The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) reported that Roger Vargas, 65, and his wife Lucila Vargas, 60, both leaders of the Nagkakaisang Magsasaka sa San Isidro (Nagkaisa) and active members of the Alyansa ng Magbubukid ng Bulakan, were on board a tricycle Sunday afternoon to deliver their vegetable harvests to Groto market when two men riding in tandem on a motorcycle shot them in Barangay Paradise 3.
“Four shots were fired by the gunmen at about 1:30 p.m. Roger was killed by a bullet in his head while Lucila sustained several bullet wounds in her body. The tricycle driver survived,” the KMP report said.
The KMP said the previous day, the couple had a confrontation with security guards who introduced themselves as being employed by Singson who allegedly has been asserting ownership of a 11-hectare farmland in Barangay San Isidro in San Juan del Monte, including lands being tilled by the Vargas couple.
Witnesses said the gunmen, already wearing helmets, had been noted to be waiting for the tricycle boarded by the victims in an area near the station of the security guards.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the extra-judicial killing of Ka Roger and Ka Cila. Their brutal killing is obviously linked to their just and legitimate struggle to own the land they till,” says KMP Secretary General Antonio Flores.
“Their death is also a result of the Aquino government’s counter-insurgency plan Oplan Bayanihan that approves and tolerates the use of private armed groups as force multiplier,” Flores said.
He noted that “the incident also happened at a time when so-called ‘peace and development teams’ of the 48th Infantry Battalion are now actively operating in Barangay Paradise 3.”
“The presence of the military’s ‘peace and development teams’ in the community bolstered the culture of impunity and even emboldened the perpetrators who killed the farmer- couple,” Flores said.
KMP demanded an immediate probe of the incident and called on authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice.
