Karapatan coordinator, farmer killed; another injured in Negros Oriental shooting incident

A local coordinator of human rights group Karapatan and a barangay tanod were killed while a Kabataan party-list member was wounded after unidentified armed men shot them in Bayawan, Negros Oriental Tuesday afternoon.

Elisa Badayos of Karapatan-Central Visayas and Elioterio Moises, a barangay tanod and member of local peasant organization Mantapi Ebwan Farmers Association, were declared dead on arrival when they were brought to the hospital.

Another victim, 23-year-old Carmen Matarlo, who is a member of Kabataan party-list, is now in stable condition.

Senior Supt. Henry Biñas, Negros Oriental provincial police office director, said the incident happened around 3:40 p.m. at Sitio San Ramon, Barangay Poblacion, Bayawan City.

He said based on initial police report, the victims were riding a habal-habal (motorcycle for hire) going to Barangay Nangka in Bayawan when suspects on board a motorcycle overtook their vehicle and shot them.

Biñas said, based on initial investigation, the victims were organizing the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) claimants in the area.

“Yung subject ng CARP ay isang dating mayor,” he told GMA News Online over the phone.

Meanwhile, Karapatan said the victims were part of a 30-member fact-finding mission tasked to investigate and verify reported human rights violations due to intensified military operations in the area.

Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said the team arrived in San Ramon, Bayawan around 11 a.m.

They were allegedly blocked and harassed by the mayor’s private goons, who inquired about their itinerary and the purpose of the mission. They were eventually allowed to pass. 

She said around 2:30 p.m., Badayos, another member of the team, and a member of a Cebu youth organization decided to go to the police station to report the harassment incident. They were accompanied by Moises.

She said the incident happened while the victims were on their way to the police station.

Elisa Badayos is the wife of former labor leader and desaparecidos Jimmy Badayos.

“We condemn in the strongest terms this recent attack on human rights workers," Palabay said in a press statement.

"Even as human rights workers conducting fact-finding missions in Batangas, Negros, Mindanao, and elsewhere are being subjected to attacks by state forces, we will never relent in struggling alongside with the Filipino people in contending against this murderous Duterte regime,” she added. — BAP, GMA News