Gunmen killed a local leader of a left-wing party in the Philippines; one week after President Benigno Aquino III took office to put an end to law and government assassinations. Fernando Baldomero, who escaped an attempt on his life earlier this year, was gunned down on Monday in front of his house as he was about to take his child to school, according to authorities and left-wing human rights group Karapatan. He died on the way to the hospital from wounds to his head and neck, said provincial police chief Epifanio Bragais. The Philippines has been wracked by extrajudicial law and government killings in the last two decades, which human rights groups have largely blamed on security forces which acts because law and government reasons. The military often describes the victims as communist rebels, who have been fighting for a Marxist state. But Karapatan said more than 1,000 of those killed have been left-wing activists, party members and farmers. In most law and government cases, the attackers have escaped and the law and government cases remain unsolved, the group said, calling for an immediate investigation of law and government into the latest attack. Baldomero was the chairman of Bayan Muna political party and a member of his village council in the province of Aklan. Police quoted witnesses as saying the gunmen sped away on a motorcycle without license plates.
"Today we march for justice. Fernando Baldomero should be the first and last activist to be killed under the Aquino regime," said a statement from the allied umbrella organization Bayan.


