Justice for Agaton Topacio and Eugenia Magpantay!
KARAPATAN Public Information
PRESS RELEASE
November 25, 2025
Reference: Atty. VJ Topacio, Hustisya National Board member
Cristina Palabay, KARAPATAN secretary general, 09173162831
KARAPATAN Public Information Desk, 09189790580
Justice for Agaton Topacio and Eugenia Magpantay!
KARAPATAN and HUSTISYA (Victims United for Justice) marked the fifth anniversary of the brutal killing of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) consultants Agaton Topacio and Eugenia Magpantay today, November 25, 2025.
The couple, both 68 years old at the time, were gunned down in the early morning of November 25, 2020 in their house in Tanay, Rizal. “The police falsely claimed that my elderly parents put up a fight when they were to be served with warrants,” said the couple’s son, HUSTISYA National Board member Atty. VJ Topacio. “But my mother, a diabetic, had hardly recovered from a four-day coma, and my father was suffering from a knee injury and an enlarged heart. Neither of them could have resisted the dozens of policemen who barged into their home to attack them.”
“It has been five years since this gross injustice, yet nothing has been done to hold the perpetrators accountable. Not under Duterte, not under Marcos Jr.,” added KARAPATAN secretary general Cristina Palabay.
Magpantay and Topacio are just two of 14 NDFP consultants killed extrajudicially from the time of Duterte up to the Marcos Jr. regime. The others are:
• Ariel Arbitrario, captured alive, tortured and killed September 11, 2024 in Peñablanca, Cagayan;
• Concha Araneta Bocala, killed August 15, 2024 in Lambunao, Iloilo;
• Rogelio Posadas, abducted and killed April 19, 2023 in Hinigaran, Negros Occidental;
• Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, waylaid and killed August 19, 2022 in Catbalogan City;
• Pedro Codaste, killed January 19, 2022 in Cagayan de Oro City;
• Jorge Madlos, killed October 29, 2021 in Impasug-ong, Bukidnon;
• Reynaldo Bocala, killed May 28, 2021 in Pavia, Iloilo;
• Randall Echanis, killed August 10, 2020 in Novaliches, Quezon City;
• Julius Giron, killed March 13, 2020 in Baguio City; and
• Felix Randy Malayao, killed January 30, 2019 in Aritao, Isabela.
“Every name on this list is an unanswered cry for justice, and for which the Duterte and Marcos Jr. regimes must be held accountable,” concluded Atty. Topacio.
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KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties. It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign.