Uwazi

Groups decried the harassment of red-tagged peasant leader Lucia Capaducio, who is at the forefront of seeking government assistance for the food producers of Panay.

Capaducio is a known peasant leader and the current chairperson of the peasant group Paghugpong sang Mangunguma sa Panay kag Guimaras (PAMANGGAS).

According to Panay Alliance Karapatan, on Sept. 3, three men who introduced themselves as personnel of Department of Environmental and Natural Resources (DENR) went to Capaducio residence and asked her whereabouts. Capaducio’s husband Felix, 72, who was in the house that day was interrogated by these men and accused her wife as a leader of the New People’s Army (NPA) and that their family are supporters of the rebel group. Their daughter was also interrogated, the group said.

Capaducio was not in the house when the three men came. Panay Karapatan Alliance said Capaducio was in the community gathering signatures for a petition against golden rice and aid for farmers.

A day before the incident, another red-tagged development worker Linalyn Jaynos was also arrested.

Panay Alliance Karapatan believes that the recent incidents are an attack against farmers who are only demanding help from the government. They assert that allegations against Capaducio are all lies.

“The attack against Nay Lucia is an attack against our farmers who are suffering from the effect of the economic crisis this government has created and failed to resolve,” Panay Alliance Karapatan said in a statement.

“It is the latest assault on local peasant communities that, for years, have been harassed for calling out the government for its negligence and incompetence in tackling the issues confronting their sector. Under a sham democracy, those who are on the “laylayan” have become victims severalfold,” it added.

Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura (MASIPAG), a farmer-led network, urged the government to stop the harassments against Capaducio’s family and demanded that the government use their resources to help farmers instead.

“MASIPAG urges the government to honor their mandated duty of supporting our local farmers and not to abuse their powers as duty bearers in forwarding their own exclusive agenda in agriculture,” the organization said in a statement.

“We in MASIPAG enjoins everyone in condemning this recent attack on Nay Lucia and to all the farmers experiencing structural harassment and persecution. MASIPAG rally behind in full solidarity and support to Nay Lucia and others who have exemplified that in times of hardship, it is our duty to help,” it added.

Capaducio has been working to champion the rights of peasants and human rights in cases of indigenous people against the military and humanitarian initiatives during calamities

She is also a long time MASIPAG member.

“For decades, Nay Lucia has been sharing her wide array of skills in sustainable organic farming by training farmers across the country both in the technical and advocacy and lobbying aspect of sustainable organic agriculture,” MASIPAG said.

Panay Alliance Karapatan said Capaducio has participated and assisted in fact-finding missions, particularly on the attacks against the Tumandok people.

“The attack against Nay Lucia is an attack against our farmers who are suffering from the effect of the economic crisis this government has created and failed to resolve. It is the latest assault on local peasant communities that, for years, have been harassed for calling out the government for its negligence and incompetence in tackling the issues confronting their sector. Under a sham democracy, those who are on the “laylayan” have become victims several fold,” Panay Alliance Karapatan said.

In 2021, Capaducio was awarded the Gawad Ben Ramos Award for her efforts in championing pro-farmer and pro-people agriculture and food system.

Women’s group Gabriela denounced the recent raid of one of its shelter houses for abused women that led to the arrest of Lenilyn Jaynos, a community development worker, in Roxas City on Sept. 2.

Jaynos is a community organizer of the urban poor group Kaisog, a member organization of Kadamay in Panay. She was in the shelter house for post-operation medical check-ups.

The 45-year-old activist, along with Gabriela-Roxas City’s secretary general Marivie Bartolome Arguelles and another individual, was named in a search warrant used by the members of the police to raid their shelter house for women located at Happy Homes Subdivision, Barangay Sibaguan, Roxas City.

Only Jaynos was in the shelter at the time of the search.

The police purportedly found in her possession several arms and explosives, which Maura Abellon, chairperson of Kadamay-Panay also said it would be impossible for Jaynos to carry.

They also took with them as “evidence” a flag of Gabriela.

However, Clarice Palce, Gabriela’s secretary general, said these were all planted.

Gabriela-Panay chairperson Lucia Francisco said the raid of the shelter is reminiscent of previous searches and raids, where purported evidence are planted before authorities would come in to conduct the “search.”

In this case, she said that Jaynos saw a man carrying two back packs entered the shelter. The said man walked out of the shelter without the bags.

“More than 30 members of the operatives surrounded the shelter. They conducted the search, called the village officials and then after the search they claimed that they found two bags containing arms and explosives in the window at the back of the curtain,” Francisco said during the online briefing.

Not a terrorist

Women rights advocates said that contrary to the claims of the police, Jaynos is not a terrorist.

“She has been serving the poor for most of her entire life. She was a teacher for an urban poor daycare center in Iloilo City for years before later serving peasant communities in Capiz,” Panay Alliance Karapatan said in a statement.

When typhoon Yolanda hit the country, Jaynos is among the volunteers of Buylog Capiz that helped many farmers and fisherfolk recovered from the trauma and devastation of one of the strongest typhoons to ever make landfall in recent history.

She also worked with Gabriela, particularly in cases of victims of state negligence and abuse.

Gabriela, for its part, said the shelter where Jaynos was arrested is among the crisis centers they have established in many parts of the country to provide a safe space for women who are survivors of abuse.

“Centers like these are refuge for women incapable of protecting themselves against powerful perpetrators and who have nowhere to turn to, as government has meager and ineffective responses to the widespread problem of violence against women,” Gabriela said.

Rights violations

Progressives said the recent event is among the apparent heightened number of cases of harassment against women activists.

Last month, ailing women’s rights activist Atheliana Hijos was arrested in Butuan City. She has difficulties walking.

“It is abhorrent that in spite of billions of money being poured into government so-called intelligence funds, we find such failures of intelligence victimizing poor people such as Jaynos who has been deeply traumatized by the event,” the group said in a statement.

“Jaynos arrest and the accusations against them is an indication that under the Marcos-Duterte regime, human rights violations will remain rampant and that state forces have again mobilized their ranks to commit human rights violations,” Panay Alliance Karapatan said.

A 76-year old longtime women’s rights activist was arrested by elements of the Regional Intelligence Division in Butuan City on Tuesday, Aug. 30.

Atheliana “Atel” Hijos, is the secretary general of Gabriela-Caraga.

An alert released by Karapatan-Caraga chapter said that the police arrested Hijos over charges of murder, kidnapping and serious illegal detention. Warrants of arrest were issued by the Regional trial Court Branch 43, Cabadbaran City, Agusan del Norte dated June 10, 2020 and by RTC Branch 7, Bayugan City, Agusan del Sur dated February 12, 2020 with no bail bond.

Women’s group Gabriela said there is no other reason for her arrest other than her being their leader for decades.

