Republic of the Philippines

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

FIFTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

HOUSE RESOLUTION No. 78

________________________________________________________________________
Introduced by Rep. TEODORO A. CASIÑO and NERI JAVIER COLMENARES

RESOLUTION
STRONGLY CONDEMNING THE KILLING OF BAYAN MUNA OFFICER
AND MUNICIPAL COUNCILOR FERNANDO BALDOMERO ON JULY 5, 2010
IN KALIBO, AKLAN, THE FIRST ACTIVIST SLAIN UNDER THE NEWLY-
INSTALLED AQUINO GOVERNMENT

WHEREAS, at around 6:30 a.m. on July 5, 2010, two unidentified men riding tandem on a
motorcycle shot at Fernando Baldomero, two-term municipal councilor in Lezo, Aklan and
Bayan Muna provincial chairperson, hitting the victim on the neck and head, killing him
instantly;

WHEREAS, 61-year old Baldomero was outside his house at that time, donning a helmet
and getting ready to ride his motorcycle and drive his 12-year-old son to school when the
incident happened;

WHEREAS, witnesses say Baldomero, upon seeing his assailants covered his son to protect
him. Baldomero sustained three gunshot wounds, one on the neck and two on the head. He
was brought to the Kalibo Provincial Hospital but was declared dead on arrival. His son Karl
Philip was severely traumatized;

WHEREAS, on March 19, Baldomero’s life was also threatened when two-motorcycle-
riding men threw grenades at his house. One of the grenades exploded in the kitchen while
the other one fell but did not explode in the living room where Baldomero’s 92-year old
father was;

WHEREAS, a political detainee in the 1980s and a member of Samahan ng mga Ex

Detainee Laban sa Detensyon at para sa Amnestiya (SELDA), Baldomero has long been
persecuted by the military for his political work. Besides the attack during the campaign
season last March, in 2005 and in 2006, he was charged with trumped-up cases that were all
immediately dismissed because of lack of evidence;

WHEREAS, Baldomero is the first activist killed under the administration of newly-
installed Pres. Benigno Simeon Aquino III. He is also the 145th Bayan Muna member killed
since 2001;
WHEREAS, Baldomero’s death proves that extrajudicial killings continue with impunity
even after the end of the Macapagal-Arroyo government;

WHEREAS, since 2001, there have been 1,205 documented victims of extrajudicial killings
and 206 documented victims of enforced disappearances. The numbers will likely increase
under the new government unless serious measures are undertaken;

WHEREAS, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary

Executions Prof. Philip Alston in a country mission to the Philippines recommended in 2007
the removal of extrajudicial executions from counter-insurgency operations. He specifically
called on then President Gloria Arroyo as “Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the
Philippines to take concrete steps to put an end to those aspects of counterinsurgency operations which have led
to the targeting and execution of many individuals working with civil society organizations.” Prof . Alston
also recommended, among others, that command responsibility be a basis for criminal
liability within the domestic legal order; and that government direct all military officers from
making public statements linking political or other civil society groups to those engaged in
armed insurgencies. In 2009, he issued a follow-up report and cited that while there has been
a reduction in extrajudicial killings in the country, “reforms directed at institutionalizing the
reduction of killings of leftist activists and others, and in ensuring command responsibility for abuses have not
been implemented”;

WHEREAS, all branches of government have to condemn such killings in order to send
the message that such atrocities will not be tolerated and that justice will have to be seriously
pursued;

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the House of Representatives strongly

condemn the killing of Bayan Muna officer and municipal councilor Fernando Baldomero
on July 5, 2010, the first activist slain under the newly-installed Aquino government.

Adopted,

REP. TEODORO A. CASIÑO REP. NERI JAVIER COLMENARES

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