Comrades remember Ka Popoy
Lagman
(The Philippine Star)
Updated February 07, 2002
Exactly a year after he was gunned down by four assassins inside the
University of the Philippines campus in Diliman, Quezon City, the family,
comrades and friends of slain labor leader Filemon "Popoy" Lagman
gathered at the spot where he fell to remember him.
They also criticized the Philippine National Police for its failure to
find his killers. "It is ironic that in your life you relentlessly
campaigned for justice for the disadvantaged and the oppressed," said a
statement from his family read by former Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, "but in
death, you yourself are denied justice."
About 50 close friends, relatives and former comrades held a
wreath-laying ceremony yesterday at Bahay ng Alumni inside the UP Campus right
at the spot where he was gunned down exactly a year ago. He was 47.
The Lagman family and members of the labor movement also announced the
establishment of a foundation to honor the memory of Ka Popoy and his brother
Herman, an activist during the Martial Law days who disappeared without any
trace after he was abducted by military agents.
His brother Edcel told the audience during the solemn ceremony
yesterday that their 81-year-old mother Cecilia, is honored to have lost two
noble sons for a noble cause. "Nana is a strong-willed mother," he
said, paying tribute to their mother, who sat nearby in a wheelchair, teary
eyed.
His former comrades in the underground also issued a statement
extolling his contributions to the labor movement. Patricio Ramirez,
spokesperson for the underground Partido ng Manggagawang Pilipino (PMP) which
he helped found, also warned that "justice will be served in due
time."
"The revolutionary movement," he said, " has its own
methods of identifying and punishing the gunmen and mastermind of Ka Popoy’s
assassination. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. " The fallen labor
leader was the founding secretary general of the PMP, a shadowy group working
for a worker-led revolution.
Wilson Fortaleza, national president of the militant party-list group
Sanlakas, said his colleagues in the labor movement will continue to work for
the ideals he lived and died for. –
Romel Bagares
Walang komento:
Mag-post ng isang Komento