UN to tackle murder case of Aklan activist

The 2010 murder of Aklan municipal councilor and political activist Fernando Baldomero is among the cases that will be presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) when it conducts its periodic review of the Philippines on May 29.

Baldomero’s murder, considered the first political killing under the Aquino administration, will be part of the report of the 12-member delegation of the Philippine Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Watch that went to Geneva, said Christina Guevarra, secretary general of Hustiya. Hustisya is an organization of victims and families of victims of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture and other forms of political repression.

Baldomero’s son Ernan is part of the delegation that hopes to meet with members of the UNHRC. The delegation will sit as a third party observer in the review that will be attended by representatives of the Philippine government.

The UPR is conducted every four years on member states of the UN to assess the human rights record of states and to address human rights violations. It is conducted by the UPR Working Group composed of members of the UNHRC.

Guevarra said in a telephone interview on Monday that Baldomero’s case would be among the 67 cases of extrajudicial killings under the Aquino administration recorded by human rights groups.

A lone gunman shot dead the elder Baldomero in front of his rented house in Kalibo on July 5, 2010. The gunman fled on a motorcycle driven by an accomplice.

Fernando, 61, provincial chair of the party-list group Bayan Muna and reelected Lezo town councilor, died from multiple bullet wounds. A Liberal Party member and party mate of the President, Baldomero died just four days after he assumed his second term of office.

The police filed a murder complaint against Dindo Lovon Ancero, the alleged gunman, and several other unidentified suspects in the Aklan Provincial Prosecutor’s Office on August 2 last year. But no arrest has been made.

Guevarra said the Philippine UPR Watch delegation hoped to bring to the attention of the UN and the international community the human rights situation in the Philippines.

“We want to belie the government’s claim that the human rights situation in the country has improved. In fact, the extrajudicial killings have continued and those committed in the Arroyo administration have remained unsolved. Forced evacuations have also worsened due to military operations in the countryside,” she said.

Ernan, who took over his father’s post as town councilor, said he would pursue his father’s case until his father’s death is given justice.

“I vow to pursue justice for my father, and show the international community that we are the living proof that nothing has changed since President Benigno Aquino III became President. I have even gone as far as the UN to find justice,” he said in a statement.