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Bukidnon Sanlakas exec killed in front of house


In a yet another apparent case of extra-judicial killing, the provincial chairman of Sanlakas in Bukidnon was shot dead Friday night by two unidentified gunman in front of his house in Don Carlos town, the multisectoral and party-list group said Sunday. In a statement, Sanlakas identified the fatality as 59-year-old Frank Labial. He was returning to his house after buying food at the local market when two assailants on board a motorcycle came from behind and shot him around 6 p.m. Witnesses said the victim managed to run toward his house after the first volley of gunfire but the gunmen chased him and fire more shots. The killers, who immediately fled after the attack, reportedly used .45 caliber pistols. Before his death, Labial was leader of the landless rural poor who are asserting their rights over the 2,995 hectares Bukidnon Farms Incorporated (BFI) in Don Carlos, an alleged ill-gotten property of the Marcoses. Their struggle dates back as far as 1986 when Labial became one of the farmer beneficiaries of the 1988 Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Law. Labial, Sanlakas added, was instrumental in the setting up of the landless rural poor coalition, Catch-BFI (Coalition of Actual Tillers and CLOA Holder of Bukidnon Farms Incorporated) a coalition of landless peasants, agricultural workers and indigenous peoples in Bukidnon in 2006 to consolidate all the rural poor CARP beneficiaries against the entry of Southern Fresh Products of the Davao Agricultural Ventures Company (DAVCO). DAVCO is a giant agribusiness corporation owned by the Floirendo family of Davao who are reportedly illegally tilling a huge portion of the BFI. Labial, however, drew the ire of the Floirendo and Zubiri since he was the one who investigated and gathered data of the complicity of the two big landowners and some armed goons in their alleged takeover of the Bukidnon Farms Incorporated. Labial was also the provincial vice chairman of Makabayan-Pilipinas, a nationwide peasant federation. He was also one of the farmer leader representatives in the recently created Task Force Arad Concern Bukidnon. - GMANews.TV

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