Groups hold indignation rally over NDFP consultant Echanis’ killing

Several groups on Tuesday staged an indignation rally to protest the killing of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) consultant and Anakpawis chairperson Randall Echanis.

The groups from different sectors trooped to the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) compound in Quezon City as they demanded justice for the late land activist.

In a statement, Anakpawis slammed the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) for “unlawfully snatching" the remains of its chairperson.

Citing Echanis' wife Erlinda, Anakapawis said, she positively identified her husband's remains with “torture marks, multiple stab and gunshot wounds” in a funeral home in La Loma, Quezon City.

When the body was transferred to another funeral home on Monday night, she said police elements came and forcefully took Echanis' remains allegedly due to the absence of a "release order" from their office.

"This adds insult to our injury. It is both inhuman and unjust for the remains of my husband to be held under police custody and deprive us of having a proper and private mourning," Erlinda said.

"Why is my husband's cadaver under investigation in the first place? It should be the perpetrators that should be hunted down and persecuted, not the lifeless body of my husband," she added.

However, police claimed that the dead body found in Novaliches was not Echanis, but a certain "Manuel Santiago."

Anakpawis said that this was an attempt by the police to diminish Echanis’ brutal killing as a mere common crime and not a politically-motivated extrajudicial killing.

Also, a member of the paralegal team, Paolo Colabres, who was keeping track of the remains of Echanis, was nabbed by the police for allegedly obstructing justice.

"The police are the ones obstructing the justice for Ka Randy. Instead of going after the perpetrators, they fixate themselves to the families and a lifeless body attempting to cover-up the crime,” former Anakpawis Congressman Ariel Casilao said.

“This strengthens our suspicion that the state forces were really behind Echanis' murder," he added.

On Monday. Echanis, 72, and an unidentified neighbor were killed in a rented house in Novaliches. Echanis was said to be undergoing medical treatment and unarmed when "police forces" raided his house.

In a Facebook post, Bayan Muna Partylist said it was indignant over the “inhumane murder" of Echanis while it expressed grief and anguish after the incident.

Kabataan Party-list on Tuesday said the protest was staged to condemn "the brutal murder” of Echanis and to call for justice.

According to Bayan Muna, Echanis was the second NDFP Peace Consultant to be murdered during the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte after Randy Malayao was shot to death in January 2019.

Anakpawis said Echanis’ wife Erlinda went to physically identify the body of Ka Randall Echanis at the Pink Petals Memorial Homes.

Together with Rep. Kit Belmonte and Atty. Luchi Perez, Erlinda submitted a demand letter addressed to Pink Petals Memorial Homes to immediately release the remains of Echanis.

“Ibig sabihin kung anuman ang adbokasiya ni Randall Echanis para sa tunay na reporma sa lupa at pambansang industriyalisasyon. Nananawagan ako sa mamamayan na ituloy natin ang laban,” she added. — DVM, GMA News