ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines, 28 July 2006 — A farmer leader was shot dead and another activist was abducted separately in the latest of a string of killings of leftist activists in the Philippines, officials said yesterday.

The cases prompted a warning from the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) that the country could be blacklisted by the United Nations for the growing number of unsolved killings and assault on the political Left and journalists.

Officials said Nestor Ladica, 43, was drinking coffee with his three sons when unidentified assailants barged into his house in Salay town and fatally shot him late Wednesday, said national police chief Oscar Calderon.

Salay, in the southern province of Misamis Oriental, is about 780 kilometers (485 miles) southeast of Manila.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but Leftist groups and the military were quick to blame each other.

Col. Francisco Simbajon, a spokesman for the army’s 4th Infantry Division based in the region, said Ladica was apparently killed by members of the communist New People’s Army (NPA). “He was killed by suspected members of the NPA’s Sparrow unit (hit squad). Ladica was a former member of the NPA. Authorities are still investigating the killing,” Simbajon told Arab News. Local media reports said the 43-year old victim was the leader of the Misamis Oriental Farmers’ Association.

The left-wing Bayan Muna party, of which Ladica was a member, said it suspected soldiers were responsible, but didn’t offer any evidence.

Also on Wednesday, three masked gunmen abducted a member of the Coalition Against Pollution, a left-wing group opposed to the operations of three foreign factories in northern Bulacan province, police said.

Police said Ernesto Santiago, 46, was abducted in Pulilan town. Police said the attackers, clad in camouflage shorts and rubber shoes, forced their way into Santiago’s house and threatened to shoot his wife and two children before dragging him away. The local human rights group Karapatan said since President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo came to power in 2001, 713 civilians, including 303 left-wing activists, have been killed by suspected security forces.

Ladica is the 114th member of Bayan Muna slain since 2001, it said.

CHR chief Purificacion Quisumbing warned that the Philippines was in danger of being blacklisted by the United Nations for failing to apprehend those responsible for a string of killings and abductions of activists. She also said the government has been overdue, since 1992, in submitting a report on the human rights situation in the country — an obligation under human rights treaties signed by Manila. All these are possible basis for being blacklisted in the human rights system of the United Nations,” she said.

Arroyo on Monday condemned the political killings and called on witnesses to cooperate in investigations.

But the Amnesty International said Arroyo's government should take a determined action to protect witnesses of political killings, saying many were simply too frightened to come forward and testify. (With a report by AP)