Statement
British Columbia Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines

Rei Mon “Ambo” Guran is the first youth fatality of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's State of the Nation Address

August 2, 2006

The British Columbia for Human Rights in the Philippines (BCCHRP) vehemently condemns the killing of Rei Mon “Ambo” Guran last July 31, 2006. The 21-year-old senior Political Science student at Aquinas University  was shot dead inside a bus at 6:00 a.m. in Bulan, Sorsogon on his way to school in Legazpi City.  

Guran  was the spokesperson of the League of Filipino Students (LFS) at the Aquinas University.  He was also an active member of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines -Christian Youth Fellowship (UCCP-CYF ) of the South Bicol Conference and very much involved in the protest against large-scale mining operations in Albay. His death follows that of Chris Hugo,  20-year-old senior Journalism Student from Bicol University and the regional coordinator and a national council member of the League of Filipino Students (LFS). Hugo was shot dead last March 20, 2006 a few blocks away from the University. Guran and Hugo are the first student leaders to be killed in Bicol this year.
 
 BCCHRP is outraged with this recent senseless death of Rei Mon Guran, the 716th victim of political killings under the Arroyo government. He is not only the latest casualty from the church; he is also the first youth fatality after President Gloria Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (SONA). The acknowledgement by Arroyo  of the work of the notorious General Palparan in her SONA speech, in spite of Palparan’s gruesome record of human rights violations, is a clear death sentence to those who oppose her government. Together with her “Operation Bantay Laya” (Operation Freedom Watch) counter-insurgency program, this only legitimizes political killings to eliminate all critical opposition and dissent.

BCCHRP joins the Filipino youth, mothers, fathers and children who grieve for the brutal deaths of their loved ones. How long will the armed agents of the government escape accountability for the extra-judicial killings, abductions, arbitrary arrests and other human rights abuses committed in the name of national security and the political stability of the Arroyo government?

BCCHRP holds President Arroyo and her army of ruthless murderers accountable for all these violent attacks against the lives and civil liberties of the Filipino people. The Philippine government has disregarded its obligation to honor the human rights instruments and international human rights conventions. By its very silence and inaction, it has in effect sanctioned the practice of extra-judicial killings and enforced disappearances and other atrocities against its very own people.

August 2, 2006

For Reference:
Beth P. Dollaga
BCCHRP, Vancouver