Philippine Daily Inquirer February 12, 2001
http://www.inquirer.net/
Lagman buried today; work stoppage called
By Gerald G. Lacuarta
Inquirer News Service
ABOUT 40,000 workers are expected to walk
out of their offices and factories in Metro
Manila and Southern Tagalog today to bring
slain labor leader Filemon "Popoy"
Lagman to his final resting place.
The militant Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino
(BMP), which Lagman founded and headed since
1995, called for a work stoppage this noon,
in time for the funeral Mass at the Church
of the Holy Sacrifice inside the University
of the Philippines campus in Diliman, Quezon
City.
Benjie Velasco, BMP spokesperson, said some
10,000 members of the urban poor group, Kongreso
ng Pagkakaisa ng Maralitang Lungsod, would
join the workers in the indignation march
from the UP to the Loyola Memorial Park in
Marikina City.
"The employers of these workers have
already agreed to let them join the funeral
march," Velasco said.
The workers belong to unions of big companies
in Metro Manila like Fortune Tobacco, Republic
Asahi Glass, Gelmart, Wrangler, Noritake
and Manila Bay Spinning Mills.
Unions of Philippine Long Distance Co. and
Philippine Airlines will also send delegations.
As a tribute to Lagman, Velasco said the
Partido ng Manggagawa would hold its founding
congress in the morning at the UP Bahay ng
Alumni, where the BMP chair was gunned down
on Feb. 6 by four still unidentified assassins.
Sack Wycoco calls
A militant fisherfolk group urged President
Macapagal-Arroyo to recall the appointment
of Reynaldo Wycoco as director of the National
Bureau of Investigation for allegedly insinuating
that BMPfs rival groups in the Left were
involved in Lagmanfs killing.
The Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya
ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) made the appeal
after Wycoco, a former police official, on
Friday pointed at communist groups as the
culprits, citing the ideological rift between
Lagman and Jose Ma. Sison, founding chair
of the Communist Party of the Philippines
(CPP).
"The strongest angle would be the rift
between Joma and Ka Popoy. As of now, that
is the most probable angle based on our assessment,"
Wycoco had told the Inquirer, though he added
that investigators had not ruled out the
possible involvement of rightist groups.
Rodolfo Sambajon, Pamalakaya chair, said
Wycocofs statements were irresponsible and
malicious.
"Wycocofs selling point for his accusation
lacks basis. It is plain rumor mongering
and highly speculative," Sambajon said.
CPP spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger"
Rosal has denied his groupfs involvement
in the killing, saying "there was no
urgent or grave reason" for the CPP
and its armed wing, the New Peoplefs Army,
to go after Lagman.
Even BMPfs Velasco cited a "small possibility"
that Sisonfs group had a hand in the killing,
saying Sison has only resorted to character
assassination against Lagman.
Velasco said that even if another rival communist
group, the Revolutionary Proletarian Party-Alex
Boncayao Brigade (RPA-ABB), was involved,
the assailants could not be branded as "communists."
Lagman used to command the ABB, an urban-based
hit squad.
"These elements could be the ones who
have already surrendered and are now being
used by the military," Velasco said.
Revenge angle
Sison has pointed at the "revenge angle"
as the main motive in the assassination.
"For the benefit of serious investigators,
I wish to point out a probable connection
between the ongoing assassination plot against
me and the killing of Popoy Lagman,"
Sison said in a statement e-mailed from his
base in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
"Since the exposure of the assassination
plot by Col. Reynaldo Berroya and then by
me, the plotters, according to reliable sources
of the National Democratic Front, have been
extremely upset and angry about the leak
of information from inside or from the periphery
of the circle of plotters and operatives,"
he claimed.
"It is highly probable that the assassination
plotters saw Popoy Lagman as the leak,"
he said.
"The killing of Lagman is probably a
punitive action of the RPA-ABB against a
suspected leak in the assassination plot
against me, as well as a component of a larger
scheme of pro-Estrada groups to sow bloody
intrigue and destabilize the new administration,"
Sison said.
As a result, he said, "it is not at
all surprising that, according to reports,
the (sketches) in the hands of investigators
resemble suspects in previous hit jobs of
the RPA-ABB, which is notorious for its close
connections with Estrada, Gen. Panfilo Lacson
and Eduardo Cojuangco."
The CPP founder, however, clarified that
"Lagman had nothing to do with the assassination
plot as an active conspirator because he
could not be in the same project with his
bitter enemies, Nilo de la Cruz and Arturo
Tabara."
Sison earlier claimed being the target of
an assassination plot hatched by military
and police authorities conspiring with former
communist rebels. -- With a report from Delfin
T. Mallari Jr., PDI Southern Luzon Bureau