After eating, Tatay Mancio noticed that Nene made excuses to delay leaving the restaurant. I was becoming uneasy about her actions, Tatay Mancio recalled, especially since, outside, a motorcycle parked near the restaurant.
Tatay Mancio decided that he better be the one to get a tricycle to get home. They tricycle was supposed to bring the two to the bus terminal in Briz district but a few meters from the terminal, Nene told the driver to stop. Nene and Tatay Mancio got off and the woman went to the tricycle driver to supposedly pay him. But Tatay Mancio said he noticed Nene looking not at the driver but at the road behind them. It was almost dark, at 6:30 p.m.
She was trying to move away from me, Tatay Mancio said. Cautious, he moved closer to her, thinking that that would prevent any attacker from shooting him.
Since I was taller than her, I saw a single motorcycle approaching us, with two men on it, Tatay Mancio narrated.
The motorcycle stopped a few meters from them and one of the men got off and pulled out a gun. We stopped a few distances from the bus stop. There were no other people in the immediate vicinity so I was sure there was really no other target but me, he said.
The gunman fired two shots but Tatay Mancio managed to duck and ran as fast as he could. I ran very fast and shouted for help, Tatay Mancio said. I was already very tired but I told myself I must get back to the office.
The men tried to chase Tatay Mancio, who was now headed toward the crowded bus terminal, where vehicle traffic was heavier. Tatay Mancio crossed the street and hid at a store where he used to buy rice. The storeowner, whom he knew, hid him at the back of the store. I told him to help me because somebody wanted to kill me, Tatay Mancio recalled.
While hiding, Tatay Mancio furiously texted and called his colleagues. A short while later, when sure that the assassins had left, Tatay Mancio thanked his friend and ran back to the KMP office. I almost fainted when I reached the office, he said.
The attempt on Tatay Mancios life is part of the continuing threat against legitimate militant organizations, said Kelly Delgado, secretary-general for Southern Mindanao of Karapatan, the human-rights group.
This threat, he said, is part of the implementation of the second phase of Oplan Bantay Laya, a military campaign to defeat the communist insurgency not just by going after armed guerrillas but, according to Karapatan, liquidating even the activists who work openly and legally in legitimate organizations.
Certainly, political killings will continue, Delgado said.
Last Thursday, an official of Bayan Muna in Misamis Oriental was murdered, the 118th member of the party-list group to have been summarily executed. The killing of Dalmacio Gandinao, who was also chairman of the Misamis Oriental Farmers Association, has been widely condemned, coming as it does on assurances by the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that it was serious in stopping these murders.
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo should be held responsible for the extra-judicial killing of Dalmacio Gandinao, opposition senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said on Sunday. The record of political dissenters killed during her administration has surpassed that of Gen. Augusto Pinochet during the military dictatorship in Chile, he said.
Extrajudicial Killings
