Party leader slain in Philippines as human rights watchdogs call for end to killings

Gunmen kill left-wing activist in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — Gunmen killed a local leader of a left-wing party in the Philippines, one week after President Benigno Aquino III took office vowing to put an end to political assassinations.

Fernando Baldomero, who escaped an attempt on his life earlier this year, was gunned down on Monday in front of his house as he was about to take his child to school, according to authorities and left-wing human rights group Karapatan.

He died on the way to the hospital from wounds to his head and neck, said provincial police chief Epifanio Bragais.

The Philippines has been wracked by extrajudicial killings in the last two decades, which human rights groups have largely blamed on security forces. The military often describes the victims as communist rebels, who have been fighting for a Marxist state.

But Karapatan said more than 1,000 of those killed have been left-wing activists, party members and farmers. In most cases, the assailants have escaped and the cases remain unsolved, the group said, calling for an immediate investigation into the latest attack.

Baldomero was the chairman of Bayan Muna political party and a member of his village council in the province of Aklan. Police quoted witnesses as saying the gunmen sped away on a motorcycle without license plates.

“Today we march for justice. Fernando Baldomero should be the first and last activist to be killed under the Aquino regime,” said a statement from the allied umbrella organization Bayan.

It called on Aquino to send “a strong message to his troops that the killings are unacceptable.” The failure of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to protect human rights “will be a failure of Aquino too if he does not act swiftly to stop the killings,” it said.

Aquino, who succeeded Arroyo, has promised to jail perpetrators and seek justice for the victims of such killings.

Amnesty International on Monday urged new Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, the former head of the independent Commission on Human Rights, to end impunity for the rampant killings and enforced disappearances and to improve protection for witnesses.

“In the Philippines, members of the military, police, state-supported militias and ‘private armies’, as well as insurgent groups, have literally been allowed to get away with murder,” said Sam Zarifi, Asia-Pacific director of the human rights watchdog.

(This version CORRECTS that slain man was a local party leader, instead of the national leader.)