NEWS ALERT: GABRIELA MEMBER SLAIN IN BOHOL, PHILIPPINES

03 April 2006

Note: This is the 68th political killing of a woman under the regime of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and since the ascendancy of Brig. General Jovito Palparan in the Philippine military. Palparan headed the ill-fated Philippine humanitarian mission to Iraq which was forced to return home after an overseas Filipino worker was kidnapped and those who held him demanded the withdrawal of the mission. Palparan reportedly has a number of human rights violations charges filed against him, none of which has prospered. During his tenure in the province of Oriental Mindoro, 18 activists and progressives were killed, including a young town vice-mayor affiliated with GABRIELA.

NEWS RELEASE
03 April 2006

GABRIELA MEMBER SLAIN IN BOHOL;
MAZA APPEALS: JUNK TERROR BILL, TERROR REGIME

Gabriela Women's Party Representative Liza Largoza Maza condemned today the brutal murder of a member of the women's partylist organization in Bohol.

Inday Estorba, 31, Gabriela Women's Party member and staff of the Women's Development Center in Bohol was shot dead at close range today at 3:00AM at her home in Bgy. Panagtaran, Candijay, Bohol. Her husband, Gerry remains in critical condition at the Tagbilaran Hospital. The assailant, known to Inday's family and her neighbors as Byron, is a known Philippine Army intelligence agent in the Barangay.

Inday has long been active in the women's organization in Bohol and is a mother to two children aged 6 and 9 years old. "With Arroyo's butcher Palparan setting his target for the elimination of insurgents by September, Inday Estorba's death marks the intensification of attacks against women militants and progressives irrationally pinpointed by the government as rebels and insurgents. Mothers are not spared."

"Political persecution of progressive partylists and organizations as well as the opposition undoubtedly includes the annihilation of its members and leaders. Inday Estorba, for being an active Gabriela member and an advocate of women's rights, has been identified as a target of Arroyo's military," said Maza.

The recent killing comes in the midst of deliberations on the Anti-Terrorism Bill. The Congress leadership hopes to approve the terror bill this week.

"The terror bill completes the legislative infrastructure for Arroyo's martial rule. This all encompassing license for abuse and authoritarian rule is meant to silence critics, militants and the opposition, as well as keep Mrs. Arroyo in power."

"One more life has been added to the long list of Mrs. Arroyo's terror victims. I am appealing to my colleagues; these lives give us more than enough reason to junk not just the terror bill but the terror government that rams it in our throats."