“She is one of the pillars of the women’s movement in Mindanao,” the group said in a statement.

“She dedicated her life to helping and serving women who are victims of abuse. She also actively led in the 80’s the cases of women victims of sex trafficking. She became active in campaigns against giant mining companies, and ran for council in her hometown in Mindanao,” they added.

Hijos is also a former public school teacher and was the founding member of Women’s Alliance for True Change (WATCH)-Mindanao – a broad-based movement of women who resisted the Marcos dictatorship.

According to human rights groups Karapatan, Hijos has pulmonary tuberculosis and hypertension. She recently suffered from a mild stroke.

“She has been bedridden, and she has difficulties walking, at times using a wheelchair. How can an elderly and elderly woman, with such a frail build like Atel’s, possibly commit all the crimes alleged against her?” said Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan in a statement.

Palabay said the arrest of Hijos is based on fabricated testimonies of soldiers who accused her as a combatant and was involved in armed encounters.

Palabay said “this is a blatant lie considering Atel’s senior age and frail physical condition.”

“In one of the charges leveled against her, she has submitted sound and reasonable proof that she was attending election-related activities at the time of the alleged incident of armed encounter between soldiers and New People’s Army rebels. Like all those who were arrested, Hijos has been subjected to red-tagging, via numerous posters and fliers bearing her name and picture disseminated by the military in public places in Caraga,” Palabay said.

Karapatan has recorded, as of July this year, 92 political prisoners in the Caraga region, 22 of them are women.

They expressed their concern over the cases filed in court saying that “the region has become a warrant factory where trumped up charges against activists are cooked up to suppress their voices and stifle political dissent.”

The group noted activists who have cases and similar charges filed in the courts of Cagara such as Mindanao-based activists and development workers such as Dr. Naty Castro, human rights worker Renalyn Tejero and Teresita Naul, women’s rights activists Nerita de Castro, teacher Gary Campos, development workers Julieta Gomez and Niezel Velasco, peasant activists Virgilio Lincuna and Marcela Diaz, church worker Aldeem Yanez, indigenous rights activist Gloria Campos Tumalon, among others.

Karapatan also said that Luzon-based trade unionists Juan Alexander Reyes, Rowena Rosales, Maoj Maga, and Antonieta Dizon, and development workers Benito Quilloy and Rita Espinoza were likewise implicated in trumped up charges filed in courts in Caraga, despite the fact that these individuals have never been to Mindanao.

“The successive arrests of long-time women’s rights activists Atel Hijos and Adora Faye de Vera, both have fought the Marcos dictatorship, show the government’s contempt for brave Filipinas who struggle against political repression,” Palabay said.

The group demanded the immediate release of Hijos and De Vera and all political prisoners on humanitarian and just grounds.

“We enjoin all women human rights defenders in the Philippines and around the world in our collective call – Free Our Sisters! Free Ourselves!” Palabay said.

“Who is Adora Faye?”

This question started circulating in social media after her reported arrest on Wednesday, August 24 and after his brother, Commission on Higher Education (Ched) Chairperson Prospero De Vera III distanced himself from her sister.

Panay News reported on Thursday, August 25 that Adora Faye De Vera (reported as de Veyra) was arrested by authorities in Teachers Village East, Quezon City. Allegedly, De Vera has a warrant of arrest for multiple murder with the use of explosives and multiple frustrated murders issued on March 19, 2006.

De Vera was alleged as a high ranking officer of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

But amid this allegation of the authorities, former secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Judy Taguiwalo said De Vera is a martial law survivor.

“She is a martial law survivor whose story of rape and sexual abuse while in the hands of the military was one of the cases filed during the class suit against Marcos in Hawaii,” said Taguiwalo in a Facebook post.

She also described De Vera as a very talented poet “whose poems deal with women’s oppression, state violence against women and the power of collective action.” Along with her post is De Vera’s poem entitled 11:30, which Taguiwalo said, she used as reference in teaching women’s studies.

Taguiwalo was also a political prisoner during martial law of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.

Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay also posted De Vera’s poem for desaparecidos, including her husband who has been missing for many years.

“Hahanapin kita sa luntian bukirin, Sa ngiti ng sanggol, sa ihip ng hangin; Kung sa paglaya na ang iyong pagdating, At wala ka roon ay hahanapin pa rin.”

The horrors of her torture and sexual abuse from the hands of the soldiers written in Martial Law Files: A History of Resistance also resurfaced and circulated in social media.

De Vera is also among the 10 original plaintiffs who filed a class suit against Marcos Sr. in the US.

Alive but shocked.

This is how Kinja Cariño Tauli described her father, Stephen Tauli, a long-time development worker and indigenous people’s rights defender, who was found last night after he was believed to be abducted by state forces on Saturday night, August 20.

In an earlier statement, the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA) said Tauli, 63, was beaten up and kidnapped by five men in a store along Ag-a Road, Appas, Tabuk City in Kalinga province.

Tauli, regional council member of the Cordillera Peoples’ Alliance, has long been subjected to red-tagging, particularly by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict that even held a forum in the Kalinga State University last week.

“Active since the Chico Dam struggle, he has persistently campaigned against dams, mines, and other forms of development aggression against the Cordillera peoples. For his committed work, he was wrongly red-tagged and subjected to surveillance and harassment,” Kinja wrote in her Facebook post.

Tauli’s colleagues in the human rights movement have also called for his surfacing and demanded the government to stop harassing developmental workers in the province.

“Manong Steve’s only crime is his commitment to organizing and empowering the people to defend their ancestral lands against development aggression and militarization,” the Dap-ayan ti Kultura iti Kordilyera, an alliance of cultural organizations and individuals in Cordillera, said.

The Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA) said Tauli needs to recover to be able to state the full account since he was assaulted and kidnapped.

uman rights defender Fr. Angelito Andig Cortez, OFM, 37 years old, priest, and resident of Kapanata Community, Cleofas Street, Barangay Bagbag, Novaliches, Quezon City, received threats through phone calls from an unidentified person during two separate occasions.

Fr. Cortez spent nine months abroad as he was assigned to a mission to the General Curia in Rome, Italy. He returned to the Philippines in February 2022.

On May 24, 2022, Fr. Cortez received six missed calls from mobile number 09978339528 at 4:40 p.m., 6:19 p.m., and 6:41 p.m. (four times). At 7:15 p.m., he again received a call from the same number. Fr. Cortez picked up the call but just listened to the other person on the line. It was a male voice that said, “Alam namin, Father, nandito na kayo sa Pilipinas. Kailangan namin ng tulong ninyo.” (“We know, Father, that you are already here in the Philippines. We need your help.”) After ending the call, Fr. Cortez blocked the number from his phone.

