Left-wing activist in Philippines shot dead, group suspects military

This is from IHT.
The military and police are often suspects in the killing of leftist activists. Some may be associated indirectly with the NPA but many are simply left activists who may irritate powerful people. The military seems to have a standard reaction and that is to blame the killings on internal purges. These do happen but if they happened as often as the military claims the insurgency would be long dead!

Left-wing activist in Philippines shot dead, group suspects military
The Associated Press
Thursday, May 15, 2008
MANILA, Philippines: A left-wing activist was fatally shot Thursday in front of a diner in the southern Philippines, and his colleague suggested he was the latest victim in a wave of extrajudicial killings blamed on the military.
Celso Pojas, 40, was eating breakfast outside a restaurant in Davao, the largest southern city, when he was shot and killed by one of two men on a motorcycle, said Carl Ala, spokesman for the Peasant Movement of the Philippines.
He said several people witnessed the shooting and Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte assured the group of a swift investigation.
Police Chief Superintendent Andres Caro said Pojas was shot without provocation and officers were interviewing witnesses and trying to determine the motive and identities of the gunmen.
Ala said Pojas, the regional spokesman for the group, was being monitored and followed by military agents before his death.
Ala said this was the first time an activist leader had been killed in Davao, where human rights organizations say hundreds of suspected petty criminals and drug pushers have been killed in recent years by mysterious death squads in a bid to "cleanse" the city.
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, local rights groups and Philip Alston, a U.N. envoy on extrajudicial killings, have all accused the Philippine military of targeting left-wing activists as part of a campaign to wipe out communist rebels, who have been fighting a low-level insurgency for the past 40 years.
The military in the past has said some soldiers may have been involved but most of the killings were the result of internal fighting within the underground communist movement.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said earlier this year the number of extrajudicial killings was down 83 percent in 2007, with seven activists and journalists killed, compared to 41 in 2006.
The left-wing human rights group Karapatan said fewer activists were killed or abducted because of pressure from the international community. It says 68 activists were killed and 26 went missing last year.
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