Tokyo ? The killing of human rights activists, journalists and clerics in the Philippines has sparked an outcry from international human rights groups, prompting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to repeatedly press Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on the situation.

Recently, Tokyo-based FoE Japan, a nongovernmental organization specializing in human rights, invited to Japan the former leader of Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA), a Philippine organization defending minorities’ human rights.

In an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun, Joan Carling, a former representative of the alliance that comprises minorities in northern Manila, said that CPA members, which are engaged only in peaceful activities, were in danger, but unable to defend themselves.

According to the 43-year-old Carling, her 20-year colleague, Rafael Bangit, then 45, was gunned down by masked men when he was boarding a bus in northern Luzon last June.