On August 20, 2022, a few weeks after Fr. Cortez and another priest returned from Geneva, Switzerland as part of the international lobby mission during the 50th United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), he again received calls from an unidentified person. This time, the calls came from the mobile number 09557153712. There were missed calls at 10:23 p.m. (thrice), 10:35 p.m., 10:38 p.m. (twice), and 10:39 p.m. (twice). Fr. Cortez picked up the call at 10:39 p.m. and listened to the other person on the line. The male voice was the same as the one who called him on May 24. The man said, “Mga taga-Zamboanga kame, inutusan kaming ipapatay kayo! May apat na kaming kasama na nadeploy sa Manila, dalawang babae at dalawang lalake, pero nalaman po namin na pari kayo kaya pinahold muna namin, ayaw namin madamay mga inosenteng tao, lalo na ang pamilya niyo.” (“We are from Zamboanga, we were ordered to have you killed! We already have four companions deployed in Manila, two women and two men, but we learned that you are a priest so we put [the order] on hold, we do not want innocent people, especially your family, to be implicated.”) After ending the call, Fr. Cortez blocked the number from his phone.

On August 26, 2022, Fr. Cortez filed a police blotter of the incident at the Novaliches Police Station 4. His account was put on record and was advised to report at the Quezon City Police District Anti-Cybercrime Group.

According to Fr. Cortez, he started receiving threats and nasty comments on his Facebook posts in 2018. He has been part of the international advocacy mission for the UNHRC sessions for several times. During the missions, he talked about the human rights situation in the Philippines, as well as demanded for accountability through the International Criminal Court. He believed that the threats may have been a result of his international lobby work.

After he returned to the Philippines from Geneva on July 9, Fr. Cortez also had several meetings with diplomats to also talk about the human rights situation in the Philippines.

He said that it may also be related to his work as a religious of providing sanctuary to victims of human rights violations and/or their families.

Fr. Cortez did not pay much attention to the previous threats. He however felt the gravity of the latest threat because the caller already mentioned his family.

On August 10, 2022, the houses of Juvenile Estrada, 53, and Deana Estrada, 53, were allegedly demolished illegally by seven alleged goons hired by Hacienda Vicenta in Purok 1 and Sitio Kambagting, Barangay Cabacungan, La Castellana, Negros Occidental, Philippines. Juvenile and Deana are members of Hacienda Vicenta Farm Workers Association (HVFWA). HVFWA has an ongoing land dispute with Hacienda Vicenta. Apart from Juvenile and Deana, other members of HVFWA have received threats from the said goons.

According to Juvenile, he was sitting inside his house at around 9:00 A.M. when five men wearing face covers barged into his house and asked him if he was the owner of the said house. Juvenile politely asked what the problem was. One of the men then ordered Juvenile to get out of his house within five minutes or stay and be crushed while the men demolished the house. Juvenile said that he was confused and tried to stand up but was held back by one of the men. Juvenile was told that there was no need to ask the barangay officials and that they already settled the matter with the officials. Juvenile added that the men did not present any document to prove the legality of the demolition. Juvenile further added that he was intimidated by the men’s appearance and did not ask further questions.

According to Gaudiosa Estrada, Juvenile’s wife, upon hearing what the men said, she quickly ran outside to ask help from their barangay officials. Gaudiosa said that their officials refused to help them and allegedly said that they do not have jurisdiction over the matter for it was a privately owned lot. Gaudiosa added that by the time she returned to their house, it had already been demolished.

According to Juvenile, he begged to save their belongings but the men refused. Juvenile said that while five men were inside their house, another two were positioned outside. One end of the rope was tied to one of their house’s posts and the other end to a tractor. Juvenile said that within seconds after he went out their house, the driver drove the tractor forward and pulled their house in one go. Juvenile added that the men left after destroying their house and sarcastically ordered him to compute the monetary amount of the damage and it would be paid by the hacienda’s owner.

According to Rose Ann Estrada, Deana’s daughter, she was busy inside their house along with eight children when five men entered their house and ordered them to leave. The men allegedly said that within five minutes, they will demolish their house. Rose asked the reason for the demolition, but was instead threatened by one of the men. Rose was left with nothing to do and instructed the children to rush outside. Rose then rushed up to the second floor to wake up and get her 11-month-old child. Rose said that she went out as quickly as possible and felt dizzy. Rose added that she remembered handing over her child to one of her children and then she passed out. Rose further added that by the time she regained consciousness, the demolition was done.

According to Rose, one of the men tied one end of the rope to their house and the other end to a red canter truck owned by Hacienda Vicenta.

According to May Ann Montalvo, a witness and also a member of HVFWA, she and her brother were inside their house eating when they noticed a gray pick-up truck parked outside their house. Montalvo and her brother went out and saw the plate number of the truck suspiciously covered with leaves and a piece of plywood. Her brother then uncovered the plate number and went around the truck to take pictures of the plate number. Montalvo said that while her brother was taking pictures, she saw Jose Pameroyan, a worker from the hacienda, peeking from inside the truck. Montalvo added that Pameroyan was the alleged team leader of the demolition team.

According to Montalvo, after taking pictures of the truck, she then proceeded to check the status of the Estradas’ house. On her way to the demolition site, she came across the demolition team and overheard the men talking. Montalvo said that the men were saying that it would not be the last demolition and there will be a next time.

According to Juvenile, before the incident, he was summoned by the barangay captain to sit in a meeting with the hacienda’s secretary and sign an agreement between him and the hacienda. As to Juvenile’s understanding, he was offered to be paid by the hacienda if he voluntarily vacates their lot. Juvenile allegedly agreed on the terms. Juvenile added that after the demolition, he received no payment from the hacienda.

As of this writing, both Juvenile and Deana have not received any assistance, monetary or otherwise, from the hacienda. The barangay is also allegedly giving Juvenile and Deana a hard time in procuring the necessary documents required for case filing.

On July 26, 2022, unidentified men were allegedly seen roving around the residence of Ronald Deocadiz, 38 years old, human rights defender, land rights advocate and organizer, in Barangay Caduhaan, Cadiz City, Negros Occidental. Deocadiz is a community leader and organizer specialized in land rights and disputes in Negros Occidental. Deocadiz is also a paralegal volunteer who help farm workers in Barangay Purisima, Manapla push their land claims against Victorias Milling Company - Manapla Distillery (VMC) which led to multiple harassment incidents.

According to Deocadiz, on July 24, he received a tip from a friend telling him to be cautious in his movements for he is already in the Order of Battle (OB). Deocadiz said that his friend allegedly heard rumors circulating within the blue guards of VMC. Deaocadiz added that he was not surprised to hear the news for he was already expecting these kinds of aggression, but is still wary, given that one leader from Manapla was killed on July 13.

