• 47 years old, Married
• Male
• President, Central Azucarera de Tarlac Labor Union (CATLU)
• #1 Councilor of Sta. Cruz town in Mindoro Occidental
• A resident and Barangay Chairman of Barangay Mapalacsiao, Hacienda Luisita, Tarlac, Philippines

Two weeks before the incident, soldiers deployed in the nearby military detachment went to Glenn de Guzman’s house at Brgy. Mapalacsiao to buy his 3-month old dog, but De Guzman refused to sell it. Glenn de Guzman’s house is 12-15 meters away from Ramos’ hut. On October 23, 2005, the soldiers went back to Glenn de Guzman’s house and insisted to buy his dog. This time, De Guzman was forced to sell the animal to the soldiers. On October 24, 2005, members of CATLU received their back wages amounting to P 8,800,000.00 as a result of joint effort of the CATLU and DOLE-Region III to confiscate thousands of bags of sugar equivalent to the amount owed to the workers from Hacienda Luisita Inc. (HLI).

On October 25, 2005, at around 3:00 PM, Ramos arrived at his hut with his wife and six barangay tanods. He slept there.

At around 4:00- 5:00 PM, two military men arrived near the hut where Ramos was resting. They asked Jorge Gatus, a barangay tanod, if they could speak with Ramos about ten residents of Bgy. Mapalacsiao, who are in the military list of suspected NPA supporters. Gatus told the soldiers that Ramos was resting and could not be disturbed. He refused to awaken Ramos, so the two military men left. Gatus said that he was certain that the two are soldiers whose names are “Joshua” and “Castillo” because these two often go around the barangay often.

At 5:30 PM, Abelardo Salak, Lito Laos and Ruel Capule arrived at the hut of Ramos. Ramos offered them a drink and they sang approximately 5 songs (videoke).

At about 8:00 PM, Julius Espinosa and Aries Dungo arrived at the hut. Ramos turned the videoke off so that they could hear each other while talking and discussing. Then Salak went out of the hut to mingle with some of the barangay tanods outside. At around 8:30 pm, a 16-year old boy, Christopher de Guzman, went to his friend Ravina at Glenn de Guzman’s house. De Guzman’s house is 100 meters away from the nearest military detachment. Upon approaching Glenn de Guzman’s house, he saw five (5) men in fatigue uniforms standing and smoking near the banana trees located at the rear part of Glenn de Guzman house. Christopher didn’t notice if the 5 men were armed at that time. Meanwhile, he thought that one of the five men wearing fatigue was his Uncle Glenn. He softly called, “Uncle Glenn.” The man didn’t reply. Christopher continued to walk towards his grandfather’s house. At about 9:00-9:30 in the evening, Ricardo Ramos together with his fellow workers and constituents namely Glenn de Guzman, Ric Romeo Gagui, Lito Laus, Jerry Dueñas, Cesar Panes, Julius Espinosa and Ruel Capule were celebrating inside the bamboo hut, 40-50 meters away from Ramos’ residence. Meanwhile, two other barangay tanods and one co-worker-supervisor of Central Azucarera de Tarlac namely Abelardo Salak, were outside the hut. Ramos was talking to his fellow workers when unidentified armed men shot him twice. Benny Pineda (brother-in-law of Ramos) and Romy Ramos (victim’s elder brother) immediately went to the hut when they heard the gunshots. They found Ricardo lying down and bleeding. Ramos sustained two gunshot wounds on his body: one at the left zygomatic bone exiting to the right occipital area; and one at the right shoulder according to witnesses. As of this writing, the autopsy report is still being awaited. Witnesses said that at the time of Ramos’ shooting, the hut was the only structure in the neighborhood that had its light on. The nearby houses already turned off their lights. The fact-finding team found out that the perpetrator was only about 12-meters away from where Ramos was sitting inside the hut. The tanods said that the police found two ammunition shells and one bullet slug at Glenn de Guzman’s front yard. Two bullet marks were also seen inside the hut where Ramos was killed. According to the tanods, the police recovered two spent shells from an M14 rifle at the hut where Ramos was shot dead. At around 10:15 PM, according to the residents who live near the military detachment, which is 100-meters away from Glenn de Guzman’s house, they heard and saw what looked like a helicopter circling over the barrio.

Also, two Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) arrived at the said military detachment. The residents also reported that a van left the detachment after the killing. The barangay tanods said that when the residents learned that Bgy. Capt. Ric Ramos was shot, the people angrily went to the military detachment at around 11:00 PM, but they found the detachment empty of soldiers. At the time of the interview, the soldiers said that they left the detachment the night the shooting occurred, because some of the residents were throwing stones at them. Dr. Saturnino Ferrer examined and conducted an autopsy on Ricardo Ramos’ cadaver. On October 26, 2005, the family of Ricardo Ramos received a summons from the Sanggunian Panlungsod ng Tarlac (City Council of Tarlac) addressed to the victim with regard to a complaint filed against Ramos by Lt.Col. Velez of the Philippine Army.

Send letters, emails or fax messages calling for:

1. The immediate formation of an independent fact-finding and investigation team composed of representatives from human rights groups, the Church, local government, and the Commission on Human Rights that will look into the summary execution of Ricardo Ramos;
2. The arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators of the crime of summary execution.
3. The immediate and proper indemnification of the family/relatives of the victims; and
4. The Philippine Government to be reminded that it is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and that it is also a party to all the major Human Rights instruments, thus it is bound to observe all of its provisions

President of the Republic

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Manila Philippines

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Chairperson, Commission on Human Rights

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Philippines

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