WE call for an independent probe on the brutal killing of Randy Echanis and Justice for all victims of violence!
Today, the Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID) calls on the Philippine government to pursue an independent and impartial investigation to the gruesome murder of an elderly peace advocate and agrarian reform activist Randall ‘Ka Randy’ Echanis while reportedly undergoing a medical treatment inside his rented apartment in Quezon City, Monday last week, 10 of August. Echanis has been laid to rest August 17 at the Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina City.
Also the Anakpawis Chair, the 72-year old Randy Echanis served as a political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). He is the 4th NDF political consultant to be killed, after Sotero Llamas, Randy Malayao, and Julius Giron. Echanis was killed along with his neighbor Louie Tagapia. At least 134 human rights defenders have been killed since 2016, according to a report by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).
With a consistent track record of fighting for land reform for more than five decades and credited for helping craft the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB), Echanis since 2002 has helped in the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the NDFP as a member of the reciprocal working committee for social and economic reforms. He was supposed to be “protected” from any arrest or attack from security forces being covered by the Joint Agreement on Security and Immunity Guarantee (JASIG) between the GRP and NDFP.
This continuing cycle of violence in the country with the death of Echanis and yesterday’s killing of Zara Alvarez, an activist based in Negros, must immediately stop. Reports said that like Randy Echanis, Alvarez was included among those tagged as ‘terrorists’ in a proscription case of the Department of Justice filed in 2018. Her name and that of many others were stricken off the list, but the threats against her by alleged State forces reportedly continued.
IID deplores this spate of killings which has targeted mostly human rights defenders and activists. As a peacebuilding organization, we believe that the full exercise of our inherent right to legitimate dissent including our civil and political rights must be protected and respected at all costs by the Philippine government.
Amid the pandemic brought about by the rapid spread of Covid-19 across the Philippines infecting thousands of our people, we urge the government to instead focus on creating policies that value and promote the people’s right to life, dignity, and peace.
For IID, something is fundamentally wrong in a country where our leaders talk more about death instead of life and survival; discuss hate instead of peace and tolerance; create division instead of unity—this climate of fear and impunity are not the traits of a genuinely peaceful and progressive society.
We seek an end to this seeming creeping culture of impunity as we re-commit to exert extra effort to achieve a just peace through dialogue and other non-violent means in our beloved land. (Initiative for International Dialogue)
