Death by Democracy

A gunman wearing a baseball cap shot Hernani Pastolero twice in the back of the head, killing the editor of the weekly Lightning Courier as he sipped coffee in front of his house in Sultan Kudarat, Shariff Kabunsuan, at 6:20 a.m. Monday, police reported. Pstolero, 64, was the first journalist killed this year, the 50th since Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo became President in 2001 and the 110th since the Philippines regained democracy with the ouster of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. Read more from the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

United Nations special rapporteur Philip Alston described as "tragic" the cases of human rights violations presented to him during his visit to the Philippines. I had a very rough time just listening to the…stories," Alston told families of victims of human rights violations, activists, and indigenous people in the Cordillera on Friday. Read more from the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

The European Union and the United Nations’ special rapporteur may expect to receive on Monday copies of the Melo Commission’s report on the extrajudicial killings, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said yesterday. The disclosure came on the same day that police and the human rights group Karapatan announced the killing of leftist student leader Farley Alcantara II in Camarines Norte on Thursday. Alcantara was shot dead by a lone gunman who managed to get away.

Read more from the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

A member and former spokesperson of the League of Filipino Students (LFS) in Camarines Norte was shot dead by an unidentified gunman Thursday night, just four meters away from the gate of his school. He was the first leftist student leader to be killed in the country this year and the fourth in the Bicol region since 2001, said Vince Kasilihan, staff of Karapatan-Bicol. Read more from the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples last week warned that the Arroyo government’s inability to stop extra-judicial killings in the Philippines is undermining its international standing. Read more from Bulatlat.com.