Trade union leader Rolando ‘Ka Rolly’ Mariano, 53 years old, was fatally shot by three unidentified men atop a single motorcycle. Mariano was aboard a minivan on his way to work Oct. 7 in San Fernando village in Victoria, Tarlac.

Mariano was the former president of Tarlac Electric Cooperative Employees’ Labor Union (TARELCO-1), an affiliate of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (the leading trade union federation in the Philippines). He was also a leader of the local chapter of the progressive political party, Anakpawis, in Gerona, Tarlac.

Initial reports said Mariano sustained gunshot wounds in the head and chest. He was pronounced dead at Talon General Hospital, in Tarlac City. Fact-finding investigations on Mariano’s death are ongoing, according to human rights workers from KARAPATAN.

Meanwhile, Anakpawis National Secretary-General Cherry Clemente condemned Mariano’s killing.

While the police have yet to find a suspect in the case, Clemente said she would not be surprised if elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines under Major General Jovito S. Palparan would surface as possible perpetrators in the initial investigations of the killing.

“Major General Palparan and his military troops have a notorious track record of perpetuating the extra-judicial killings of activists from Anakpawis and other organizations in the Southern Tagalog and Eastern Visayas regions, so it’s really possible that their names will surface in the investigations,” Clemente said.

A series of abductions and killings of activists in central Luzon occurred shortly after Major General Palparan was transferred to the region last Sept. 1, Clemente observed. Armando Javier, Jr. of Anakpawis Nueva Ecija was killed and Cecilia Esteban of Anakpawis Nueva Ecija was abducted in Guimba. Nueva Ecija and remains missing to date. Other human rights violations have been reported in Bataan province.

Major General Palparan heads the 7th Infantry Battalion, whose area of responsibility includes the said provinces.

“Like in the past cases, we expect the military to again deny their involvement in this. But Palparan and his companions can never deny the exponential progression of activists and civilians being abducted or killed under suspicious circumstances every time he implements his counter-insurgency plans in a particular region or province,” Clemente continued. “Numerous human rights violations against activists and civilians were noted in these regions where Palparan was assigned to head the government’s counter-insurgency program.”

Clemente said that the killings should stop. “We condemn and will push for inquiries into the escalating political killings and abductions in central Luzon in the next few days.”

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