Julius Rocas

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Reference:

Sarah Kat­rina Maramag

Media Offi­cer, 09193486790

NEWS FLASH!

Kabataan poll watchers abducted and slain by military in Camarines Norte

Kabataan Party-​list strongly con­demns ­­the abduc­tion and murder of two of its poll watch­ers in Camarines Norte.

Roberto 'Jun-​Jun' Bagsabas Jr., 27 years old, of Uli­panan J. Pang; and Ronilo Brezuela, 16 years old of Old Camp Cap­pa­longa, both Kabataan orga­niz­ers and poll watch­ers, were abducted by sol­diers on May 15.

They were mur­dered on May 16. Their bodies were found in between Brgys. Mataqui and Catabaguangan.

"This is a very sad period for all vig­i­lant youth and cit­i­zens. First the heroic deaths of two teach­ers in Batan­gas and now the sense­less killing of two youths who have vowed to pro­tect the votes of the youth and people," said Ray­mond Palatino, national pres­i­dent and nominee.

"We con­demn the brutal mur­ders of Jun and Ronilo. This extra-​judicial is undoubt­edly elec­tion and political-​related. We hold the gov­ern­ment account­able for fail­ing to address the cli­mate of impunity that has per­me­ated this elec­tion period at the onset. We will not rest until jus­tice is served."

Kabataan Party-​list called on the Com­elec to imme­di­ately con­duct an inves­ti­ga­tion on the killings.

Kabataan Party-​list is set to hold an indig­na­tion rally at the Timog Circle in Quezon City at 4pm today. ###

Hus­tisya para kina Jun Bagas­bas at Ronilo Vallevare!!!

EDIT:
Erratum:

The two Kabataan Party-​list poll watch­ers slain in Camarines Norte were Ronilo Brezuela, 16 years old, and Roberto 'Jun-​Jun' Bagsabas Jr., 27 years old and not Ronilo Val­l­e­vare, 20 years old, and Jun Bagas­bas, 16 years old, as ear­lier reported.

We apol­o­gize for this error. This cor­rec­tion just recently came in from our regional coordinators.

AFP Nangugulo sa eleksyon

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PEO­PLES' INTER­NA­TIONAL OBSERVERS MISSION

NEWS RELEASE

May 16, 2007

Ref­er­ence: Johan Fobbelets, Spokesper­son, IOM Quezon team +639204441342 or +639206700864

Young poll­watcher threat­ened by sus­pected mil­i­tary agents,
Brings com­plaint to for­eign observers

QUEZON PROVINCE ―Foreign observers expressed con­cern over the harass­ment of young poll watch­ers by sus­pected mil­i­tary agents in Sari­aya, Quezon province,

Irene Anoso, a nineteen-​year old poll­watcher of Kabataan (Youth) party list in Brgy. Pobla­cion, Sari­aya, com­plained to mem­bers of the People's Inter­na­tional Observers Mis­sion (IOM) team in Quezon about being pro­filed, pur­sued, and sent mali­cious text mes­sages by sus­pected mil­i­tary agents.

Anoso told the team that men in mil­i­tary hair­cut but wear­ing civil­ian clothes started taking pic­tures and videos of poll­watch­ers in precincts in Brgy. Pobla­cion at around 8:00 a.m. last May 14. These men car­ried dubi­ous Com­mis­sion on Elec­tion (Com­elec) IDs lack­ing basic infor­ma­tion, such as names, pic­tures, and autho­rized signatures.

When she and another Kabataan Party-​list poll­watcher were on their way home that night in Sari­aya, a red car with a gov­ern­ment plate kept side­track­ing the tri­cy­cle they were riding on. They were trailed for about an hour by the said vehi­cle. At around 7:42 pm that day, Anoso received a text mes­sage that read: "Kamusta ang bin­a­ban­tayan mo na party-​list ng NPA?" (How is the NPA party-​list that you are watch­ing for?)

She received sim­i­lar reports that men in motor­cy­cles were roam­ing around that night, look­ing for Kabataan pollwatchers.

Kabataan party list is among the pro­gres­sive party-​lists being dis­cred­ited by the Arroyo admin­is­tra­tion and by ele­ments of the 74th and 76th Infantry Brigade of the Philip­pine Army deployed in Quezon as "front orga­ni­za­tions" of the Com­mu­nist Party of the Philippines-​New People's Army.

In the IOM teams' travel across Quezon province, inter­na­tional observers noted the pro­lif­er­a­tion of black pro­pa­ganda against pro­gres­sive party-​lists Bayan Muna (People First), Anakpawis (Toil­ing Masses), and Gabriela Women's Party.

"Slo­gans malign­ing pro­gres­sive party-​lists, usu­ally painted on sacks or over cam­paign posters, are usu­ally found in areas near mil­i­tary detach­ments," said Johan Fobbelets, a trade union leader from Bel­gium and spokesper­son of IOM Quezon team.

He added that such tes­ti­monies and obser­va­tions only con­firmed reports of sys­tem­atic efforts by the Armed Forces of the Philip­pines to pre­vent pro­gres­sive party-​lists from gain­ing con­gres­sional seats through black pro­pa­ganda, threats, and actual violence.

"The attacks against pro­gres­sive party-​lists tend to show that the Philip­pine elec­tions is an exer­cise in silenc­ing the voices of the mar­gin­al­ized, rather than that of democ­racy ," said Fobbelets. ###