extrajudicial killings

Lawyer confirms Randy Echanis is one of QC stabbing victims

Rambo Talabong

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

Lawyer confirms Randy Echanis is one of QC stabbing victims

FAKE ID? This identification card is found in the crime scene of Randall Echanis

QCPD photo

The Quezon City Police District insisted that Randall Echanis was not a victim in the Novaliches stabbing incident. The activist's lawyer says otherwise.

Anakpawis chairman Randall “Ka Randy” Echanis was one of the two stabbing victims in Quezon City on Monday, August 10, the group’s legal counsel Luchi Perez confirmed to Rappler.

“Manuel is Randall Echanis,” Perez told Rappler in a text message.

The “Manuel” that Perez referred to was Manuel Santiago, the name on one of the identification cards found by the police in the crime scene. Cruz did not explain why Echanis was using a different name.

Echanis was known as an agrarian reform advocate. He was credited for his work in helping craft the the Genuine Agrarian Reform Bill (GARB).

Echanis also served as political consultant for the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). He is the 4th NDF political consultant to be killed, after Sotero LlamasRandy Malayao, and Julius Giron.

The mix-up

The Quezon City Police District (QCPD) earlier reported that the only sensational case in their area that took place the same time as Echanis’ murder was the stabbing incident that killed 2 men in Novaliches.

However, the QCPD insisted that none of the victims was Echanis, saying that they were a certain Manuel Santiago and a certain Louie Tagapia. Manuel Santiago was Echanis after all.

Perez said there has been no correction made with regards to the identity of Louie Tagapia.

How the crime happened

Initial investigation showed that at 1:35 am on Monday, a witness heard a “loud noise” from the 2nd floor of No. 14 Petronia Street in Barangay Novaliches, Quezon City. The witness went to check the source of the noise and found the bodies of Echanis and Tagapia.

Without citing a source, police said in their report that around 5 people could have killed Echanis and Tagapia.

The SOCO team recovered identification cards, a Dell Laptop, a small notebook, 2 USBs and P400 cash.

The investigation of Echanis’ killing has been delegated to the QCPD’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit (CIDU), which usually handles high-profile killings. – Rappler.com

Add a comment

Sort by

There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.

Summarize this article with AI

How does this make you feel?

Loading
Download the Rappler App!
Clothing, Apparel, Person

author

Rambo Talabong

Rambo Talabong covers the House of Representatives and local governments for Rappler. Prior to this, he covered security and crime. He was named Jaime V. Ongpin Fellow in 2019 for his reporting on President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. In 2021, he was selected as a journalism fellow by the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics.