Para sa hustisya! Guevarra urged to meet families of slain ‘bloody Sunday’ victims

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra has been urged to meet the families of two of the nine activists who were killed during the so-called March 7 “bloody Sunday” police operations in Calabarzon.

Human rights group Karapatan said the families of slain activists Ariel Evangelista and Anna Mariz Lemita already wrote to Guevarra who has already recommended that their cases along with others killed last March 7 be investigated by the Administrative Order (AO) 35 Inter-Agency Committee on Extrajudicial Killings.

“Kaming mga pamilya ay bukas na makipag-usap sa inyong tanggapan para sa interes ng hustisya sa karumal-dumal na pamamaslang sa aming mga anak,” read their letter

“Mula sa mga dahilang ito at sa iba pang nagsasanga mula rito, handa kaming gawin ang mga kinakailangang hakbang, gaano man kahirap, upang mabigyang katarungan ang pagpaslang sa kanila. Hindi lamang ito dahil sa patuloy naming pagmamahal sa kanila, kundi pati na rin sa mga paniniwalang pinanghawakan nila na naging sanhi ng kanilang pagkawala: disente at may dangal na buhay para sa lahat ng mamamayan,” it added.

Karapatan said the slain couple are members of the Ugnayan ng Mamamayan Laban sa Pagwawasak ng Kalikasan at Kalupaan which it described as “a community organization monitoring the impacts of eco-tourism projects in Batangas.”

“They were sleeping with their 10-year-old son ‘Nonong’ in their seaside hut in Brgy. Calayo, Nasugbu, Batangas when the police forcibly entered it at around 4 a.m. to serve a search warrant issued by Presiding Judge Jason Zapanta of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 174 to supposedly seize two hand grenades from the couple,” Karapatan said in a statement.

”Their neighbors proceeded to hear gunshots and screams for mercy from the hut before the couple were taken away,” it added.

Karapatan said the remains of the couple were later found in John Paul Funeral Home in Nasugbu, Batangas later that afternoon.

“The police claimed that the couple resisted arrest which led to their killing during the raid,” it lamented.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)