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4 years, no justice: Marcos Jr. complicit in denying justice to NDFP’s Echanis, farmers say

Farmers have accused the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government of turning a blind eye on the 2020 killing of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant Randall Echanis.

Four years after the gruesome assassination of the veteran land rights advocate, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said the Marcos Jr. government is complicit in Echanis’ murder.

“Four years have passed since the gruesome killing of Ka Randy but to this day, those behind his death are still not held to account. With each passing day that justice is not served for him and for the thousands killed under the former Duterte administration, impunity only festers — especially as the current Marcos Jr. administration continues to turn a blind eye to our calls for justice and accountability,” KMP chairperson Danilo Ramos said.

Echanis was found dead, stabbed multiple times, in his rented Quezon City apartment in August 10, 2020.  He was 71.

He was killed along with his neighbor Louie Tagapia.

Autopsy reports indicated that Echanis was “tortured and made to suffer” before he was stabbed to death.

READ: NDFP peace consultant Randall Echanis murdered

“We will always demand justice and accountability for the gruesome killing of Ka Randy. For his family and colleagues, his case remains unresolved,” Ramos said.

Echanis’ assassination came right after the Philippine government rolled out the implementation of the Anti-Terrorism Law of 2020 and two years after former president Rodrigo Duterte vowed to kill top NDFP personalities involved in the peace negotiations with the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP).

As a long-time peace consultant of the NDFP and a member of the NDFP Reciprocal Working Committee on Socio-Economic Reforms, Echanis participated in the 2017-2018 GRP-NDFP peace negotiations, playing an important role in clinching an agreement on the principle of free land distribution to poor farmers.

The free land distribution accord was included in the Interim Peace Agreement package initialled by NDFP and GRP negotiators in mid-2017 before Duterte unilaterally terminated formal talks.

His government subsequently designated the NDFP, the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army as terrorist organizations and launched an all-out war against the revolutionary groups.

The KMP said Echanis was one of the many NDFP consultants killed under the shoot-to-kill and take-no-prisoner policy of the former Duterte government.

“It is only just that Duterte be made accountable not only for the drug war killings but also for the political killings and violations of international humanitarian laws under his administration,” Ramos said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)


Farmers demand justice for NDFP consultant 3 years after assassination

Agricultural workers commemorated the third death anniversary of murdered National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant Randall Echanis, saying government policies that led to his assassination are still in place.

The Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) led a protest rally at the Department of Justice in Manila on Thursday, August 10, demanding justice for the peasant leader who died of 40 multiple stab wounds.

Echanis was deputy secretary general of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), president of Anakpawis Party, and vice chairperson of the NDFP’s Reciprocal Committee on Social and Economic Reforms when he died.

READ: NDFP peace consultant Randall Echanis murdered

UMA said it condemns the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government for maintaining former President Rodrigo Duterte’s violent counter-insurgency programs that resulted in Echanis’ assassination.

“But this US-endorsed counter-insurgency measure, one that depoliticized national liberation as mere ‘terrorism,’ was not the sole policy to blame. By then, Executive Order 70 (EO70) or the ‘all-of-nation approach’ to end the civil war was already entrenched, and gaining more and more notoriety for targeting peasant leaders,” UMA said in a statement.

Farmers groups and supporters hold a protest rally at the DOJ in Manila on the 3rd anniversary of the killing of peasant leader Randall Echanis. Holding the microphone is Echanis’ son and the poster his widow. (Photo by Nuel M. Bacarra/Kodao)

More farmers fall victims to repression

The group added that three years after Echanis’ death, government’s Memorandum Order 32 (MO32) covering Negros, Samar, and Bicol had also already normalized the massacre of organized farmers and agri-workers such as the Negros 14.

“[A]nd the fake war on drugs had made extra-judicial killings, especially of the urban poor, an everyday occasion and a household term,” UMA said.

“Comrade Randy was not the first civilian to be victimized by these fascist policies, and he was definitely not the last,”UMA acting chairperson Ariel Casilao said.

“Duterte’s terrorist legacy is being perpetrated by Marcos by his implementation of the ‘Terror Law’, EO70, MO32, and even the fake war against illegal drugs,” Casilao added.

