Martial Law survivor Boni Ilagan bares death threat

Martial Law survivor and playwright Bonifacio Ilagan on Wednesday expressed alarm upon receiving a death threat a day after the New Year.

Ilagan,  a human rights advocate, said that an unknown number called him with a man’s voice on January 2 at around 3 p.m.

“He wanted to talk to Mr. Bonifacio Ilagan. I asked who he was. He said he was Kumander (I failed to get the complete name), and that he belonged to a unit (whose name I also was unable to remember but I recall him mentioning a ‘sector’),” Ilagan said.

Ilagan said that he told the unknown caller that he was not around after sensing that it was “not going to be a harmless call.”

He, however, said that the man ignored him and proceeded to talk.

“He said that his unit was tasked to wipe out communists and told me to desist from my activities. He said he ‘knew enough of me and still had some respect for me,’ but he and his unit were just waiting for ‘the final order from the higher-ups,’ and they would surely get me, and that I should not ask for mercy, it would be futile, because I had already been warned. Then, his phone went silent. He had spoken for one minute,” Ilagan said.

“While the man didn’t say outright that they would kill me, his point was all too clear: They could,” he added.

The Martial Law survivor said he also received a few messages that “cursed and threatened” him in the past because of his activism.

But he said that this was the first time he got a call that “said much more.”

He said that he filed a blotter report at the Visayas Avenue Police Station 15 in Quezon City on January 3.

Ilagan told GMA News Online that he is conferring with his lawyers on their next move.

Sought for comment, military spokesperson Colonel Medel Aguilar told GMA News Online, “This is a police matter.”

GMA News Online also sought comment from Philippine National Police (PNP) spokesperson Police Colonel Jean Fajardo but she has yet to respond as of this posting.

The Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law (CARMMA) denounced the latest threat against Ilagan.

“We take this latest threat against Boni Ilagan as still another proof of the overweening arrogance of the Marcoses and their ilk and their utter lack of remorse for their crimes. But if they think that this will deter us from our campaign, they are wrong,” the human rights group said in a statement.

“We will uphold and defend Ka Boni’s rights, and we will never relent in the struggle for truth and accountability, despite threats and challenges,” it added.

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said this incident meant to “harass and intimidate” Ilagan and other activists.

“This is clearly meant to harass and intimidate Ilagan and activists like him into silence and inaction. But it is a threat we do not take lightly due to the fact that hundreds of activists have been murdered in the past,” Reyes said in a statement.

He also called on authorities to immediately conduct a probe on the matter.

“We call on officials of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, PNP, and other government security forces to ensure that no order to kill Ilagan is issued to any of its units. We challenge the Marcos administration to put a stop to extrajudicial killings,” he added.—LDF, GMA Integrated News