anakpawis) and Sarah Jane Elago (Kabataan Partylist).*
http://www.visayandailystar.com/2019/April/25/topstory7.htm
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