According to Deocadiz, later that day, his sister-in-law also told him the same information but from a different source. Deocadiz said that his sister-in-law was visited by a friend who allegedly told her that Deocadiz is in the OB and will be killed by persons riding-in-tandem. Deocadiz said that the tips from his friend and his sister-in-law coincidentally matched and had become very serious to be ignored.

According to Deocadiz, on Tuesday morning, July 26, he noticed suspicious-looking men lurking and roving around his residence. Deocadiz said that at first, he did not pay much attention to it and thought that maybe the men were just from another barangay visiting someone in his neighborhood. Deocadiz added that he was later convinced that the men were after him when the same men kept passing by their house for no apparent reason. Deocadiz then decided to move to a relatively safer place and inform his networks about his ordeal.

According to Deocadiz, although he is safe for now, he is not sure whether or not he would be safe in the coming days. Deocadiz said that the owner of his temporary safe house also received multiple death threats due to their line of work. Deocadiz is asking for a much safer place to hide for the meantime. Deocadiz said that he is currently in a dire situation and is badly in need of support from networks.

Background:

Deocadiz is one of the main organizers who assisted Felicidad Begonia Farm Workers Association (FBFWA), an organization of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARB), that has a land dispute with VMC-Manapla Distillery. FBFWA then launched a mass action protest on February 9, 2022, in the hopes that their calls and claims would be heard by concerned government agencies. The mass protest almost came to a halt when the Manapla Philippine National Police (PNP) carried out a violent dispersal on February 17 that resulted in the arrest of four members and injury of several members.

Throughout the ARBs’ struggle for land claims, various ways and tactics were allegedly employed by VMC to harass and intimidate the ARBs. This past few months, FBFWA members reported different incidents of harassment they allegedly experienced. These alleged harassment incidents vary from simple surveillance to death threats and trumped-up cases. On July 13,, Rodan Berito, FBFWA’s chairperson, was shot dead while riding his motorcycle in Victorias City.

A Lumad teacher was arrested by the Philippine National Police (PNP) on Sunday, July 17, according to human rights group Karapatan-Caraga.

Gary S. Campos, a Lumad-Manobo, was on his way to a review center to prepare for the upcoming licensure examination for teachers when he was arrested in Tandag City, Surigao del Sur, the group said in an alert.

Campos was able to call his friends from a police station in Butuan and told them that he was arrested. The group said the police reportedly presented a warrant of arrest but the charges are yet to be disclosed as of this writing.

Save Our Schools Network denounced Campos saying that this is “another attempt by state agents to repress Lumad youth who have been proactive in giving back to their communities.”

“Even after his administration has ended, Duterte’s terror persists and has been passed down to the current, including, among other things, extensive trumped up charges, unlawful detentions, and other human rights violations,” the group said in a statement.

Campos, is a graduate of Tribal Filipino Program of Surigao del Sur (TRIFPSS) and Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development (ALCADEV). He also finished his education degree at St. Theresa’s College-Tandag through the help of the Indigenous Peoples Apostolate scholarship program of the Diocese of Tandag.

Karapatan-Caraga said Campos volunteered as a teacher in TRIFPSS after his graduation to serve back to the community.

He currently volunteers as a teacher at a local school in Tandag City under the Department of Education.

Campos is also a member of Malahutayong Pakigbisog Alang sa Sumusunod (MAPASU), a Lumad organization at the forefront in defending the Andap Valley Complex against foreign, large-scale coal mining.

“We call on all student and Indigenous peoples’ rights advocates to stand with Gary and seek accountability from the terror being unleashed by the Duterte-Marcos regime,” the group said.

Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP) writes to inform you about a shooting incident in Osmeña Ave., Barangay 5, Victorias City, Negros Occidental on July 13, 2022 that claimed the life of Rodan Berito, 40 years old, president of Felicidad Begonia Farm Workers Association (FBFWA). FBWA has a long-standing land dispute with Victorias Milling Company-Manapla Distillery (VMC). FBFWA leaders, including Berito, received multiple death threats and suffered from various forms of harassment allegedly from VMC.

CASE DETAILS:

Rodan Berito, 40 years old, president of Felicidad Begonia Farm Workers Association (FBFWA), was killed in a vigilante-style summary execution in Osmeña Ave., Barangay 5, Victorias City, Negros Occidental on July 13, 2022. Berito previously received multiple death threats related to their land dispute against Victorias Milling Company-Manapla Distillery (VMC). Berito was a resident of Barangay Purisima, Manapla, Negros Occidental.

According to Ronald Deocadiz, a land rights advocate and FBFWA organizer, between 3:00 to 4:00 P.M., Berito was standing in the area to buy cigarette when an unidentified gunman approached and shot him at close range. The gunman allegedly fled onboard a motorcycle driven by an unidentified accomplice. Deocadiz said that Berito succumbed to a fatal bullet wound in the head. Deocadiz added that the police recovered a fired deformed slug and a fired cartridge case of a .45 caliber pistol.

According to Deocadiz, Berito was aware that his life was under serious threat. Deocadiz said that on June 24, Berito’s son was robbed while driving Berito’s car in Hacienda Leticia, Barangay Caduhaan, Cadiz City. Deocadiz also said that Berito was the supposed target but when the perpetrator found that it was his son who was driving Berito’s car, they had to improvise, hence the robbery.

According to Deocadiz, Berito was scheduled to attend a court hearing on July 14, just a day after he was killed. Deocadiz said that Berito was arrested in April 2021 when the police raided his house in Manapla for illegal firearms and ammunition and illegal drugs. Deocadiz added that Berito was released later that year after posting bail.

Background:

Berito was the FBFWA president at the time of his death. In 2013, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) gave five collective Certificate of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs) to 105 members of then Ha. Begonia Farm Workers Association. However, they were not formally installed because of an alleged intimidation incident carried out by alleged goons of VMC in 2017.

FBFWA, alongside the residents of Barangay Purisima and neighboring barangays, has a long-standing complaint against VMC for its illegal waste water disposal that resulted in multiple fish kills and emission of unbearable odor. The Environmental Management Bureau (EMB-6) released multiple Notice of Violations to VMC to which the company complied. However, residents continued to complain against VMC for alleged malpractices.

On February 9, 2022, FBFWA members launched a picket line enforcing a stoppage order issued by Barangay Purisima Council. The picket line blocked the road leading to VMC preventing delivery tankers from entering and exiting the distillery plant. On February 17, the picket line was violently dispersed by Manapla Police and resulted in the arrest and detention of four FBFWA members.

The Philippine Court of Appeals (CA) affirmed the cyber libel conviction of Rappler CEO and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa, and former Rappler researcher-writer Reynaldo Santos Jr., adding eight months to the prison sentence initially imposed by a lower court in Manila.

