City of SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga- Members of the family of the Dutch missionary killed here last Tuesday were expected to arrive last night from the Netherlands amid plans to bury the victim in Ma. Aurora town in Aurora.
Roman Polintan, chair of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) in Central Luzon, said the the body of Dutch national Willen Geertman, 67, whose killers have remained unidentified, would be motored to Ma. Aurora which Geertman had considered his hometown since he first arrived in the Philippines 47 years ago.
Geertman’s staff members at Alay Bayan Inc. (ABI) which he had served as executive director for three years, could not say who among his relatives were expected to arrive.
They noted that Geertman remained single, although he had a Filipina girlfriend. He also never had any child.
The farmers’ group Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luson (AMGL) issued yesterday a statement saying that Geertman’s case should be considered “extra-judicial killing (EJK) and not a simple robbery-hold-up as police investigators are suggesting.”
“This is the result of a probe done by a fact-finding mission, together with organizations under Bagong Alyansang Makabayan – Gitnang Luson,” said AMGL in a statement.
AMGL chair Joseph Canlas, who is also chair of the board of ABI noted that the two suspects in Geertman’s killing “could have easily taken what they wanted, but they did worse than that.”
“Geertman who was sitting at the compound’s balcony was stunned and raised his arms up, expressing no intent to resist. But the suspects forced him to kneel down, then shot him at the back,” he noted.
Polintan noted that Geertman was a friend of Romualdo Palispis, a former election officer who later became active in environmental issues in Ma. Aurora. Palispis was also shot dead in Ma. Aurora, three days before Geertman was killed.
Last Sunday, Geertman was reported to have expressed his concern over the death of Palispis, saying the two of them had been against illegal mining and illegal logging in Aurora.
Polintan also noted that Geertman had been prominently against the Aurora Economic Pacific Zone (Apeco) in Aurora.
Geertman was shot by one of two suspects within the ABI compound after reportedly withdrawing a certain amount from Metrobank in Angeles City.
A closed circuit television recording from the homeowners association which showed a red Mitsubishi Gallant with plate number TRS 719 and a red Honda TMX model motorcycle parked near the ABI compound and these these vehicles trailed Geertman’s Isuzu pick up truck on the way to the bank. The suspects who later shot Geertman fled on board a motorcycle.
“The armed forces, in its history of existence, has never admitted a single extra-judicial killing,” Canlas said.
This, even as the Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) and Anakpawis party list urged the European Union to “recall its economic aid and other forms of assistance to the Aquino administration following the political assassination of Dutch NGO relief and rehabilitation worker by military agents.”
In a press statement Pamalakaya vice chairperson Salvador France and Anakpawis party list vice chairman Fernando Hicap appealed to the EU to “drop all economic aid and other financial assistance to the Aquino government including but not limited to the P 440-million worth of grants to local government units for good governance purposes.”
France and Hicap said the EU “should also reconsider the continuation of the 10-million Euro human rights aid it granted to the Philippine government to help the police stop the spate of extrajudicial killings all over the country.”
“The 10-million Euro aid for the Philippine government to improve human rights situation in the country is on top of the 3.9 million Euros the EU had donated in 2009 for the same purpose,” they said, adding that these funds could only come to naught.
