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Sunday, January 22, 2017
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BACOLOD City – A sugarcane farmworkers’ organization leader was killed in his house in Barangay Pandan Silos, Murcia, Negros Occidental.
Alexander Ceballos just arrived home around 8 p.m. on Friday when a bonnet-wearing gunman shot him between the eyes, according to a progressive organization leader.
Ceballos was with his wife and son when attacked, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan – Negros secretary-general Christian Tuayon said in a report by Kodao Productions published in InterAksyon.com.
The suspect fled on board a motorcycle driven by an accomplice, Tuayon said.
Ceballos was a leader of the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW).
He once led around 50 NFSW members in cultivating land in Barangay Igmaya-an, Salvador Benedicto town, that was being contested by former mayor Nehemias dela Cruz.
His life had been in danger since, according to Tuayon.
In 2015 Ceballos’ brother-in-law, Ronel Bariga, was injured when gunmen fired at a jeepney on its way to collect firewood at the Igmaya-an property.
Ceballos’ son Ariel, who was driving the vehicle, was unharmed but a bullet grazed his shirt.
Ceballos was the likely target of the attack, according to the NFSW.
A month before that, Jigger Costan, a “bodyguard” of Dela Cruz, threatened to kill Ceballos and 11 other NFSW members, records from the federation showed.
Ceballos was killed while Karapatan submitted to the Philippine government negotiating panel in Rome a report on alleged human rights violations committed by state forces from late August to December last year.
The report stated the abuses victimized 28,890 persons. It was filed at the plenary meeting to discuss the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law.
Ceballos’ death also came two days before the 30th anniversary of the Mendiola massacre, when government forces fired on thousands of protesting farmers near Malacañang on Jan. 22, 1987.
The incident that killed 13 and wounded dozens of others led to the collapse of peace negotiations between the communists and the government of then president Corazon Aquino. (Raymund Villanueva, Kodao Productions/InterAksyon.com/PN)
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