Henceforth, the afternoon of February 6, 2001 will long be remembered as a day of contradictions. For as legislators in the air-conditioned hall of the Senate gathered around their peer Teofisto Guingona to celebrate his appointment to the Vice Presidency, witnesses and by-standers at the UP Bahay ng Alumni rushed around the slumped body of militant labor leader Filemon Ka Popoy Lagman after being shot four times by still unidentified assailants in the head. As the then-Senator was moving around in glee, the maverick unionist was overturned in agony. While Guingona was savoring the pinnacle of his political career, Lagman was in the final moments of his long years of struggle. The first was a picture of achievement and merriment, the second was a scene of sensational violence.
Indeed, the death of Ka Popoy came as a surprise for some, occurring at a time of normalcy and stability; when EDSA II has helped us regain our sense of confidence and routine, and that everything is back to business as usual. Yet, Lagman's untimely demise has proved one thing: that the notion of normalcy proffered by the new administration is pure wishful thinking and make-believe, a self-imposed fantasy that is way off the mark from leaden reality.
It is for this reason that the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), appeals to the government to exhaust all possible means in bringing the assailants to justice and assure the public that the perpetrators of such a dastardly act will not go unpunished. For a man who has done his share in making EDSA II possible, he deserves no less.
We also extend our condolences and sympathies to the family of Ka Popoy, especially his brother Cong. Edcel Lagman, who is our current Chair. We can very well understand the extent of the family's grief and their demand for urgent action. When their other sibling Hermon disappeared in 1977, abducted allegedly by agents of the Marcos dictatorship, those responsible were not found. Hence, this second iniquity to the Lagman family should not suffer a similar fate.
Let Ka Popoy achieve justice, and God willing, let his death be the
last.
MARY AILEEN D. BACALSO
Secretary General
