Opposition Senator Leila de Lima has called on the human rights community to demand justice for the killings of two members of farmers group Anakpawis in Sorsogon last January 15.
De Lima said the deaths of these members adds to the increasing number of farmers killed under the Duterte regime.
“I join the human rights community in calling for justice for peasant couple Silvestre Fortades, Jr. and Rose Marie Galias, who were shot dead on Saturday in Sorsogon,” she said.
“What did the couple who are selling onions and garlic do wrong this time when they were killed? It seems like there is a deliberate attempt for us to find brutal killings like this happening all the time as if its normal,” De Lima lamented.
The live-in partners Fortades and Galias were shot to death in Barangay San Vicente, Barcelona town in Sorsogon at around 7 a.m. according to police.
Both victims are residents of Barangay Poblacion Norte. The assailants are still unidentified and the motive behind the killing has yet to be confirmed.
De Lima noted they are the 12th farmer couple who were killed under the Duterte administration. She also noted that a former rebel was gunned down in the same town on January 8, a week prior to the couple’s death.
The senator lamented how killings continue to run rampant in the country despite the repeated calls for an end to impunity and culture of violence. She warned that the killings will never stop as long impunity remains to be a state policy.
“Do we want a life like this in the next six months? We should never be used to this kind of policy,” De Lima emphasized.