CASE: EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLING DATE AND TIME: May 18,2006 Between 5:10-5:40pm

PLACE: Inside Dakki’s Shop, San Jose St., Balanga City

VICTIM: Annaliza Abanador-Gadian, 35, mother of two, an officer of KAISA KA and a member of Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokrasya (KPD)-Province of Bataan

PERPETRATORS: Two unidentified men in plainclothes believed to be from the military

BACKGROUND:

Annaliza was a very dedicated student leader when she was in college (Industrial Engineering) at PUP, BEPZ Branch in Mariveles, Bataan. She became president of the student council and she wrote for the student paper while she fought for students’ rights and welfare and joined mass actions on national issues.

She got employed in the Bataan Economic Zone, first in a company making mountaineering products from 1993 to1995 and later, from 1996 to 1998, with a rubber products company. In these factories, she became active in trade union work.. She also worked for the Teachers Center of the Philippines-Central Luzon, an institution for teachers welfare. In 2000, she became spokesperson for Kaisa ka in Central Luzon and a member of the National Organizing Committee up to the time of her death..

She decided to seek employment in 2005 as the needs of her two children were getting bigger and the “support system” she and her partner had established earlier for their children could not suffice (Her partner also works fulltime as a peasant organizer). But because she understood very well that the financial difficulty her family was facing could not be detached from the crisis the country is experiencing, she would find time to join rallies and other protest actions that express discontent for the policies of the present government and take on any other task for the organization in Bataan that she felt she can do while working part-time.

During this period of resurgent extra-judicial killings when activist groups would assess who among their members have possibly earned the strongest ire of the military, Annaliza was least likely considered as an immediate military target. It was her partner, the father of her children, an organizer of farmers, who would often report of observing two or three men tailing him.

But in May 16, 2006, an unusual tailing did occur to Annaliza. She was with a sister, a niece and her two children. Her sister was driving the vehicle they were riding in. While they were on their way to the house of a classmate of Annaliza’s daughter, her sister noticed two men on a motorcycle tailing them. Her sister decided to stop, got out of the car and asked the motorcycle-riding men: “Men, can your motorcycle fit in this space in between.” The motorcycle-riding men visibly stunned said, “yes!” and went past the vehicle used by Annaliza and company. But not much later, this motorcycle-riding men went back and while passing by Annaliza’s vehicle, craned their necks looking at the vehicle.

DETAILS OF THE INCIDENT:

On May 18, Annaliza’s dead body was found inside the store where she worked at around 5:30pm.

According to Annaliza’s sister, she went to the store where Annaliza was working at around 5:00 that afternoon. Before she went in, she saw a woman who was examining the clothes on sale at the store. He also noticed two men inside, also looking at the clothes.

Upon entering the store, she called out, “Ate” (a Filipino way of addressing an older sister). Upon hearing this, one of the two men turned his head to her direction and they stared at each other. The man who turned to look at Annaliza’s sister was fair-complexioned, with prominent jaws, curly-haired and clean-cut, around 5’6” to 5’7” tall and was wearing a white t-shirt with orange sleeves.

Annaliza’s sister did not see the two walk out of the store but before she left Annaliza for an internet shop, she noticed that only one female customer was inside.

When she was done with the internet, at around 5:40, she went back to the store where Annaliza was working. Two women were in front of the store and she heard them say in Filipino,” Something might have happened to Anna”!

Then, she looked inside the store and saw her sister, lying face down on the table, her hands clasped. She called out, “Ate!” When she did not respond, she looked at her feet still touching the floor and she saw the empty shells. She shifted her eyes towards the table top again. She saw it was bloodied.

Annaliza sustained eight bullet wounds. According to the police, a caliber .45 bullet hit her skull and went through her right eye. One bullet hit her jaw and passed through upper part of the nape. Another hit her just below her breast, two bullets hit her stomach. She was also hit at her right buttocks and on one of her left fingers.