Roxas asks CHR to probe killings of LP bets, supporters

Vice presidential candidate Manuel "Mar" Roxas II asked the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Friday to investigate six possibly election-related murders of Liberal Party local candidates and supporters. "As a senator and president of the Liberal Party, I am terribly saddened and deeply alarmed by these incidents, happening as they did in the run-up leading to the May 2010 elections," Roxas wrote in a letter to CHR chairperson Leila M. de Lima. Marciliano "Bong" Dizon, a coordinator for the Noynoy Aquino for President Movement in Mexico town in Pampanga, was shot dead by unidentified assailants last January 14. He was an active recruiter for the party. Killed in mid-January were Hadja Anira Abdulah Agcong, LP mayoral bet in Labangan town in Zamboanga del Sur, and Motalliden Pacman “Steve" Tapodoc, LP candidate for councilor in the same town. Tapodoc was shot seven times on January 17 by two motorcycle-riding gunmen near the Philippine Independent Church while Agcong was shot in front of her son January 16. Rascal Afdal, a casual employee of Labangan municipality and a known LP supporter and Rose Pajente, operations manager of National Food Authority in Zamboanga del sur and a known LP supporter had also been gunned down. Lawyer Connie Brizuela, an LP volunteer, was among the 57 victims in massacre in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao last November 23. "These murders could only be the kick-off to organized violence against opposition candidates and supporters in order to frustrate their participation and election in the people’s exercise of civil and political rights, guaranteed by no less than our Constitution, as well as international covenants, treaties and laws," Roxas said. The senator also asked the CHR to update him and the LP of any further reports on possibly election-related violence against LP candidates and supporters. - Johanna Camille Sisante/RSJ, GMANews.TV