MANILA (Updated) – Two congressmen and the human rights alliance Karapatan denounced on Monday the killing of a Bayan Muna official in Aklan and at the same time demanding from President Benigno S. Aquino III a thorough investigation into the murder.

“We demand an immediate and thorough investigation on the possible involvement of military and military-backed death squads in this continuing climate of impunity against government critics,” Rep. Teodoro Casiño, a good friend of Fernando Baldomero and a native of Aklan, said in a statement.

“Baldomero is the first and should be the last victim of extrajudicial killing under the Aquino government,” Casiño said.

Baldomero, a councilor of Lezo town in Aklan, was shot at around 7 am Monday in front of his house while preparing to bring his child to school, Casino said.

Baldomero was Bayan Muna’s provincial coordinator in Aklan as well as an official of the Makabayan coalition. He was the 145th in a series of extrajudicial killings targeting members of the party-list group.

“Initial reports from media said that the two suspects wearing maong jackets and helmets waited outside the Baldomero’s home and shot him using .45 caliber pistols. Four empty shells were seen at the crime scene,” Bayan Muna said in a statement.

“The death toll of activists must be stopped. As Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, Presidenet should rein in the military and their death squads to put an end to the impunity that was nurtured by his despised predecessor,” Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo said.

Casiño and Ocampo urged Aquino “to immediately suspend the government’s counterinsurgency program called ‘Oplan Bantay Laya III’ and its policy of classifying Leftist activists as ‘enemies of the state’ which ed to widespread and systematic extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances during the Arroyo regime.”

Karapatan chairperson Marie Hilao-Enriquez pointed out in a separate statement that the incident follows the announcement of the new three-year counter-insurgency plan by the newly installed Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Ricardo David. “Neither Gen. David nor President Noynoy have called to stop the killings and to end the culture of impunity that still prevails,” Enriquez said.

“The lack of declaration from President Noynoy to stop the killings and impunity, coupled by Gen. David’s pronouncement of another deadline to end insurgency, and this new wave of political killings, signals that former president Gloria Arroyo’s counter-insurgency program, Oplan Bantay Laya, is still enforced under Mr. Aquino’s term and has not let up on targeting progressive individuals”, Enriquez added.

“We are concerned that the calls for justice and the ending of impunity will only fall on deaf ears,” Enriquez said. “More than the ban on wang-wang, President Aquino must also issue a categorical order to stop the culture of impunity and put to end the atrocities of Oplan Bantay Laya implemented by the AFP.”

Baldomero had been the subject of an earlier attack. Bulatlat.com reported that on March 19, two unidentified gunmen lobbed two grenades at Baldomero’s house in Lezo. One grenade exploded but hurt no one while the other did not explode.

Three days before the attack, Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Javier Colmenares even stayed at the same house while in Aklan, Bulatlat.com reported.

Baldomero was the latest in a recent spate of attacks targeting Bayan Muna members. On June 15, Benjamen Bayles, 42, was shot dead by gunmen alleged to be soldiers in Kabankalan City, Negros Oriental.

On May 30, Jim Gales, a Bayan Muna employee in Panabo City, Davao del Norte, was gunned down by unidentified gunmen.

Activists and human-rights groups say these extrajudicial killings are part of the government’s Oplan Bantay Laya, a campaign against the long-running communist insurgency that, according to these groups, specifically targets noncombatants and those the military believes are supporting the communists. (PinoyPress)