NDF: Killings of 2 activists in Albay town a ‘summary execution’

LEGAZPI CITY––The National Democratic Front (NDF) said on Wednesday that the killings of activists Jemar Palero and Marlon Naperi in Guinobatan town in Albay province on July 27 are a “summary execution,” disproving the police claim that the incident was a shootout.

Ma. Roja Banua, NDF Bicol spokesperson, in a statement, said the killings of the two activists were just like what happened to the thousands of victims of extrajudicial killings (EJK) that government forces would justify as “nanlaban” (resisted).

Banua said the excuse of “nanlaban” was a “crook-twist-swell narrative to deceive and blind the people, especially the families and relatives of the victims.”

Banua, citing NDF’s investigation, said both victims were alive when the police caught them spray-painting an anti-Duterte message at the concrete wall of the Banao Bridge in Guinobatan at around 10:30 p.m.

Banua said there was no exchange of gunfire in that incident, but the police reported that the activists engaged the police in a shootout.

The police allegedly avoided answering queries on why the victims were taken to the hospital at 1 a.m. on July 28, even though the incident happened at night on July 27.

To support their claim of a shootout, the policemen involved even fired upon their car to insinuate that the victims fired the first shot, Banua said.

Policemen, as an alibi, accused the slain activists of being members of the New People’s Army (NPA), which the victims’ relatives, acquaintances, and workmates strongly denied, saying the victims were civilians.

Meanwhile, parallel investigations on the incident are being done by the National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippine National Police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, and the Commission on Human Rights.

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