“The appeal is denied. The decision of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 46 finding accused Reynaldo Santos Jr. and Maria Ressa guilty beyond reasonable doubt of violation of Section 4(c)4 of Republic Act 10175 otherwise known as the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 is affirmed with modification insofar as accused are sentenced to suffer the indeterminate penalty of imprisonment ranging from six months and one day as minimum to six years and eight months and twenty days as maximum,” said the decision by the Court of Appeals Fourth Division.

The CA ruling was signed by Associate Justices Roberto Quiroz, Ramon Bato, and Germano Francisco Legaspi. It is a different set of justices than the ones who handled the appeal earlier on and who had previously granted Ressa’s travel authorities.

The CA justices also imposed a longer prison sentence than what the Manila court imposed in June 2020 which was six months and one day as minimum to six years as maximum. This set of CA justices added eight months and 20 days to the maximum imprisonment penalty. The fines totaling P400,000 for moral and exemplary damages were retained.

“Both [Ressa and Santos] will avail of all legal remedies available to them, including elevating the decision to the Supreme Court for review,” said Rappler in a statement Friday, July 8. Constitutionality of cyber libel

The Manila court’s ruling, which the CA affirmed, interpreted the young cyber libel law as having a 12-year prescription period as opposed to having only a one-year prescription period as stated in the revised penal code. The 12-year period, which means you can be sued even after 12 years of publication, was a gray area in the highly-contested law, but was interpreted by the justice department using a pre-war statute to be able to prosecute Ressa and Santos.

The Manila court also ruled that republication is a separate offense. Rappler’s story in question, an investigative story about the use of one of complainant Wilfredo Keng’s vehicles by the late chief justice Renato Corona, was published in 2012 but months before the cybercrime law was even enacted. But a correction of a typographical error made two years later was considered a separate offense by the court. It was regarded as a republication of the story and legal experts have questioned the constitutionality of the ruling on these grounds.

Rappler said: “While the decision is unfortunate, it is also a good opportunity for the Supreme Court to take a second look at the constitutionality of cyber libel and the continuing criminalization of libel, especially in light of the freedom of expression and freedom of the press.”

Ressa won the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2021. Santos has pursued a career outside of journalism since 2016, and had told Rappler after their trial court conviction in June 2020: “I’m scared to go to jail, I’m not as fearless as Maria.”

Because cyber libel is bailable, neither has to go to jail while they exhaust their remedies up to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court, in at least two separate decisions against broadcaster and now Senator Raffy Tulfo, has shown an inclination to decriminalize libel. In 2019, it affirmed the conviction against Tulfo but removed the prison sentence. In 2021, it acquitted Tulfo and said “the constitutionality of criminalizing libel is doubtful.” Cases against Rappler

Rappler received last week the decision by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revoking its license and ordering its closure. Rappler’s legal counsel Francis Lim, former president of the Philippine Stock Exchange, said the order is appealable to the courts and the news organization can go on business as usual.

The SEC order stems from the Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDR) issue which has spurred five tax charges against Ressa and several board members. Two separate but related cases for violation of the anti-dummy and securities law have been remanded to prosecutors. Three other libel cases have now been junked.

“We call on our media colleagues, our community, and other advocates of a free and independent press to be vocal and vigilant now more than ever. This is not just about Maria Ressa, Rey Santos Jr., or Rappler. What is ultimately at stake is our democracy whose strength rests on a media that is not threatened by the state nor intimidated by forces out to silence critical voices,” said Rappler.

On the last two days of President Rodrigo Duterte, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued an order affirming one more time its decision to revoke the certificates of incorporation of Rappler.

“The company registration and monitoring department is hereby directed to effect the revocation of the certificates of incorporation in the records and system of the Commission,” read part of the order dated June 28, and signed by SEC chairperson Emilio Aquino; and Commissioners Javey Paul Francisco, Kelvin Lester Lee, Karlo Bello, and McJill Bryant Fernandez.

What does this mean? “We have existing legal remedies all the way up to the highest court of the land. It is business as usual for us since, in our view, this is not immediately executory without court approval,” said Rappler in its statement on Wednesday, June 29.

In a statement on Wednesday, the SEC said: “In this light, the latest order issued by the Commission En Banc merely puts in effect its earlier decision and those of the Court of Appeals.”

This comes after the National Security Council (NSC) blocked news websites, including Bulatlat.com, using the feared anti-terror law. Reasons

In July 2018, the Court of Appeals (CA) issued a decision siding with the findings of the SEC that Rappler’s issuance of Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs) to foreign investor Omidyar constituted some amount of foreign control that was prohibited by the Constitution. The Constitution requires that media companies should have zero foreign control.

But in the same decision, the CA said that when Omidyar donated its PDRs to Rappler’s Filipino managers, “the negative foreign control found objectionable by the SEC appears to have been permanently removed.” The CA remanded the case to the SEC to reevaluate, with a nudge to the Corporation Code’s clause allowing companies to have a grace period to cure their alleged defects.

The SEC stood by its findings in February 2021. Rappler filed a motion for reconsideration before the SEC. This latest order is an action to that motion.

SEC said in this latest order: “Considering that the object of the Donation (the Omidyar PDRs) was void for being contrary to law, the Donation itself was void under Article 1409(1) of the Civil Code for being contrary to law and public policy.”

SEC said that when the CA remanded the case, the appellate court did not order to reinvestigate but only to reevaluate. Rappler asked the SEC to receive additional evidence.

“The Commission’s compliance with the said directive could not have violated the due process rights of Rappler and RHC because, by the very nature and essence of the directive, Rappler and RHC were not entitled to participate in the said legal evaluation,” said the SEC.

In February 2019, the CA affirmed its 2018 decision. By September 2019, the Supreme Court issued a resolution declaring the case closed and terminated. The CA registered its books of entry of judgment, declaring it had attained finality in March 2019.

“Public interest will be served if the revocation of the Certificate of Incorporation of Rappler and Rappler Holdings Corporation is sustained because it will implement the policy of respecting and fully complying with the provisions of the Constitution, to which every Filipino owes allegiance,” said the SEC in its order.

Rappler told its staff in an internal memo sent late night Tuesday: “Clarity, agility, sobriety. Review our drills and the tasks assigned to you.”

“Meantime, it is business as usual for us. We will adapt, adjust, survive and thrive.”

On June 21, Bulatlat obtained from a reliable source a copy of a government order for all internet service providers to block the website of Bulatlat and 26 others, including fellow alternative news outlet Pinoy Weekly and progressive organizations.

Bulatlat has condemned this move as prior restraint against protected speech, adding that this is based on hearsay of National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr.

“We raise the alarm that such arbitrary action sets a dangerous precedent for independent journalism in the Philippines,” the country’s longest-running online news said in a statement.

