BAGUIO CITY (Oct. 26) — Bloodstained bamboo chairs, smashed brain parts and tears – these were seen in a Nipa hut where the late CATLU President Ricardo “Ka Ric” Ramos was killed on October 25 last year.

It’s still fresh in my mind how brutal and inhumane a triggerman of a supposedly protector of the people is.

Ka Ric was shot to death by gunmen suspected to be members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) under the Northern Luzon Command based in Camp Aquino, San Miguel Tarlac City near Hacienda Luisita. CATLU members were having a simple “victory party” after the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) ordered the company to pay the sugar workers 8,000 sacks of sugar from the Azucarera.

Ka Ric already knew that he might be killed. He has been receiving death threats and encountered surveillances. He survived a group of armed men who attempted to attack him in his home in Brgy. Mapalacsiao before he was assassinated.

In an earlier interview with his widow Nordis learned that the whole family was prepared for such a killing. The way they killed her late husband made her angry.

“Alam niya at alam namin na mangyayari ito, ang hindi ko lang matanggap ay yung paraan ng pagpatay,” she said.

Ka Ric’s death is the 13th case of brutal killings in Hacienda Luisita since the strike started on Nov. 10, 2004.

Among others were the victims of the Nov. 16 massacre and the killings of people who supported the striking workers.

The family, friends, co-workers of the late Ka Ric commemorated his 1st death anniversary silently, without placards and propaganda but it doesn’t mean that the struggle is finished, a CATLU member confided. # Joel Capulong for NORDIS