The former Anakpawis represented further said the same policies that killed Echanis remain at work in, among others, the ongoing militarization of Tuy, Batangas; the proscription of four Cordillera activists and three more in Southern Tagalog into the terror list; red-tagging as a form of union-busting in Sta. Maria, Isabela; as well as in the aerial bombings of civilian communities in Abra.  

“Worse, such human rights violations kept escalating into enforced disappearances and murders. Bazoo de Jesus and Dexter Capuyan, indigenous people’s rights advocates, had yet to surface 100 days since their abduction. Billy Fausto, an organized sugar worker, was massacred along with his wife Emelda and two children in Himamaylan, Negros Occidental last June,” UMA complained.

The group also pointed out that the number of political prisoners had ballooned to 778, 49 of them arrested in the past 12 months alone.

“The peasant death toll under the present regime now reached 58. Drug-related killings since Marcos, Jr. took power totaled to 336, even while he continued to refuse holding his predecessor accountable for 13,000 or so,” UMA revealed.

The agricultural workers also expressed fears that the proposed allotment of P10 billion for confidential and intelligence funds in the government’s 2024 national budget could only aggravate the implementation of EO70, MO32, and the Terror Law.

“[T]hese statistics could only grow. The impunity with which Ka Randy was killed certainly remained intact, and this was so to keep the peasantry landless and the working class precarious,” UMA said.

READ: Randall Echanis: Funny guy who was serious at the negotiating table

“Marcos and Duterte’s fascism are not without reason. They are protecting the big landlords and the compradors, and especially the interests of the imperialists,” Casilao added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Lawyer: Police harassing Amanda Echanis in detention

Amanda Lacaba Echanis is being harassed by the police even in detention, the lawyer of the playwright and peasant women organizer said.

Atty. Luz Perez, counsel of detained AMIHAN organizer Echanis, reminded the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) to refrain from harassing her client who is detained at Camp Melchor Adduru in Tuguegarao City. 

“May we remind the CIDG Region 2 to refrain from ‘interviewing or attempting to interview’ our client,” Perez said in a statement.

“The case is now pending before the court. Hands off Amanda!” Perez added, revealing the police intelligence agents’ attempts to interrogate the political detainee. 

“Amanda remains innocent until proven guilty. Her arrest was illegal and baseless as shown in the manner and course of serving the warrant and carrying out of the search,” Perez explained.

The police arrested Echanis and her month-old son in Barangay Carupian in Baggao town before dawn of December 2. The police alleged that the young mother had an old M16 assault rifle, two hand grenades and assorted ammunition with her when arrested.

‘Shocked ako’

Echanis, however, denied ownership of the guns and explosives.

“Nashock ako, mads! Dami ko daw baril at granada? Hahahaha! Saan ko naman kukunin mga iyon, e bitbit ko lang naman si baby Randall Eman at mga relief goods,” Echanis told supporters in a phone call.

(I was shocked, friend. Do I that many guns and grenades? Hahaha! Where will I get those when I had been only been carrying Randall Eman and relief goods?)

About a hundred police operatives raided Echanis’ house while another hundred surrounded and forcibly entered the house of Danggayan ti Mannalon ti Cagayan Valley (Danggayan) chairperson Isabelo Adviento nearby before dawn of Wednesday.

Witnesses said the police also put guns and explosives inside Adviento’s house during the raid. Adviento was not present during the raid.

Dozens of activists arrested by the police had been similarly charged by the police.

Perez said the police should respect the rights of the young mother and her infant, adding that Echanis must be assisted by her counsel at all times during interrogation.
  
“Amanda is still recovering from childbirth and any undue stress caused by her captors might affect her and the baby’s health,” Perez said.

Echanis’ lawyers also appealed Friday that her case be raffled for the issuance of a commitment order to facilitate her transfer to a real jail facility as the CIDG has no facilities for breastfeeding.

Echanis’ supporters also claim that the search of her house came before the warrant, making the arrest highly irregular and questionable.

“There was first an invalid, illegal search that was conducted by the military before the supposed legal search by the CIDG,” Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas chairperson Danilo Ramos said.

Broad calls for release

Meanwhile, Echanis’ former classmates, friends and fellow artists have organized the Free Amanda Echanis Network.

University of the Philippines (UP) students, faculty, alumni, and other community members started an online petition calling for Echanis and her baby’s immediate release and the junking of the charges.

