Ex-Karapatan coordinator shot dead

By: Glazyl Y. Masculino

BACOLOD City – A member of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) and adviser of the IFI Youth was gunned down by two unidentified motorcycle-riding assailants at Barangay Poblacion, Manjuyod, Negros Oriental on July 7, 2019.

Killed was Salvador Romano, 43, of Brgy. Tupas. He was also a former coordinator of cause-oriented group, Karapatan, in the province.

Investigation indicated that Romano was riding a motorcycle when he was shot. He was declared dead at Bais City District Hospital due to multiple gunshot wounds.

Recovered from the scene were a deformed slug and four fired bullets of .45-caliber ammunitions.

Karapatan-Central Visayas condemned the killing of Romano, as they called for justice for his death and for all the victims of human rights violation.

In a Facebook post, Karapatan Central Visayas berated the continued attacks against human rights defenders and the helplessness of human rights documenters amid intensified militarization and para-militarization in rural poor communities.

The group decry in the highest degree the current administration’s bloody violent technologies of regulation in order to manufacture social consent on its constituency.