Victim/s: Fr. Rolando de Leon

1. Place of Incident: At the San Andres Apostol Parish in San Andres Apostol, Norzagaray,Bulacan, Philippines
2. Date of Incident: 30 October 2005, between 8:30 am –10:00 am
3. Perpetrators: Elements of the 56th Infantry Batallion Philippine Army under the command of Lt. Col. Noel Clement
4. Account of Incident:

On October 30, 2005 after the 8:30 am Mass at the San Andres Apostol Parish in San Andres Apostol, Norzagaray, Bulacan, church volunteers were gathering the envelopes and counting the donation collected from the just concluded mass. From one of the collection bags, four envelopes were found containing a piece of paper each with the message “Isang babala para sayo: Ikaw na ang isusunod!” (“A warning for you: You’re next!”). Three of the envelopes also contained one bullet each.

According to Fr. Rolly, he was not surprised with this death threat and that it is undeniably connected with the series of threats, killings and other human rights violations happening in his province and the whole of Central Luzon. The latest of which is the killing of Federico de Leon, Chairperson of Anakpawis-Bulacan last October 26, 2005 in Malolos, Bulacan, allegedly by elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The Municipality of Norzagaray to which the Parish is located is one of the areas affected with this strike of state terrorism with the killing of Leodegario Punzal, a local Anakpawis Leader and Luis Caresa, a caretaker of Trian Farms in Barangay Matictic last September.

For the longest time, Fr. Rolly has been actively involved in human rights work in the province of Bulacan. Just recently, together with human rights workers of ALMMA-Bulakan, they looked into the human rights violation cases in the town of San Miguel covering the period of April-May 2005.

As the spokesperson of ALMMA-Bulakan, a network of the KARAPATAN National Office, Fr. Rolly has always monitored cases of human rights violations as well as given his able support to the human rights violation survivors and their families. He joins Fact-Finding Missions, Dialogues with local government officials and leads the filing of complaints with the Provincial Government as well as the local Commission on Human Rights on cases of human rights violations.

On March 16, 2005, Fr. Rolly said that his picture was taken by one Sgt. Arnaldo Pagala, member of the Military Intelligence Group (MIG-3), Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), Northern Luzon Command (NOLCOM) the Headquarters of which is situated in Camp Servillano Aquino, Tarlac City. Sgt. Pagala pretended to be a member of the media taking pictures of the rally for the National Day of Protest at that time, but was confronted by the rallyists and was later discovered to be carrying a .45 caliber pistol. He was brought to the Philippine National Police Headquarters in Malolos where he admitted that he was indeed a member of the intelligence group of the military.

Last year, the former chief of the AFP’s Northern Luzon Command, Lt. General Romeo Dominguez (presently retired) came out with a book entitled, “The Trinity of War,” wherein he identified individuals and organizations as sympathizers, supporters, if not outright members, of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) or the New People’s Army (NPA). Some of the named individuals in the said list have been killed by assassins who have assumed a pattern of killings – armed men usually riding a motorcycle, with ski masks or bonnet to escape identification, using vehicles with no plate numbers. Some, as in the case of Justice Romeo T. Capulong, have been the subject of assassination attempts.

This year, the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) admitted to have came out with a compact disc presentation entitled, ”Knowing the Enemy: Are We Missing the Point?,” Similar to the Dominguez book, it named media, church, human rights and other progressive organizations as supporters, sympathizers, coddlers or under the influence of the communists. The disc is being shown to the villages and discussed among communities where the military conducts so-called civilian-military operations.

One of the organizations identified in this compact disc presentation is KARAPATAN. To date, twenty one (21) KARAPATAN human rights defenders have been killed since 2001 when Madame Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed office as President.

This threat to Fr. Rolly de Leon came at the heels of a new wave of killings in Central Luzon. On October 25, union president Ricardo Ramos was gunned down and killed by assassins near his home in Bgy. Mapalacsiao, Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac (adjoining province of Bulacan), on October 26, Francisco Rivera, a Bayan Muna coordinator of Pampanga and two of his companions, Dr. Angel David and Nemencio Maniti were felled by bullets in the morning and in the afternoon of the same day, Federico de Leon was shot and killed in Bulacan.

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 harassment of Fr. Rolando de Leon.
2. The arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators of the crimes of threat/harassment/intimidation;
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

Malacanang Palace,

JP Laurel St., San Miguel

Manila Philippines

Voice: (+632) 564 1451 to 80