Read the full petition here  – https://www.change.org/p/duterte-administration-up-community-calls-for-release-of-amanda-echanis

Echanis was a UP College of Arts and Letters student and a graduate of the Philippine High School for the Arts in Makiling.

She was also among the youngest Filipino writers whose full-length play, Nanay Mameng (2016), had been staged.

Senators Francis Pangilinan, Risa Hontiveros and Franklin Drilon also called for Echanis’ release on humanitarian grounds.

The Commission on Human Rights for its part reminded concerned authorities to give primordial consideration to the welfare of Echanis’ infant “as required by the United Nations Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders or the Bangkok Rules.”

Echanis was the daughter of National Democratic Front of the Philippines peace consultant Randall Echanis who was brutally murdered last August.

She was also the niece of famed poet Emmanuel Lacaba who was martyred during Ferdinand Marcos’ martial law in 1976.

She named her 21-day old son Randall Emmanuel. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Hustisya, panawagan sa sunud-sunod na pamamaslang sa mga aktibista

Ginanap sa Metro Manila ang isang ‘Global Day of Action for Justice’ sa Bantayog ng mga Bayani sa Quezon City noong Agosto 19 na ang panawagan ay hustisya sa mga biktima ng pagpaslang laluna sa mga aktibista.

Binatikos ng mga progresibong grupo ang gobyerno na siyang tumatarget sa mga aktibista. Pinakahuli na dito ang pagpatay sa human rights worker na si Zara Alvarez ng Karapatan-Negros noong Agosto 17.

Noong nakaraang linggo ay pinatay naman ang Anakpawis National Chairperson at National Democratic Front consultant na si Randall ‘Ka Randy’ Echanis.

Pagpupugay at paghatid sa huling hantungan kay Randall Echanis

Nagbigay-pugay ang mga kaanak, kaibigan, at mga progresibong grupo sa martir ng sambayanan at mahusay na lider na si Randall ‘Ka Randy’ Echanis mula sa pinagburulan nito hanggang sa kaniyang huling hantungan sa Loyola Memorial Park sa Marikina noong Agosto 17.

Si Echanis ay isang National Democratic Front of the Philippines peace consultant, tagapangulo ng Anakpawis at pangalawang pangkalahatang kalihim ng Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas. Brutal na pinaslang siya sa kanyang tinitirhang bahay sa Quezon City noong Agosto 10. Nagtamo ng maraming saksak, tama ng baril at bakas ng tortyur ang katawan ni Echanis. Kasama rin sa napaslang ang isang lalaking nagngangalang Louie Tagapia.

Hustisya ang panawagan ng mga naulila ni Echanis.

NDFP assigns Julie de Lima as interim peace panel chairperson

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) has assigned Juliet de Lima as interim chairperson of its Negotiating Panel following the death of former chief negotiator Fidel Agcaoili last month.

NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison told Kodao that de Lima is the most senior and most available among the members of the Left’s peace panel.

Sison added that de Lima, his wife, is also the “most secure for relating to the third party facilitator with matters pertaining to the NDFP section of the Joint Secretariat and Joint Monitoring Committee of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL).”

Established in June 2004, the Joint Secretariat is tasked, among others, to receive and investigate complaints of human rights violations.

The Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) has refused to hold offices in the Joint Secretariat’s Cubao, Quezon City headquarters for several years already, however.

Signed by both parties in March 1998, the CARHRIHL is the first of four substantive agenda on the peace talks based on The 1992 GRP-NDFP Hague Joint Declaration.

The three other substantive agenda are social and economic reforms, political and constitutional reforms, and the cessation of hostilities and disposition of forces.

The Royal Norwegian Government has been the third party facilitator of the GRP-NDFP peace negotiations since 2002.

The NDFP Negotiating Panel includes Coni Ledesma, Asterio Palima and Benito Tiamzon.

It has been engaged in on-off peace negotiations with the Philippine government since 1986 after the downfall of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

‘No rush to appoint replacements’

Sison also told Kodao in an online interview that there is no rush to appoint replacements to Agcaoili and NDFP Negotiating Panel Reciprocal Working Committee vice chairperson Randall Echanis who has brutally murdered last August 10.

Sison said that the lack of peace negotiations while Duterte is in power is temporary and will not last long.