This report revisits what the public needs to know about the DNS blocking and what it means for press freedom in the Philippines.

1. How was DNS blocking on Bulatlat and 26 other websites discovered?

On June 17, 2022, Bulatlat received queries from its readers asking why its website was inaccessible. These were forwarded to its web host, Qurium Media Foundation, which confirmed that users of Smart Broadband as their internet service provider were faced with returning errors related to failing DNS resolution. In its initial investigation, Qurium found out that the last DNS request coming from Smart Broadband was recorded on the 16th June at 6:24 UTC. Simply put, the ISP deliberately blocked access to the website.

This prompted Bulatlat to write to PLDT/Smart, the National Telecommunications Commission, and the Department of Information and Communications over the apparent DNS blocking on June 20. A day after, on June 21, Bulatlat was able to get, through a reliable source, a copy of the NTC memorandum and the letter of National Security Adviser and retired general Hermogenes Esperon Jr. requesting the blocking of Bulatlat and 26 other websites of independent media and progressive organizations over allegations that they are “affiliated to and are supporting terrorists and terrorist organizations.”

2. What is DNS blocking?

A DNS (domain name server) block is a mechanism to prevent users from accessing suspicious websites. In this case, however, DNS blocking is being used for internet censorship, similar to what is implemented in Vietnam and Myanmar.

3. What did the NSC “request”?

In its letter, the National Security Council cited as basis for the DNS blocking three resolutions of the controversial Anti-Terrorism Council designating revolutionary organizations and alleged members of the Communist Party of the Philippines Central Committee as terrorists.

Esperon, in his capacity as National Security Adviser, “requested” for the blocking of the 27 websites (28 were listed because perhaps for emphasis, Bulatlat was listed twice), without laying the grounds nor presenting evidence.

4. What did NTC order?

Responding to the so-called request, the National Telecommunications Commission issued a June 8, 2022 “for strict and immediate compliance” order directing the immediate blocking of the reported websites. The NTC gave internet service providers no later than five days upon receipt of the order to carry out the blocking.

Bulatlat and the groups in the NSC list were never informed of the said blocking “request.”

5. Why is it questionable and unconstitutional?

There is no provision in the Anti-Terror Act nor in the Cybercrime Prevention Act which provides authority for the NTC to order the blocking of websites.

The NTC memo violates the right of Bulatlat and other groups to publish, and the people’s right to freedom of thought, free speech and free expression.

6. What does it mean for the Philippine independent news?

In a statement, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines has denounced the blocking, adding that while reporting may be critical of the government, “it is dangerous to equate this with affiliation or support that the government now claims.”

“Blocking access to these sites leave a gap in discourse and in flow of information and highlights and threats posed by the Anti-Terrorism Act on the freedom of expression and on freedom of the press,” the NUJP said.

Progressives denounced the arrest of 68-year old environmental defender Daisy Macapanpan who was arrested on June 11, Sunday.

Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan, called for the immediate release of Macapanpan who, she said, is “a victim of warrantless arrest and unjust detention based on false charges, which are seen as reprisals on her advocacy work for the environment and her community.”

Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment described Macapanpan’s arrest as overkill.

Macapanpan was arrested in her home in Pakil, Laguna reportedly by 24 policemen.

In an online press conference on June 12, Macapanpan’s relative, Ryan, Macapanpan just came from a meeting in a church in their town in Pakil when the police came to their residence.

According to Kalikasan, Macapanpan has been leading the opposition against the construction of Ahunan Pumped-Storage Hydropower Project on top of the mountain in Pakil, Laguna.

Leon Dulce, national coordinator of Kalikasan, said that there is nothing wrong with airing disapproval and explaining opinions on why the Ahunan Hydropower Project should be shelved.

“The purpose of such discussions that locals have is to raise awareness and discourse over the matter at hand. Is there something that the proponents are trying to hide that Daisy has probably discovered,” Dulce said.

The said project, according to Dulce, will be constructed in Mt. Inumpong of the Sierra Madre mountain range along Pakil, Laguna. He said that the biodiverse area also has water resources flowing from the Dakil river ecosystems, including the Sirena Falls.

He said that the Ahunan Power Inc., a joint venture of tycoon Enrique Razon’s Prime Metro Power Holdings Corp. and JBD Water Power Inc., is one of the proponents of the hydropower project that will affect 300 hectares of land.

The project will result in more flooding brought about by larger typhoons in floodplains along the shores of Laguna de Bay. The location of the said project is also prone to landslide, said Dulce.

Agham (Advocates of Scientist and Technology for the People) said the proposed project is envisioned to produce 1,400-MW electricity. The group said that the water from the Laguna Lake will be pumped into a reservoir on top of the Sierra Madre in Pakil which will be dropped thereafter to produce hydroelectric power.

They said that the residents fear that the hydropower dam will affect their source of drinking water as well as religious practices in the natural pools in Pakil.

“The construction of the Ahunan hydropower dam will also involve the destruction of trees in Sierra Madre, which will also affect wildlife. The destruction of forests will also increase the likelihood of landslides and heavy flooding,” the group said in a statement.

The group recognizes that the Ahunan hydropower dam is seen as a renewable energy source that could become an alternative to coal-fired power plants. “However, the development of such renewable energy sources should not be at the expense of the environment and people. Additionally, such renewable energy would still be under the control of a private corporation, thus cheap electricity prices are still not guaranteed,” the group added.

More arrests foreseen

Ryan denounced the ill-treatment of her aunt by the arresting officers.

“Some of the policemen who did not have name patches and were carrying firearms, forcibly entered the house of my aunt Daisy. She was alone then. I tried to run to her because I was afraid they might kill her and say that she fought back. The police won’t let me. They were able to get my aunt. Male police officers carried her through her arms and feet and forcibly took her to their mobile,” Ryan said.

He added that the police did not wear body cameras and did not present any warrant of arrest.

Karapatan said it was only when Macapanpan was at the Quezon Provincial Police Office in Camp General Nakar, Lucena City when she learned that she was charged with rebellion for an incident in Infanta, Quezon.

Karapatan added that the charges against Macapanpan and other activists in Southern Tagalog were filed in 2008.

“The rebellion case filed before the Regional Trial Court Branch 65 in Infanta, Quezon was the same case levelled against peasant organizer Dana Marcellana, daughter of peasant leader Orly Marcellana and slain human rights worker Eden Marcellana, who was arrested last year,” Palabay said in a statement.

“At this rate, this rebellion charge may be used repeatedly against activists in Southern Tagalog as the government continues its harassment against activists and government critics,” Palabay added.

Agham meanwhile expressed their alarm over the increasing number of rights violations against environmental and land rights defenders as the President Duterte’s term is about to end.

