(Eagle News) — Bayan Muna condemned on Wednesday, Jan. 30, the killing of a National Democratic Front of the Philippines consultant on a bus bound for Nueva Vizcaya.
“We strongly and vehemently condemn this dastardly and cowardly act,” former Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares said in a statement issued after the death of Randy Felix Malayao.
Malayao, who was also a columnist for the Baguio-based Northern Dispatch, was sleeping on the bus when he was shot at by a man who had just boarded the vehicle at a bus stop in Aritao.
According to Colmenares, Malayao, “a peace advocate,” was killed “after President (Rodrigo) Duterte’s latest flip-flop that there would be no more peace talks with the NDFP.”
Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Carlos Zarate agreed, saying this was “another nail on the coffin of the peace negotiations.”
“It is truly tragic that while we are going all out to resume the peace negotiations, the militarist hawks in the Duterte administration are the ones running the show,” he said.
He said Malayao’s death appears to be “part of the coordinated and direct attacks against progressive groups like Bayan Muna and the Makabayan bloc in the run up to the elections. ”
“Ang hirap kasi sa administrasyong Duterte ay kung sino pang nagtutulak para sa makatarungang kapayapaan ay siyang kinukulong at pinapatay. Samantala, ‘yung mga nagtutulak ng giyera at patayan ang siya namang pinupuri at pinopromote,” Colmenares added.