“The National Council of the NDFP has enough time to complete the NDFP Negotiating Panel with the replacements of Ka Fidel and Ka Randy and revitalizing the working committees before peace negotiations will probably resume after (GRP President Rodrigo) Duterte is gone,” Sison said.

Duterte shall end his six-year term in June 2022.

“The broad united front against Duterte expects that his successor will opt for peace negotiations,” he added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

European activists condemn Duterte government for Echanis’ murder

By Macel Ingles

OSLO, Norway—A Norwegian peace advocate and International Committee member of the Red Party in Norway said the slay of a National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)  consultant to the peace talks has eroded the international community´s trust in President Rodrigo Duterte’s role to achieve peace.

“Duterte´s time is vanishing. His credibility to be part and address political solutions over the big conflict in the Philippines has crumbled,” Arnljøt Ask of Norway’s Red Party said in an online protest rally and tribute to the late peasant leader and social activist Randall Echanis last Sunday, August 10.

“I can see that the fascist Duterte regime gave priority to murder this man instead of taking him to prison like Marcos and other presidents we encountered to earlier, This consistent, honest and persuading, social activist, peasant leader and peace advocate gathered support in broad circles, a killer like Duterte could not put up with that, he therefore hoped to silence him,” Ask added.

Ask revealed he only met Echanis once at a peace talk meeting in Oslo but he said he remembered his “friendly” and “determined” face.

Arnljøt Ask of Norway’s Red Party

Norway serves as the third party facilitator to the peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the NDFP,

Most of the formal rounds of peace negotiations were held in Oslo.

Ask, a founding member of the Filipino Resource Center in this city, joined other fellow Philippine solidarity activists in paying tribute to Echanis and condemning his murder under the Duterte regime.

“For the solidarity movement in Norway, Ka Randall´s passing away through this terrorist act will enforce our strength, will force our efforts to strengthen our work to contribute to the fulfillment of the task Ka Randall dedicated his life to, so also supporters of justice and real democracy will act all over,” Ask added.

Aside from Ask, other international solidarity leaders attended the online event including Dutch youth activist Tom de Koning of the Revolutionaire Enheid in the Netherlands who sent his condolences to Echanis´comrades and family in the Philippines and paid tribute to his contribution to the people´s struggle.

“With comrade Randy in our hearts and minds, we will remember his genuine commitment to the Filipino people, the revolution and his special contribution to the struggle for genuine agrarian reform. We will remember Ka Randy like so many other comrades who had been in prison several times and he was never afraid to make the sacrifices in order to defend the people,s democratic revolution,” Koning told fellow activists and peace advocates in the online protest.

Italian activist Alessio Arena of the Fronte Populare and the International League of People´s Struggle (ILPS) in Italy also condemned Echanis´ killing.

“I would like to join in condemning the barbaric murder of comrade Randy Echanis and to offer my condolences to his family, comrades and friends. The murder of Ka Randy extends the blood trail drawn in recent months by the massacre of leaders and representatives of the mass movement in Philippines. The blood of Ka Randy and other martyrs/victims fall on the criminal Duterte regime and the imperialists of which it is a servant to,” Arena said in the online tribute.

Arena met Echanis at the peace talks meetings held in Rome where he came to hear him speak about his work on genuine agrarian reform issues and mass work in the Philippines.

From Luxembourg, Julie Smit of the People´s Coalition for Food Security exhorted solidarity organizations and comrades in Europe to support the Filipino people in their struggle for peace and justice in the Philippines.

“We need to turn outrage, this grief we have, into action. It is all we can do to continue the work of Ka Randy, to continue to fight, to support the Filipino people and to fight for justice so that we can arrive at the rainbow´s end,” Smits said.

“These people who have given their lives, they earn our deepest respect. I think it is our responsibility who are living to continue doing what we can to expose, the violent repression that is pretty escalating now under the Duterte administration,” she added.

Smits worked for 20 years in the Philippines for a Luxembourg NGO working on peasant issues and joined the solidarity movement for the Philippines after her stint in the country.

NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison and interim head of the NDFP Negotiating Panel Julie De Lima also sent a video message in the online tribute condemning Echanis killing and vowing to obtain justice for his death.