“Prior to Daisy’s arrest, at least 90 agrarian reform beneficiaries and peasant advocates were illegally arrested in Tarlac. With the worsening global climate crisis, it is imperative that the government afford protection on environmental defenders who serve as frontliners in protecting and conserving the environment,” the group said.

Palabay meanwhile said that they believe that the policy of repression and terror will continue under the new government following the mass arrests of farmers and supporters in Tarlac as well as the preparations for president-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s inauguration including restrictions on rallies and mass actions.

“Nevertheless, we will continue to call and work for Macapanpan’s release and that of all political prisoners who face trumped up charges and other forms of attacks,” Palabay said.

Groups condemned the violent arrest of 93 individuals, including agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs), in Hacienda Tinang, Concepcion, Tarlac on Thursday, June 9.

According to the report of the Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA), the ARBs together with peasant advocates were peacefully holding a bungkalan or collective farming when members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and regional mobile group patrol came to the area, some bearing long firearms.

Authorities forcibly took peasant leaders of agrarian reform beneficiaries group, Malayang Kilusang Samahan ng Magsasaka ng Tinang (Makisama-Tinang) namely Ophelia Cunanan, Alvin Dimarucot and three others members along with volunteers, supporters, peasant advocates who were members of Sama-Samang Artista para sa Kilusang Agraryo (SAKA, Artists’ Alliance for Genuine Agrarian Reform).

UMA said that those arrested are in police custody and reportedly charged with malicious mischief and obstruction of justice.

Cathy Estavillo, secretary-general of women peasant group Amihan said that the mass arrest and harassment faced by farmers and advocates at Hacienda Tinang showed “the uselessness of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP).”

“Deprived farmers are faced with violent reprisal when they assert their rightful claim to land. This exposes CARP as instrumental to landlords while the majority of our farmers remain landless, poor, and hungry,” Estavillo said, adding their call for the immediate release of the farmers and their supporters and holding the police accountable.

Non-installation of agrarian reform beneficiaries

Farmers who are beneficiaries of agrarian reform have made their calls clear when they trooped to the Department of Agrarian Reform office in Quezon City on Tuesday, June 7, demanding the installation of some 236 legitimate ARBs who are all holders of Certificate of Land Ownership Awards (CLOAs).

They also submitted a manifestation opposing the DAR’s proposal for what they described as a tedious revalidation process, which they said will only favor the family of Tarlac Rep. Noel Villanueva.

The group said Villanueva is claiming ownership of the disputed land.

They added that Villanueva is reportedly attempting to install some 468 members of a local farmers cooperative, half of which already sold their rights to the family of the Tarlac solon.

UMA said that the disputed land is a 200-hectare sugarcane landholding which is part of the more than 1,200-hectares of land formerly owned by Benigno Aquino Sr. and inherited by the Aquino siblings including Antonio Urquico Aquino who later sold the land to Dominican priests.

“In 1988, the said landholding was placed under voluntary land transfer (VLT) by the Dominican Priests of the Phils. Inc. under Cory Aquino’s Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (CARL). The farmer-tenants then applied to become beneficiaries. They were awarded their CLOAS in 1998,” the group

In an earlier statement, Abby Bucad of Makisama-Tinang said the farmers decided to collectively cultivate the land in 2016 due to decades of non-installation (of land reform beneficiaries).

The following year, they filed a petition for installation and in 2018 and 2019, DAR issued a writ of execution and ordered with finality the distribution and installation of the ARBs. However, Bucad said that the order did not take effect.

“President Duterte’s term and that of DAR Secretary Bernie Cruz are ending but the farmers still do not have their land. DAR and Sec. Cruz only have less than a month to proceed with the installation of farmers in their land, Bucad said in Filipino.

“DAR has been remiss of its duty and obligation to implement a comprehensive and genuine agrarian reform. More than three decades after CARP was enacted, nine out of ten farmers remain landless. ARBs on the other hand, still cannot pay the land amortization under CARP,” UMA said.

Members of the NPA?

Supporters were also accused of being members of the New People’s Army, said SAKA in a statement.

When they asked for the basis of their arrest, one police officer replied: “NPA kayo.”

SAKA is a peasant advocate group whose members are artists.

The group said that “the police cornered them in a hut, dismantled its doors, then forced themselves into it to drive the others out. It was the local police chief, at the time wearing civilian clothes, who ordered that everyone be rounded up and brought to the Concepcion police station.”

“Such land cultivation, called ‘bungkalan,’ is a form of protest in which peasants—usually ARBs—assert ownership of land by planting agricultural products that primarily address their immediate need for food. It is a method of guaranteeing a peasant community’s own food security,” the group said in a statement.

“In the case of MAKISAMA, they aimed to grow rice and vegetables on land granted to them by DAR as early as 1998, but whose collective CLOA was seized by a cooperative run by a local family of bureaucrats, including the incoming Mayor,” they added.

Meanwhile, Agham Advocates of Science and Technology for the People called for the immediate release and dropping of all charges against the 87 persons arrested by the police. They also called on DAR and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) to conduct an immediate and impartial investigation on such human rights violations against the ARBs and peasant advocates.

“We also challenge DAR to immediately resolve the chronic problem of landlessness among peasants in the country by fast-tracking the granting of lands. As we face another economic crisis brought by increasing fuel and food insecurity, we demand the government to provide more support to our farmers who provide food to our tables,” the group said.

Filipino environmentalist groups have assailed the new wave of surveillance, harassment, and red-tagging of their members in the past five days..

The Center for Environmental Concerns-Philippines (CEC) and Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) said men believed to be police officers in plainclothes knocked on their office on Thursday, June 9, and took photos of their staff.

The groups said their staff did not consent to being photographed and that no search warrant was also presented.

Earlier today, men believed to be police officers were once again seen taking photos of their office, the green groups added in their joint statement.

The wave of harassment and red-tagging happened following the mass arrests of 93 farmers and land reform advocates in Hacienda Tinang in Concepcion, Tarlac, and the recent arrest of an anti-dam activist in Pakil, Laguna.

Apart from the two environmentalist groups, they also noted the spate in red-tagging incidents on progressive partylists.

“We fear that this is the beginning of a crackdown against land and environmental defenders under the incoming authoritarian Marcos-Duterte regime,” the group said.

This is not the first time that Kalikasan and CEC were subjected to red-tagging. In 2018, there was an attempt to raid their office, they said, citing their then collaborations with the Commission on Human Rights and international groups such as the United Nations Human Rights System, Global Witness and the International Union for Conservation of Nature for their work on the issues and challenges being faced by environmental defenders.

They said, “We call on the CHR and the various UN human rights and environmental offices we have worked with in the past years to undertake preventive interventions against these human rights abuses and threats.”

