Justice remains elusive for slain peace consultant Randy Echanis

Today, August 10, 2024, marks the fourth year of the heinous killing of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant Randall “Ka Randy” Echanis. Justice remains elusive for Echanis and many other peace advocates and activists who were killed by the Duterte and Marcos regimes.

In 2020, Echanis, then 71, was stabbed multiple times in a rented house in Novaliches, Quezon City. He was killed along with his neighbor, Louie Tagapia. Autopsy reports indicated that Echanis was “tortured and made to suffer” before he was stabbed to death.

“Four years have passed since the gruesome killing of Ka Randy but to this day, those behind his death are still not held to account. With each passing day that justice is not served for him and for the thousands killed under the former Duterte administration, impunity only festers — especially as the current Marcos Jr. administration continues to turn a blind eye to our calls for justice and accountability.”

It can be recalled that the killing of Echanis came right after the Philippine government rolled out the implementation of the draconian Anti-Terrorism Law of 2020.

“We will always demand justice and accountability for the gruesome killing of Ka Randy. For his family and colleagues, his case remains unresolved. Ka Randy was one of the many NDFP consultants killed under the shoot-to-kill and take-no-prisoner policy of the former Duterte government. It is only just that Duterte be made accountable not only for the drug war killings but also for the political killings and violations of international humanitarian laws under his administration.”

Echanis was arrested and detained three times under presidents Ferdinand Marcos Sr, Corazon Aquino, and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. He was a long-time peace consultant of the NDFP and a member of the NDFP Reciprocal Working Committee on Socio-Economic Reforms.

He participated in the 2017-2018 peace negotiations between the NDFP and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP). In 2017, he played a decisive role in clinching an agreement on the principle of free land distribution with GRP negotiators, before the then Duterte regime unilaterally terminated the peace talks.

#