Besides messages of condolences and support from the international solidarity organizations from various countries in Europe, the online protest was also joined by several Filipino organizations and peace advocates including messages from Zaria Galiano of International Migrant Alliance (IMA), trade unions and human rights activist from the UK, Rommel Abellar, Filipino scholar in Universite Catholique Louvain, Phoebe Zoe Maria Sanchez, Seyra Rico of AnakBayan Europe, Migrante Europe, Ugnayang ng mga Pilipino sa Belgium (UPB), and the Filipino Resource Center (FRC) in Norway.

The online tribute also featured videos of the late peace advocate´s life and struggle with the Filipino peasant organizations and his role in the peace advocacy in Europe as senior consultant to the NDFP´s Negotiating Panel in the peace talks.

His favorite song, Moon River, as revealed by his wife Linda Lacaba, was also played in the tribute with not a few tears shed in his memory by those who attended the event.

The participants also lit candles and observed two minutes of silence to honor Echanis. #

Randall Echanis: Funny guy who was serious at the negotiating table

The many facets of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant Randall Echanis surfaced in the various tributes paid him since his gruesome murder a week ago today. Incongruous with his brutal death, the tributes pictured a tender and humorous person not beyond cracking jokes at this own expense or finding himself in funny situations. He was also a writer of some of the revolutionary Left’s most beloved poems and songs, even indulging comrades with the occasional singing and performances.

Detained three times and heavily tortured by three regimes in the past five decades, a stranger would be forgiven to assume that “Ka Randy” was a humorless person. But he definitely was not.

“Randall had a refreshing wry humor and was funny even without trying,” NDFP Negotiating Panel legal consultant Edre Olalia wrote on his first tribute to his long-time colleague in the peace negotiations with various administrations. Olalia recalled an episode in 2011 that Randall had to hold it long enough at the Utrecht train station because he had no Euro coins to pay to use the Wash Closet.

“I fondly recall how ‘brothers’ Fidel (Agcaoili, recently departed NDFP chief negotiator) and Randall engaged in unceasing juvenile banter and comradely taunts during idle moments or breaks in intense negotiations and serious consultations,” Olalia said. “And we had our own naughty private jokes and codes. And he can be gullible and childlike I tell you. But he is sharp and firm as could be. Simpleng tao pero matalim magsuri,” he added. (A simple person but sharp in his analysis.)

Ka Randy’s funny episodes continued up to the last formal talks he attended in Europe, this time with the Rodrigo Duterte government in January 2017.

Lawyer Kristina Conti recalled: “Isang araw, may break sa pagitan ng mga miting at dinner. May mga naka-tropa ako, nag-aya gumala, para ma-refresh daw ang utak. Kasi may miting ulit sa gabi. Nagkayayaan tingnan yung sunset, ‘dun sa may beach. Para makarating ‘dun kelangan dumaan sa isang hotel. ‘Sosyal naman dito,’ sabi ni Ka Randall. ‘Mag-picture muna tayo. Hehehe.’ Hala sila, sige pose-pose, ganda nga naman ng lighting. ‘Tapos batsi na, di tayo bagay dito,’ he said” Conti wrote.

Ka Randy having his photo taken at a hotel lobby during a break in the peace negotiations (Photo from Atty Kristina Conti)

[“One day, during a break between meetings and dinner, my companions proposed a walk to freshen their tired minds. There would be more meetings that night. The wanted to watch the sunset at the nearby beach. Along the way was a hotel. ‘It looks expensive here,’ Ka Randall said. ‘Let us have our pictures taken.’ Then he posed, and the lighting was good. ‘It’s time to leave. We don’t belong here,’ he said.”]

Ka Randy earned some ribbing from his colleagues one time when someone used a lighter hair dye on the silver-haired negotiator. “Kapag may chance iyan siya, nagpapa-tina ng buhok kasi marami na siyang puting buhok. Minsan, bago mag peace talks, nagpakulay siya ng buhok. Kulay brown ang lumabas,” Maureen Hermitanio recalled.

[If he had the chance, he had his hair dyed, as he has lots of white hair already. One time, it turned out brown.]

Echanis seemed to be a different person on the negotiating table, however, his NDFP Reciprocal Working Group on Social and Economic Reforms colleagues said. “Ka Randy was a funny guy, cracking jokes with poker face, which made his jokes even funnier. But he never joked around the formal negotiations, even if we knew it could have thawed some tensions. When asked why he was so serious at the peace table, he would simply say that peasants have sacrificed even their lives for the attainment of genuine agrarian reform. ‘It’s not a joke,’ he said,” Rosabella Guzman, resource person to the peace negotiations, wrote.

