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"Mark Francisco, 27, who teaches at the San Isidro Elementary School in Palanas, Masbate, was on his way home last Friday with four companions aboard motorcycles when they were fired upon in Sitio (sub-village) Umawas, Barangay (village) Malibas by two armed men wearing ski masks and camouflage uniforms," reports the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
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"A lone gunman shot dead on Friday a leader of a farmers’ group allied with the local Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Association (Arba) and Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid na Nagkakaisa 3100 (Almana 3100)," reports the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
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"Two unidentified gunmen shot dead the provincial coordinator in Aklan of the party-list group Bayan Muna in front of his house in the capital town of Kalibo in Aklan early Monday," reports the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Baldomero is the first documented case of a political killing since the election of Noynoy Aquino. Related links:
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"Suweb Upam, who had earlier claimed to be one of the actual “shooters” during the mass murder in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao, had been killed in the province on June 14, after he had left the law firm’s custody," reports Dateline.
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"A human rights lawyer and campaign manager of the Liberal Party in Nueva Vizcaya province was shot dead by two men in front of a court house, a few steps from the police station, in Solano town on Tuesday morning," reports the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Democracy, according to the late Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, is "a question of human dignity, [a]nd human dignity is political freedom, the right to freely express opinion and the right to be allowed to criticise and form opinions."
But exercising political freedom in the Philippines, which purports itself to be a democracy, can lead to death. Since Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed the presidency of the country in 2001, more than 800 Filipinos murdered in politically-motivated, extra-judicial, targeted killings. Since the 4th quarter of July 2005, one person has been killed every two days. The victims of these brazen acts of violence were all unarmed citizens: lawyers, judges, journalists, medical practitioners, members of cause-oriented groups, priests, church-workers, human rights advocates, laborers and farmers.
It is widely believed—and the United Nations support this belief—that state security forces are complicit in these crimes.
