Dutch aid worker buried; family, colleagues cry out for justice

A lone candle is lit at the very spot where Dutch environmental activist Wilhem Geertman was killed allegedly in a robbery attempt in Angeles City. AP Photo

MANILA, Philippines — Appeals for justice rang out as more than 1,000 mourners buried Dutch development worker Wilhelmus JJ Lutz Geertman in Aurora province on Sunday, five days after he was shot dead in an attack that the police tagged as robbery, but which his colleagues and relatives suspected as a case of extrajudicial killing.

Outside the capital Baler’s San Luis Obispo Parish, members of Justice and Peace Action Group (JPAG) displayed streamers demanding justice for Geertman. A justice caravan that left Angeles City on Saturday morning brought Geertman’s remains to Aurora, where a tribute for him was held.

A man armed with a .45 cal. gun attacked Geertman, 67, executive director of  Alay Bayan-Luson Inc. (ABI), as he entered the compound of his office in L & S Subdivision here on July 3. Geertman came from Angeles City where he withdrew money from a bank.

Footage captured by closed-circuit television  camera installed at the village’s main gate showed a red Mitsubishi Lancer tailing Geertman’s pickup truck.

A few minutes later, a man on a motorcycle entered. The subdivision’s guards, however, failed to flag down the motorcycle for inspection as it drove in beside a tricycle, escaping their notice.

After three minutes, the same motorcycle drove out with three men on board. In under two minutes, the red car left and passed through the  gate.

Superintendent Luisito (not Luisita as earlier reported) Magnaye, San Fernando police chief, said a task force formed to arrest Geertman’s killers was exerting every effort possible to solve the case. No suspect had been identified or arrested as of Sunday, he said.

In Sunday’s funeral Mass, justice was also the appeal of Bishop Rolando Tria Tirona of the Prelature of Infanta, Quezon, and Aurora.

“We are also expressing our gratitude for the time that Wim spent in Aurora to promote and fight for the dignity of all people, to spread the message of justice and to look out for the welfare of the poor and indigenous peoples,” Tirona said in a statement e-mailed from abroad and which Fr. Nilvon Villanueva read.

Geertman spent more than 40 years as a lay missionary in the Philippines, working first in shipyards in Luzon to organize unions of workers and then moving to Aurora in 1979 for agriculture and literacy programs.

Before the procession, some 30 tricycles, which ferried mourners from Maria Aurora town, were tied with posters showing a photograph of Geertman, whom residents call “Kuya Wim.” Below it, in bold letters, was the word “Justice!”

In the same town, a wake is held for Romualdo “Waldo” Palispis, an election officer and JPAG chair who was shot dead on June 30 allegedly for opposing a bill seeking to reduce the town’s land area and creating a new town from it.

In the procession, mourners consisting of Geertman’s relatives, friends, church workers, ABI volunteers, activists and residents walked behind the hearse that passed through Baler’s streets on its way to the Catholic cemetery. Some of them shouted, “Justice for Willem!”

Geertman’s grave lies beside the tomb of Fr. Alex Sorongen, who died in 2010. Wails were heard as the coffin was lowered to a concrete vault.

Reached by telephone, Marietta Corpuz, chair of Samahan ng mga Katutubo sa Sierra Madre, said Geertman’s killing “pained and angered me.”

She said she felt this way because Geertman, starting 1980, taught Dumagat, Alta, Cordilleran and Ilongot elders to read, write and count to prevent them from being exploited by traders.

“He contributed a lot to us because he saved us from exploitation,” said Corpuz, 45.

“Wim was a foreigner but he lived like one of us. He ate what we ate. He did not make us feel that he was different from us or he was better than us. He crossed rivers so he could reach remote villages,” she said.

Geertman, she said, was the one who told the elders to till portions of the ancestral domain and not just forage for food as logging and mining companies began to stake claims on their lands.

“In our tribes, we consider the land a resource for all and whatever gains we obtained, we share with all. This belief, however, is threatened. Wim helped us in our defense of the ancestral domain by helping us write letters to authorities and accompanying us to government offices,” Corpuz said.

“His death emboldened us to defend our lands. He taught us how to defend our rights,” she said.

Elmer Dayson, chair of Anibang Kilusan ng mga Magsasaka sa Maria Aurora, said the group suffered a “great loss” with Geertman’s death. “It felt like we lost a father,” said Dayson, 60.

On top of educating farmers and teaching them how to run an organization, he said Geertman also raised money for the scholarship fund of 30 students through donations from the annual Christmas reunion of his family in The Netherlands in the last 10 years.

In 2009, when Geertman began heading ABI, Dayson said he gave them disaster preparedness training, taught them to validate typhoon-related damage and identify those who needed food aid.

Geertman’s death, he said, was “like a flame that enlivens our hearts to continue with our fight for agrarian reform.”

Church leaders earlier said Geertman was the 13th victim of extrajudicial killings in the first two years of President Aquino’s term.

But Cristina Palabay, spokesperson of the human rights watchdog Karapatan, said their records identified Geertman as the 96th victim of extrajudicial killings under the Aquino administration.