By MHIKE CIGARAL
Central Luzon TV and VERA Files
(Conclusion)
MORONG, Bataan—Four years ago this month, Bayan Muna leader Feliza Timog Ocampo was shot in front of her sister’s house in broad daylight here.
Ocampo joins the list of hundreds political activists and journalists killed in this country since 2001, at least 11 percent of whom were women.
Bataan alone has 10 victims of extrajudicial killings from 2001 to 2010. Most of the victims were members or officers of activist groups like Ocampo; majority served as coordinators of party-list organizations or other groups identified with the left at the time they were murdered.
And like most cases, Ocampo’s has been “archived” by the court after police, despite the issuance of an arrest warrant, failed to arrest the alleged perpetrators.
Witnesses had tagged two members of the New People’s Army as suspects, but the fact that Ocampo, a rebel returnee, was also on the military’s order of battle cast doubt on the circumstances of her death.
Accounts from sources show that before she was killed, Ocampo had been repeatedly summoned by the 24th Infantry Battalion in Balanga City for questioning. She repeatedly refused to go.
The municipal coordinator of Bayan Muna, Ocampo joined the ranks of the NPA in the 1980s and surrendered under the government’s amnesty program. She was “Ka Lisa” to her comrades. In 1987, her husband, who was also an NPA member, was killed in Zambales.
Ocampo was also “Ate Feling” to many and well-respected in her community, especially by farmers, fisherfolks and market vendors. They said she courageously spoke on their behalf and always defended their rights.
Conflicting accounts
Records from the Bataan Regional Trial Court Branch 3 showed that witness Cecilio Cariaso Baino, a baggage carrier at the Morong public market, was walking along Barangay Poblacion on March 2 at 7:15 a.m. when he saw two men shoot Ocampo in the forehead.
The men, after making sure she was dead, casually walked away and entered a forested area toward Barangay Binaritan, Baino said.
Baino, also a rebel returnee who was formerly with the Lino Blas Command of the NPA, tagged Juanito “Ka Toktok” Carabeo of Barangay Daang Pare, Orion and Analito “Ka Devon” Estrada of Barangay Balon,Mariveles as the murderers. Both suspects are said to be active NPA members.
Sources also said an NPA member visited Ocampo several times and was one of the last persons she talked to before she died.
But other published reports showed that there were six men involved in the killing. Two men shot Ocampo and threatened people who “tried to intervene.” They then escaped using a car where two other men were inside. Two others were on board a motorcycle.
Accounts showed that a day before, March 1, Ocampo was doing her laundry when she saw four men spying around her house. She hid in a corner to avoid being seen. After two hours, they left and Ocampo went to the house of Mita Timog Del Rosario, her sister, to spend the night.
Ocampo was supposed to go to the police station that morning to report the incident, but she was stopped and shot dead.
A case unsolved
“Here in our town, there are no recorded crimes that have been solved by the authorities, especially for murder cases because almost all the witnesses are afraid to testify against the perpetrators or the so-called master minds,” sources in the area said.
Warrants of arrest were issued to Carabeo and Estrada on Oct. 30, 2007, but no arrests were made after six months. As a result, Judge Remigio Escalada Jr. on June 20, 2008 ordered the case archived.
No one has since heard about the case, not even her closest neighbors and friends. They said Ocampo had a son, Karl, who is now married and resides in Pilar town. He frequently visits Morong to see friends. He was 20 when his mother was slain.
Read the first part, Suspect in Gabriela leader’s slay seeks settlement