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DAVAO CITY, Davao del Sur, Philippines — A leader of a transport group survived an assassination attempt right at his home in General Santos City on Sunday morning.
Larry Villegas, chair of the Pinagkaisang Samahan ng mga Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (Piston) in the Soccsksargen (South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, and General Santos City) region, was cleaning his tricycle at the front yard of his house in Buayan village at around 6 a.m. when two men on a motorcycle stopped and opened fire at him.
Villegas, 64, was able to duck but was hit in the leg, said Sonia Eugenio, regional coordinator of Makabayan. He was immediately rushed to a hospital.
By Sunday afternoon he was conscious and was due to undergo an operation for his gunshot wounds.
His family is coordinating with the police in the investigation and has also sought security for Villegas, according to Eugenio.
Police recovered from the crime scene two empty shells of a 9mm pistol.
Already targeted
Eugenio said the shooting could be part of “coordinated attacks” against activists.
She said Villegas, who is also the coordinator of party-list group Bayan Muna in General Santos City, was already being targeted because of his involvement in issues concerning drivers and transport groups.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, he had been among those opposed to the government’s modernization plan for public utility vehicles, in particular the phaseout of jeepneys.
Villegas has also sought the local government’s assistance for drivers following the lockdowns in 2020 prompted by the pandemic and now the rise in fuel prices amid the conflict in Ukraine.
House Deputy Minority Leader Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate said in a statement that “these attacks against the opposition are intensifying, especially the Makabayan bloc who are also all-out in the campaign to support the Leni-Kiko tandem to defeat the Marcos-Duterte alliance in the elections.”
The lawmaker said Villegas was involved in preparations for an election campaign rally on Wednesday in support of Vice President Leni Robredo and her running mate, Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan.
Eugenio said Piston also plans to hold a protest rally that day to call for the suspension of the excise on fuel.
The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) in Soccsksargen said on Facebook, “We believe that [Villegas’ shooting] is part of the dirty scheme and crackdown against activists by the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines), PNP (Philippine National Police) and [their] death squads.”
Villegas would have been another fatality early this year, following an annual wave of extrajudicial killings allegedly by government forces targeting activists.
On Jan. 15, human rights group Karapatan denounced the killing of Silvestre Fortades Jr. and Rosemarie Galias, an elderly couple from Sorsogon province, who were shot by gunmen in motorcycles. Fortades and Galias were both members of the Samahan ng mga Magsasaka sa Sorsogon and party list group Anakpawis.
On Feb. 24, volunteer teachers Chad Booc and Gelejurain Ngujo II, community health worker Elgyn Balonga, and their two other companions Tirso Añar and Robert Aragon were killed in what the military described as an “encounter” with communist rebels in New Bataan, Davao de Oro province.
Booc and the others were headed back to Davao City after visiting a community in New Bataan, according to Save Our Schools (SOS) Network, a nongovernment organization (NGO) involved in providing nonformal education to indigenous peoples’ communities.
Villagers said there was no encounter on that day.
Commenting on the attempted killing of Villegas, Commission on Human Rights (CHR) spokesperson Jacqueline Ann de Guia said her agency urges the local governments and law enforcers to remain alert against election-related violence.
The CHR “condemns this attack perpetrated towards a political convenor” and affirms the lawful exercise of political rights, she said, adding that the commission’s Region XII office has already conducted a probe and would coordinate with local authorities.
Police-military operation
Bayan-Soccsksargen said attacks on activists and other groups have intensified in the region since last year, such as in August when two trucks belonging to the NGO Disaster Response Center were torched by unidentified men in Koronadal City.
The next month, activist lawyer Juan Macababbad was shot dead in front of his house in Surallah, South Cotabato.
Then in December, another activist, teacher Rommelito Contreras of the Center for Lumad Advocacy, Networking and Services Inc. (Clans), was shot dead in Barangay Lagao, General Santos City.
Last year also saw the killing of activists Marlon Napire and Jaymar Palero, whom police caught spray-painting protest graffiti at around 1 a.m. of July 26 at the Banao bridge in Barangay Lower Binogsacan in Albay province.
The police said Napire and Palero fired twice, prompting the cops to shoot back. The two men were killed before they could complete their message “Duterte Ibagsak” (Down with Duterte).
On March 7 that year, nine activists were killed, most of them in their own homes, and six others were arrested in simultaneous raids in the Calabarzon region—or what the activist community described as the “Bloody Sunday” operation of the police and military.
Karapatan national secretary general Cristina Palabay compared the raids to the March 2019 police-military operation that led to the arrest and killing of 14 farmers in Canlaon, Santa Catalina, and Manjuyod, Negros Oriental.
The police claimed that the suspects resisted being searched for illegal firearms. But according to human rights groups, the farmers were summarily executed.
—WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH
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