Mike Navallo, ABS-CBN News
The son of an Iloilo-based activist who was killed in April last year has sought the help of Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra and the DOJ-led task force on extrajudicial killings in a bid to seek justice for his slain father.
Lean Porquia, son of Bayan Muna Iloilo City coordinator Jory Porquia, personally submitted to the DOJ Monday his letter to Guevarra.
“I am writing to you an appeal and a cry for justice! My father, Jose Reynaldo ‘Jory’ Porquia was extrajudicially killed last April 30th, 2020. Amidst the pandemic and imposition of lockdown in Iloilo City, he was brutally killed with 14 gunshots and the assailants remain unknown,” he said.
Lean said the Philippine National Police has not approached them to investigate his father’s death since the killing took place.
The family has also approached the Commission on Human Rights and the National Bureau of Investigation, to no avail.
“Gusto sana namin na bigyang-pansin din ito ng Department of Justice considering na mag-isang taon, wala pa ring galaw kahit one inch yung kaso ni Tatay,” Lean told ABS-CBN News shortly after filing his letter.
(We want to bring this to the attention of the Department of Justice considering that it has been almost a year, my father’s case has not moved an inch.)
He invoked the jurisdiction of the DOJ-led Administrative Order 35 task force on extrajudicial killings, which Guevarra recently said will look into the killings of activists on Bloody Sunday as well as the death of labor activist Dandy Miguel.
“Such special powers are enjoyed by your office to expedite and compel state forces to answer allegations of extrajudicial killings. My father should be included in that order as a victim of this brutal and demonic act of murdering an innocent man,” he told Guevarra in his letter.
The younger Porquia said his father, a veteran activist and a survivor of the Martial law in the 80s, was subjected to red-baiting before he was killed.
Photos of his father and his father’s name were posted all over Iloilo City, accused of being a recruiter for the New People’s Army, he added.
“Days before his assassination, the local PNP has made pronouncements over the radio that he is being placed under surveillance. Just so you know, Mr. Secretary, he organized community kitchens in the different communities in Iloilo City, a response to the government’s call of ‘Bayanihan.’ But the PNP Iloilo City seems to be unhappy about this that they started looking for him,” he said in his letter.
“A week after this incident, he was killed at around 5 o’clock in the morning in his rented cottage in Arevalo, Iloilo City,” he added.
Bayan Muna Rep. and House deputy minority leader Carlos Zarate, who accompanied Porquia at the DOJ, said it’s unfortunate that the older Porquia’s act of kindness in launching community kitchens was treated differently by authorities.
“Unfortunately, ang tingin ng iba rito, yung mga anti-demokratikong pwersa sa lipunan natin, yung ginagawa niya terorismo. Which is very wrong. At yun ang tingin naming dahilan bakit siya pinaslang, yung kanyang paggawa ng kabutihan sa mamamayan sa Iloilo,” he said.
(Unfortunately, anti-democratic forces in society considered this as an act of terrorism. Which is every wrong. And that is what we think is the reason why he was killed — that act of kindness towards the citizens of Iloilo.)
Prior to his death, the older Porquia had served as consultant of the National Anti-Poverty Commission for Region VI in 2016 and was an environmentalist who organized the Madya-as Ecological Movement in the early 2000s.
After Jory Porquia’s killing, Zarate pointed out that other activists killed had also been previously red-tagged — from Kadamay leader Carlito Badion in May last year to human rights defender Zara Alvarez and peace consultant Randall Echanis in August.
The killings, he said, continued this year with the Blood Sunday simultaneous raids in Southern Luzon.
“Lahat ng redtagging ay hindi isang simpleng labelling. Dangerous ito dahil nakamamatay ang red-tagging,” he said, urging Guevarra to look into these cases.
(All forms of redtagging are not simply labelling. It is dangerous because it is deadly.)
“Talagang extrajudicial killings ang mga ito at ang tingin namin ang mga responsable dito ay mga ahente ng estado,” he said.
(These are really extrajudicial killings and we think those behind these are State agents.)
Lean said he, himself, has become the subject of red-tagging, with his photos and name circulated in Iloilo City, accused of being a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
But more than concern for his own safety, he pleaded Guevarra to act on his father’s case.
“I want justice for my father, Mr. Secretary, the same way that you would demand justice when your own father is killed,” he said.
https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/04/26/21/son-of-slain-red-tagged-activist-pleads-guevarra-for-justice
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