We at Migrante Austria hold the Duterte regime responsible for the murder of (NDFP) human rights advocate and peace panel consultant Ka Randy Felix Malayao.

As an NDFP peace consultant, Ka Randy is a holder of a NDFP-GRP Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees identification card that should have given him immunity from arrest, harassment and attacks.

Ka Randy, 49 years old, was a Bayan Muna regional coordinator and a human rights defender, when he was shot dead while sleeping inside a bus in Aritao, Nueva Vizcaya at around 2:30 AM of 30 January 2019.

On 28 January 2017, Randy took part in a Peace Forum jointly sponsored by the Philippine Embassy in Vienna and Migrante Austria, to shed light on the then on-going peace talks between the Philippine government and the NDFP. The said Peace Forum was attended by 30 Filipino community organisations’ leaders, Austrian friends and officials of the Embassy.

He clarified the goals of, and latest developments in, the peace talks to the Filipino community. The event was highly educational and amicable as both panels had high hopes for the Peace Talks resolving the vital issues at hand: i,e genuine land reform, nationalist industrialisation and finally the resolution of the armed conflict, thus the lasting peace.

Why did Ka Randy have to die? It is deplorable that Duterte’s Death Squads operate with a license to kill or harass, in any form, all those with ties to leftist groups.

According to Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate, “This is another nail on the coffin of the peace negotiations. It is truly tragic that while we are going all out to resume the peace negotiations, the militarist hawks in the Duterte administration are the ones running the show.”

Yet, such despicable acts will not quell the people’s desire for just and lasting peace. The people who have withstood history in their fight for truth and justice will not be cowed. The call for justice for Randy Malayao and other victims of human rights violations is a call to hasten our collective struggle to change this regime, which brings nothing but death and destruction.

Let us value peace and those who live, work and die for peace!

Justice for Ka Randy Malayao! Justice for all victims of extrajudicial killings!

Reference:

Michael Garlan
Secretary General, Migrante Austria
Mobile Phone +43 688 64588082