The condemnation of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the continuing political killings in the country during the state of the nation address is nothing but a lip service as two more Bicolano activists were killed a week ago. Ironically, the President’s pledge to put a stop to the political killings has even brought fresh wave of killing spree.

        Pastor Isaias Sta. Rosa of the United Methodist Church and project staff of the militant Kilusang Magbubukid ng Bicol was the latest victim when hooded gunmen raided his house, took him away and killed him later near a creek, several meters from their house.

        Three days earlier, Rei Mon Guran, leader of the League of Filipino Student (LFS) and second year student of Aquinas University in Legazpi City, was gunned down by an assailant while riding a bus in Bulan, Sorsogon. Guran’s horrified sister and aunt who were riding with him in the same bus at past six o’clock in the morning saw the bloody incident helplessly as the assassin escaped in a motorbike. He was the second LFS leader in Bicol killed this year.

        But Sta. Rosa’s case has a catch because beside his body was another dead man that police investigators identified later as Corporal Lordger Pastrana of the Philippine Army assigned in Pili, Camarines Sur.

        By the accounts of Sta. Rosa’s wife and younger brothers, Pastrana was the leader of some 10 hooded gunmen who barged into the house of the victim, beat him up, took him away and brought him to a nearby creek.

        According to a brother of the victim, whom the police investigators asked to search the pocket of the Army corporal, Pastrana was in possession of the wristwatch of his brother and the cell phone of his niece which were taken from them while the hooded gunmen were still inside the house of the victim.

        Brig. Gen. Arsenio Arugay of the Philippine Army could not give details why Pastrana was there at the crime scene dead; could only say that the administrative office of their unit is conducting an investigation.

        With Pastrana identified as the leader of the hooded gunmen by the kin of the pastor who were present when the incident happened, Arugay could only say that it was just an allegation and that the family could file a case against the dead man.

        The investigation of the Philippine Army on Pastrana’s presence in the crime scene is a standard thing but its result is another thing. One could not expect that the result would implicate the Army soldiers in the continuing dirty little war against the leftists with a list growing to several hundreds killed since President Macapagal-Arroyo took power in 2001.

        But the Army officials could make sense of the investigation, if there is really one being conducted. These officers and gentlemen could relegate the investigation to an independent group or the Commission on Human Rights to come up with an impartial and a credible result.

        As the families of the victims have yet to see justice served and the SONA statement of President Macapagal-Arroyo crumbled, there is no indication that these political killings will not stop. In a country where the leader seemed to be a hostage of the men in uniform and scared of one’s shadow the supposed protectors of men are the ones who hold the gun pointed at the powers that be.