NDFP chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison said Echanis played a key role in the drafting of documents on agrarian reform and rural development, one that will be a basis of a future Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Reforms between the Left and the government. “He was outstanding as an advocate of genuine land reform, rural development and national industrialization. He was the National Chairperson of the Anakpawis Party List and Deputy Secretary General of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and was a leading consultant of the NDFP on agrarian reform and member of the NDFP Reciprocal Working Committee on Social and Economic Reforms,” Sison wrote.

Poet, songwriter

Not much known to younger activists was the fact the Echanis was himself a poet and songwriter.

During his third imprisonment under the Gloria Arroyo regime, Echanis wrote the poem “Hindi Ko Kayo Titigilan” inside the Manila City in December 2008. He was released in 2010 and have since participated in the first and only formal talks with the Benigno Aquino administration in January 2011.

He also participated in formal negotiations in Europe and in the Philippines between 2016 and 2018.

In one of the tributes to Echanis, cultural worker Edgie Uyanguren rendered the song “Sa Paglayo Ay May Paglalapit Din,” a song co-wrote by Echanis with Ramon Ayco. Written in Cagayan Valley in 1979, the song was beloved by revolutionaries and activists alike.

In a gathering after the first formal talks between the NDFP and the Duterte government in 2016, Echanis performed an Ilokano revolutionary songs with fellow peace consultants from Northern Philippines, Kennedy Bangibang and Randy Malayao. Malayao himself was assassinated in January 2019.

Randall Echanis singing with fellow NDFP peace consultants from Northern Luzon.

‘Positive, calm and objective’

Echanis is most intimately remembered by younger agrarian reform activists as a positive and objective leader, a calming presence in the face of adversity.

Amihan Euza Mabalay recalled that Ka Randy was always encouraging to them as student land reform activists. “Laging constructive ang mga komento niya. Kahit ang UP Manila ang pinaka kaunting bilang ng miyembro, hindi ako napanghinaan ng loob nilang chair ng chapter dahil sa mga salita niya,” she wrote upon learning of Echanis’ death. Mabalay was National Network of Agrarian Reform Advocates-Youth (NNARA-Youth) University of the Philippines-Manila Chapter chairperson in her student days.

[His comments were always constructive. Even if the UP Manila chapter had the least number of members, I was never discouraged as chapter leader because of his encouraging words.]

She recalled further a t-shirt printing project they did in her senior year. “’Ang ganda! Pulang-pula ano, Amihan?’” Hindi naman sobrang ganda ng t-shirt na ‘yun pero ramdam namin na may pumuri sa pinagpaguran namin, hindi lang sa t-shirt kundi sa pag-oorganisa sa mga kapwa namin estudyante para sa buong taon o higit pa. Ilang beses nya din yun inulit-ulit kapag nagkikita kami habang nasa NRY pa ako,” she said.

[‘It’s beautiful! It’s very red, right Amihan?’ The t-shirt was not exceptional, in fact. But I felt that someone appreciated our efforts, not just in the production of the shirts but in our organizing of fellow students that entire year and beyond. He repeated the compliment when we saw each other while I was still with NNARA-Youth.]

Mabalay said Echanis was always appreciative of every initiative, effort and sacrifice, both to students and veteran activists like himself. He was never one to let anger get the better of him, even during heated discussions. She added that she liked when Echanis was present in meetings as the good points were duly appreciated and weaknesses were pointed out.

“He gave everyone a chance, based on the principles of serving the people. That’s why I called him Tatang (father),” she said in Filipino.

Echanis was buried at noontime today at the Loyola Memorial Gardens in Marikina City. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Joma: Only ‘butchers in authority’ may have killed Echanis

National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison said the brutal murder of peace consultant and veteran agrarian reform activist Randall Echanis may only be the handiwork of “butchers in authority.”

In a statement, Sison presented five “evidence” why a “gang of butchers” in the Rodrigo Duterte government are responsible for Echanis’ murder:

1. The same van used to surveil Ka Randy for one month was used to bring the murder team to kill him.

2. There were at least eight members of the murder team and they could move freely at night and after midnight to carry out their kill mission under conditions of strict lockdown.

