Progressive groups vowed to keep fighting for justice for the killing of activist and peasant leader Randy Echanis despite massive crackdown under the Duterte administration.
(KMP’s Facebook page / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
Anakpawis party-list group called on the Office of the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights (OHCHR) to investigate the killing of its chairperson last week.
“We humbly appeal to the OHCHR to look into the cold-blooded murder of a peace and peasant who had been always a target of state’s persecution and neutralization,” Anakpawis vice president Ariel Casilao said.
The peasant group asserted the death of Echanis must be brought to the international community to pursue a totally independent investigation.
Echanis was laid to rest on Monday a week after he was found dead in his rented apartment in Novaliches, Quezon City. He was killed along with Louie Tagapia.
Hundreds of people turned up for his funeral at the Loyal Memorial Park in Marikina City. They wore white shirts marked with messages calling for justice.
Anakpawis stood firm on its belief that state forces were behind Echanis’ death as “only those elements are able to carry out and get away with murder” under lockdown measures.
The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, of which Echanis was deputy secretary general, wants perpetuators to be held accountable.
He was the third National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant killed under the Duterte administration after the death of Randy Malayao last January 2019 and Julius Giron on March 13 this year.
“We have long desired for a just and lasting peace for this nation. We have supported all efforts at establishing peace based on social justice since the beginning. But the serial killing of NDFP peace consultants has made this vision more and more elusive,” KMP chair Danilo Ramos noted.
Ramos said there will be “no silence” until justice is served.