Lawmakers hit strafing of Bayan Muna office in Northern Samar

Rep. Neri Javier Colmenares

Bayan Muna party-list Representatives Neri Javier Colmenares and Teodoro Casiño on Thursday condemned the strafing of the Bayan Muna office in Sitio Bukhasa, Cawayan village, Catarman, Northern Samar by two unidentified men Wednesday night.

“It is again escalating,” said Colmenares on the growing number of human rights violations, including the recent spate of extrajudicial killings under the administration of President Benigno Aquino.

Colmenares lamented that the President had failed to dismantle the death squads and the infrastructure of impunity that has plagued the country for years.

“It seems that there is a growing number of harassment and attacks against the progressive movement and the Aquino administration is doing nothing to stop it,” he stressed.

Colmenares said no one of the four staff members at the Bayan Muna office in Northern Samar was hit, although the windows of the office were broken. He said that initial reports showed two men on a motorcycle strafed the office with a .45 caliber gun at about 10:30 a.m. and immediately fled.

Colmenares cited the increasing number of cases of extrajudicial killings, such as those of Bayan Muna member Romualdo Palispis in Aurora and Wilhelm Geertman, the arrest of Makabayan coordinator Agnes Mesina in Tuguegarao City and series of burglaries of offices of progressive organizations like Bayan Muna.

“What is also very alarming is that these all happened in a span of two weeks and it seems that there is a concerted effort now to attack the progressive movement, especially that the 2013 election is fast approaching,” he stressed.

According to the Karapatan militant group, there have been at least 78 victims of extrajudicial killings in the country under the present administration.