Joma blames Duterte and his 'gang of butchers' for Echanis slay

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison has condemned the August 10 killing of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) consultant Randall Echanis inside his rented house.

In a statement, Sison described Echanis, 72, whose body was reportedly found with multiple stab wounds, as a peaceful social activist and a mild-mannered man.

"He had a consistent modest personality with a high level of education and intellect. He had long dedicated himself to his social advocacy and had made tremendous sacrifices for many decades," Sison, on self-exile in The Netherlands, said.

Sison pointed out that even with the termination of the peace negotiations by the national government, Echanis was supposed to enjoy the protection of the provisions of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), which guarantees protection to all involved in the talks.

Sison blamed President Rodrigo Duterte and his "gang of butchers" for the killing of Echanis and his neighbor.

He even mentioned that DILG Secretary Eduardo Año has been supposedly bragging to his staff and other people that he has mapped out the locations of all social activists through the local government units and neighborhoods and that he can wipe out the social activists anytime.

"This boasting of Año is taken seriously by all the social activists that he threatens to kill," Sison said.

"With the murder of Randall and his neighbor, the Duterte gang of butchers has aroused the indignation and just wrath of the peasant masses and the entire Filipino people," he added.

In response, Año said Sison was just hallucinating: "He is not worth of any comment. He is hallucinating," he said.

For his part, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the Palace would not dignify the statement made by Sison, whom he described as a “worldwide notorious terrorist.”

Roque added that the investigation on Echanis’ death is underway.

According to leftist group Anakpawis, Echanis and an unidentified neighbor were killed on the morning of August 10 after alleged "police forces" raided his house in Novaliches, Quezon City.

The Quezon City Police District, however, said Echanis wasn't among those killed. QCPD chief Police Brigadier General Ronnie Montejo said the two victims were identified as Louie Tagapia, 48, and a certain Manuel Santiago.

Echanis' wife, Erlinda, already identified that it was her husband who was killed. She also decried that the body of her husband was forcibly taken by members of the La Loma police from the funeral parlor.

Due to the incident, Sison said "all social activists have no choice but to intensify in every necessary way their struggle against the tyrant, traitor, butcher and plunderer Duterte."

He further said the killing of the NDFP consultant has "far reaching consequences" towards the intensification of the Filipino people’s struggle for national and social liberation against the "evil Duterte regime" and the "unjust ruling system of big compradors, landlords and corrupt officials who are servile to foreign monopoly capitalism." —KBK, GMA News