KARAPATAN called on the Marcos Jr. administration and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to immediately surface peasant organizer Fhobie Matias and deplored attacks against farmers and their organizations.

According to reports by peasant organization Katipunan ng mga Samahang Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan (KASAMA-TK), suspected State security forces abducted Matias on September 28, 2024 in Calamba, Laguna. Matias was in the province to consult with farmers on issues regarding farmers’ eviction from their land, loss of income, and reports of harassment against peasants by State security forces and agents.

KARAPATAN demands that Matias’ rights be respected and she be surfaced unharmed. Those who took her into their custody should be made accountable for holding Matias incommunicado for more than two weeks now, and for the possible torture, whether physical or psychological, that is inflicted upon her.

Such violations are not unimaginable, as former victims and survivors of abduction like Jonila Castro, Jhed Tamano, Dyan Gumanao, Armand Dayoha, and Eco Dangla, have experienced.

Attacks against farmers and peasant organizers are on the rise under the Marcos Jr. regime.

On April 23, 2023, elements of the 203rd Battalion of the Philippine Army arrested indigenous people’s rights advocates Mary Joyce Lizada and Arnulfo Aumentado in Mindoro and unjustly detained them in a military camp. Both experienced mental torture, and were denied due process. KASAMA-TK deputy secretary general Jeverlyn Seguin has been constantly red-tagged by the military, among other peasant leaders, in Southern Tagalog.

Meanwhile, there are currently 15 victims of enforced disappearances who remain missing in the country. Among them are farmers and peasant organizers:

On September 15, 2023, peasant organizer Deah Lopez, 26, was traveling along a road in Barangay San Jose en route to Barangay Gil Montilla, Sipalay, Negros Occidental, when she and the driver of the tricycle she was riding were apprehended at a checkpoint. They were then forcibly taken into a van, while the tricycle was loaded onto a pickup truck. Hours later, the driver, Pedro Agravante Jr., was found dead in a ditch in Barangay Nagbo-alao, Basay, Negros Oriental. His hands and feet were bound, and his mouth and eyes covered with duct tape. A gunshot wound to the head and signs of torture were also evident. Lopez remains missing, a victim of enforced disappearance under Marcos Jr. Farmers Norman Ortiz and Lee Sudario were reported abducted at around 1 a.m. of September 29, 2023 from a house in Barangay Bantug, Gabaldon, Nueva Ecija by around ten men wearing military uniforms. Eyewitnesses, who had been awakened by the barking of dogs, reportedly saw Ortiz and Sudario being forced into a van. One of the victims attempted to flee to a nearby cemetery but was caught and dragged back into the van. The two are included as respondents in several trumped up cases on terrorism and other crimes, even as they remained missing. Mariano Jolongbayan, an organizer of fisherfolk under the Haligi ng Batangueñong Anakdagat (Habagat), was abducted by suspected State agents in Lian, Batangas on November 17, 2023, en route to a meeting with local fishers. KARAPATAN believes that the Marcos Jr. regime’s counterinsurgency policy includes policy directives and orders that legitimize abductions and enforced disappearances in order to stifle dissent, terrorize communities and worsen the climate of impunity.

We call on rights defenders and advocates to amplify the call to surface Fhobie Matias and all desaparecidos, as well as the people’s demands to hold the perpetrators accountable and to stop military operations in communities.