BAGUIO CITY (November 30) — Militant organizations in this city including Ilocos Sur and Abra provinces held an indignation rally today here to condemn the political assassination of Rural Missionaries Program Coordinator for Ilocos and Cordillera Jose “Pepe” Manegdeg and Abra human rights worker Albert Terredaño on November 28 and 29, respectively.

Manegdeg was gunned down by an unidentified gunman in Brgy. Apatot, San Esteban, Ilocos Sur on Nov. 28 at 10 PM and sustained 22 gunshot wounds. Manegdeg was on his way to Manila to meet his wife at the airport. Terredaño meanwhile was shot in front of the DAR building in Bangued, Abra in broad daylight (10 AM). He died in the afternoon of the same day after
battling for life in a hospital.

Militant organizations condemned the brutal killing of Manegdeg and Terredaño and held the GMA regime and the AFP accountable for their deaths, stressing that the incidents are not isolated cases in the nationwide spate of killings against members of militant organizations. They added the deaths of Pepe and Albert are but proof to the GMA
regime’s mounting political repression against the militant mass movement, and all those who critique GMA’s anti-people policies.

“GMA has legalized the spate of killings through policies such as the
Anti-Terrorism Bill and the Calibrated, Preemptive Response”, the Cordillera Peoples Alliance said in a statement.

They stressed that it has only been 9 months since Romy Sanchez of Bayan Muna- Ilocos and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Ilocos was assassinated in the Baguio City market, yet another two human rights workers were slain by the fascist regime.

A tribute will be held for them in Baguio City and Abra this week. Manegdeg’s remains will be brought to his hometown in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte. He is survived by his wife and children, ages 9 and 6.

Terredaño is survived by his wife and two children, as well. The militant groups called for intensified vigilance against the worsening oppression of the GMA regime at the close of the indignation rally. *** Public Information Commission-Cordillera Peoples Alliance