3. On the night before the post-midnight murder, they shut off the street light and the CCTV (closed circuit television).

4. They openly used a ladder to access the second floor where Ka Randy (Echanis) was.

5. They took time to torture and knife Ka Randy and allowed sounds of torture to call the attention of neighbors until they shot him to death.

Echanis’ neighbors reported hearing someone “like being tortured” for at least an hour.

They also told ABS-CBN that it took several hours for members of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) to arrive at the scene.

Echanis, 72, was murdered around midnight August 10 in his rented apartment, along with neighbor Louie Tagapia, 48, in Novaliches, Quezon City.

“Only butchers in authority can do all the above and get away with murder,” Sison said.

Bizarre turn of events

Echanis’ murder became even more controversial after the QCPD forcibly took away his remains from his family and colleagues at a funeral parlor Monday afternoon and held it for nearly three days “pending verification” of the cadaver’s real identity.

The local police said they found an identification card at the crime scene bearing the photo of Echanis but with the name Manuel Santiago.

The victim’s family, colleagues and lawyers protested, saying they have already identified the cadaver as Echanis and there was no need for the police to conduct verification procedures.

The lawyers added that Echanis was a publicly-known figure that even President Duterte may be able to identify, having previously met him on several occasions.

The remains were taken to Pink Petals Funeral Parlor in La Loma across Quezon City and farthest away from the crime scene.

The QCPD even arrested Anakpawis paralegal Paolo Colabres for allegedly obstructing the police investigation when they sought that Echanis’ remains be returned to his family.

Colabres has been imprisoned at QCPD’s main headquarters at Camp Karingal since.

An attempt by a Roman Catholic priest to celebrate Mass in front of the funeral parlor was also prevented by the police.

A redemptorist priest being prevented to celebrate Mass for Echanis (Altermidya photo)

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines also released an alert after a police officer, identified on his nameplate as a certain Ilao, harassed journalists covering developments at La Loma and threatened to arrest them on alleged violations of “social distancing” procedures.

A supplied photo shows the journalists were observing social distancing and were wearing masks.

NDFP Negotiating Panel legal consultant Edre Olalia said that the QCPD was either being naïve, lazy or plain incompetent on insisting on the identity of a victim based solely on an ID reportedly found in the crime scene.

“Surely the police ‘intelligence’ had a cache of pictures of him [Echanis] with all the interest on his person and activities and with all the funds for police trainings and seminars on police investigation and ‘intelligence,’” Olalia said.

“One look at his bloodied and bruised face leaves no room for any doubt, speculation, ambivalence or paucity of vision. Despite the curious divergence of the name and the photo in the ID,” he added.

Anakpawis also refuted claims by the QCPD that there was no forced entry at the crime scene.

“The police’s claim that Echanis voluntarily opened his door or knew his killers, i[s] a brazen attempt for a cover-up, but the crime scene says otherwise,” Ariel Casilao, former Anakpawis Representative said in a statement .

The group said it immediately dispatched team to look into the crime scene and found broken door knob and strike plate, indicating a brute force entry.

“Contrary to police claim, the perpetrators forced their entry into Echanis’ rented apartment. It was a clear murder and we highly believe state forces were behind it following their hostaging of his remains and twisted stories,” Casilao said.

Anakpawis photos
Anakpawis photos

Echanis’ remains was eventually given back to his family after the QCPD admitted the cadaver was of Echanis based on fingerprints taken from it.

Echanis is the third NDFP peace consultant brutally killed after its peace negotiations with the government has been cancelled by Duterte in June 2017.

In January 2019, Randy Malayao was killed in Nueva Vizcaya while Julius Giron, a high-ranking Communist Party of the Philippines leader, was killed in Baguio City last March.

Several other NDFP peace consultants have been arrested and are in jail. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

Groups hold protest to cry for justice for slain peasant leader

Peasant groups hold a protest today, August 14, in front of Commission on Human Rights in Quezon City to cry for justice for one of their leaders, Randall “Randy” Echanis.

Echanis was brutally killed in his rented house last August 10. Aside from being a peasant leader, he was also a peace consultant and known member of National Democratic Front of the Philippines’ Reciprocal Working Committee on Social and Economic Reforms.