The Observatory has been informed by the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP), the Medical Action Group (MAG) and the Alliance for Advancement of People’s Rights (KARAPATAN) about the extra-judicial killing of Mr. Menelao “Boy” Barcia, a farmer leader, Barangay Councillor and a leader of the Alliance of United People of Hacienda Dolores (Alyansa ng Nagkakaisang Mamamayan ng Hacienda Dolores – ANIBAN), in Porac, Pampanga province.
According to the information received, on May 2, 2014, at around 9 p.m, Mr. Menelao “Boy” Barcia picked up his wife Maria at a gas station in Angeles City where she worked. While driving their jeep back to Barangay Hacienda Dolores, four men on two motorcycles drove alongside them. The men fired at Mr. Barcia’s vehicle. Mr. Barcia sustained four gunshot wounds – three in the chest and one at the back of his head – and was rushed to the hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival. His wife survived the attack with gunshots in her foot that need surgery.
Mr. Barcia was organising the farmers of Hacienda Dolores against LLL Holdings Incorporated (LLHI) and FL properties and Management Corporation (now Terrafirma Holdings Inc.), which claim ownership of their ancestral domain.
The Observatory condemns in the strongest term the extra-judicial killing of Mr. Menelao “Boy” Barcia, and calls upon the authorities of the Philippines to conduct an immediate, thorough, effective, and impartial investigation in order to identify all those responsible, bring them before a civil competent and impartial tribunal and apply the penal sanctions provided by the law.