Bulatlat News
The victims were reportedly on their way to barangay Gil Montilla when masked and armed men in a white van stopped them and forced the two into the vehicle. The tricycle was also taken and loaded at the back of a pick-up vehicle.
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Human rights group Karapatan condemned another case of abduction in Sipalay City, Negros Occidental.
According to the initial report of Paghimutad, a Negros-based media outfit, 26-year old peasant organizer Bea Lopez and tricycle driver Peter Agravante were abducted in the morning of Sept. 15 in Sipalay City.
The victims were reportedly on their way to barangay Gil Montilla when masked and armed men in a white van stopped them and forced the two into the vehicle. The tricycle was also taken and loaded at the back of a pick-up vehicle.
Two days after, on Sept. 17, Agravante’s body was reportedly found in a cliff in baranagay Nagbo-alao, Basay, Negros Oriental.
“His wrists were bound with rope and his eyes, mouth and ankles bound in duct tape. He had a gunshot wound to the head. Witnesses said that at around midnight of Sept. 16, a white pick-up truck stopped at the area and threw something by the wayside,” Karapatan said in a statement.
Karapatan called for the surfacing of Lopez, who is among the latest victims of abduction under the administration of Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
“Karapatan condemns the growing cases of abductions, enforced disappearances, and forced surrenders, making these as notorious markers of human rights violations under the Marcos Jr. regime. Surface Bea Lopez! Justice for Peter Agravante! Surface all desaparecidos! Justice for all victims of extrajudicial killing!” the group said.
According to Karapatan’s data, there were eight documented cases of enforced disappearance under Marcos Jr.
The two environmental activists, Jonila Castro and Jhed Tamano, also went missing last Sept. 2 in Orion, Bataan but were later shown to the media in a press conference by the National Task Forced to End Local Communist Armed Conflict on Sept. 19, claiming that they were surrenderee. The two denied they surrendered saying they were coerced to sign a sworn statement written inside a military camp. (RTS) 
