MANILA (UCAN): Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of San Carlos, in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, called the August 10 killing of peasant leader, Randall “Randy” Echanis, “a clear mark of the shameless immorality” in the Philippines.
The a 72-year-old labour leader was allegedly tortured, stabbed and shot by at least five unidentified men in Manila.
Eyewitnesses said unidentified men grabbed Echanis outside his apartment in Quezon City, and bundled him into a vehicle before he was found dead, but other reports said he was murdered in his home.
Echanis had reportedly been receiving anonymous death threats, forcing him to adopt an alias.
Anakpawis, a political party representing the poor, of which Echanis was chairperson, claimed “police forces” raided Echanis’ apartment. It also claimed he was tortured before he was killed.
Bishop Alminaza said if this were true, the policemen should be haunted by their conscience. He urged them to stop a culture of violence that he said was gripping the country during the Covid-19 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic.
The bishop urged people to cry for justice for Echanis, who championed the causes of farmers seeking land reform.
“I add my pastoral voice to the common cry: Justice for Ka Randy (Brother Randy). Let us put an end to all these extrajudicial killings where perpetrators go unpunished. The government advocates for the death penalty, yet many crimes like this are still unresolved,” he said in a statement.
Echanis was also a peace consultant of leftist party, the National Democratic Front, and sought reforms and rural development during government peace talks with communist rebels.
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He also drafted the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill, a proposed law that sought the emancipation of tenants and an end to the monopoly on land ownership by the country’s elite and foreign control of land.
Bishop Alminaza said Filipino Catholics should never tire of fighting for justice, not just over land but also extrajudicial killings.
“We should never be afraid to confront injustice and continue our cry in the name of the landless farmers. We will never stop confronting this violent regime,” he added.
“Has coronavirus not killed enough of our countrymen? Has the pandemic already claimed many Filipino lives? Let us stop all these killings. We should all be united to fight the real enemy. Let us remove the culture of hate and death in this country,” Bishop said.
Philippine justice secretary, Menardo Guevarra, said on August 11 that his department would form a task force to investigate Echanis’ death.