Bulatlat condemned the National Telecommunications Commission’s (NTC) latest memorandum targeting alternative media sites and organizations, calling it a “dangerous precedent for independent journalism in the Philippines.”

In a statement released Wednesday, June 22, Bulatlat expressed its shock and rage against the NTC’s memorandum instructing all internet service providers to immediately block access to 28 websites, including Bulatlat.

“Bulatlat […] condemns this brazen violation of our right to publish, and of the public’s right to free press and free expression,” the media outfit said in its statement.

The NTC cites in its memorandum a June 6, 2022 letter from the National Security Council (NSC) listing down over two dozen websites “found to be affiliated to and are supporting terrorists and terrorist organizations.” However, the NSC failed to provide basis for the inclusion of several independent and alternative media outlets in their list.

The letter was written and signed by National Security Advisor Hermogenes Esperon Jr., who is also the Anti-Terrorism Council Vice Chairperson.

Following reports that Bulatlat could not be accessed by readers since June 17, 2022, the news site also wrote a letter on June 20, 2022 addressed to the NTC and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) urging them to investigate Esperon’s claims. Bulatlat has not yet received any reply as of writing.

Bulatlat deplored this most recent state-sponsored cyber attack in its statement and called it “prior restraint against protected speech.”

“It is downright unacceptable as it is based on Esperon’s mere hearsay,” Bulatlat said.

The alternative media organization is no stranger to red-tagging and cyber attacks. Exactly one year ago, June 22, 2021, Qurium released a forensic report linking a 2021 cyber attack on Bulatlat to the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the Philippine military.

Bulatlat called on the public to “stand against attempts to muzzle legitimate sources of information” as it continues its coverage.

“No matter who is in power, we have remained fearless in our truth-telling. We will continue our work while we also consider all legal remedies available to question, and stop yet another state-sponsored repression,” it said in its statement.

Meanwhile, the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines denounced what they call as arbitrary inclusion of Bulatlat, Pinoy Weekly and other news websites in the said list.

In a statement, the group said Bulatlat and Pinoy Weekly have existed for years and have built a track record of reporting on people’s issues.

“Sometimes, that reporting has been critical of the government and its policies, but it is dangerous to equate this with affiliation or support that the government now claims,” the group said.

“Blocking access to these sites leave a gap in discourse and in the flow of information and highlights the threats posed by the Anti-Terrorism Law on the freedom of expression and on freedom of the press,” the group said adding that what’s even more concerning is the danger that labeling puts the staff and correspondents of the listed websites in.

“We have repeatedly warned against the dangers of red-tagging and how the practice paints groups and people as legitimate targets for threats, harassment and physical attacks. This labeling, in the form of an official government document, magnifies that danger even more,” the group said.

Karapatan condemns in strongest possible terms the attempt of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to disperse the peaceful indignation protest today at the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) compound using violent force. According to health marshals, at least 10 individuals were reportedly injured after being hit with truncheons and shields while the protest was being bombed with water from a firetruck.

The right to peaceful assembly and protest is a basic right enshrined in our constitution; even our laws guarantee the exercise of this right, especially in a designated freedom park such the CHR’s Liwasang Diokno. Is the violent dispersal today a prelude of things to come under a Marcos-Duterte administration — where exercising our basic rights and freedoms are met with brazen State violence?

We will not take these violations sitting down, and in the face of the looming return of the forces of tyranny and fascism, all the more that we will protest and resist any and all attempts to unleash the horrors of Marcosian martial law and State repression. All the more that we should take to the streets and denounce a despotic tandem that has cheated their way to victory through lies, historical distortions, and mass deception.

We call on the CHR to investigate and condemn the PNP’s attempt to violently disperse a peaceful assembly right within their premises, and to hold the responsible PNP officials accountable for the incident. Above all, we call on all freedom-loving Filipinos to bravely stand to defend our hard-won rights and freedoms, and to reject the Marcos-Duterte tandem.

Various groups condemned the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict for the latest red-tagging of journalism professor Danilo Arao and election watchdog Kontra Daya.

The recent red-tagging spree was published by the Philippine News Agency (PNA), with Jeffrey “Ka Eric” Celiz as their lone source.

Celiz claims to have held several positions in the underground movement in the Philippines. Of late, he has been notoriously red-tagging progressive organizations as part of the NTF-ELCAC.

In their published articles, the PNA wrote that Kontra Daya and Arao are affliated the Communist Party of the Philippines. The report also alleged that Kontra Daya is a project used to manipulate public opinion on the elections.

In a statement, Kontra Daya denounced this, saying that Celiz’ claims are “grounded in falsehoods” which had long been refuted.

“Given his propensity for weaving a web of lies, it comes as no surprise that the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflicts finds him useful for red-tagging which is considered the highest form of ‘fake news’ as it can get a person arrested, tortured or even killed,” said Kontra Daya in their released statement.

IBON Foundation, who had worked with Arao for many years, claimed that the professor was one of their senior staff in 1999, during the time that a “former cadre” accused him of involvement with armed groups.

As an education and advocacy institution, IBON had also held countless trainings and seminars with Arao as one of the resource speakers but it was never as a front for any terrorist group.

“It is delusional and malicious to say that these simple capacity-building activities are organized by the Central Committee of the CPP through Arao as alleged,” said IBON.

Bulatlat, for its part, called out the PNA, and urged them to uphold journalism ethics and not to parrot disinformation that is being spread by the NTF-ELCAC.

“As a state-run news agency, PNA should observe the ethical standards of journalism, as government resources should be utilized for the public good,” said Bulatlat managing editor Ronalyn Olea in a statement.

She added that government resources, “should not be spent endangering the lives of the people, particularly those who are critical of the government.”

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A former cadre of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP-NPA-NDF) on Wednesday said he has “direct personal knowledge” about Kontra Daya convenor Danilo Arao’s link with the communist terrorist group (CTG).

“Proof of my claims that Danilo Arao and the leaders and core operatives of Kontra Daya are CPP-NPA-NDF urban operators? And that CPP-NPA-NDF created Kontra Daya? I have direct personal knowledge about Danilo Arao's involvement with the CPP-NPA-NDF as among the local communist terrorists' urban operatives,” said Jeffrey 'Ka Eric' Celiz in a statement.

Celiz, the current secretary-general of a national organization of former rebels dubbed Sentrong Alyansa Ng Mga Mamamayan Para Sa Bayan (Sambayanan), said he personally met Arao with other CPP-NPA-NDF urban operatives in a resort in Laguna during a five-day training and seminar-workshop on urban mass movement campaigns and propaganda operations, including the conduct of media operations in urban mass movement activities, in April 1999.

He said the seminar-workshop was actually a joint activity called upon by the CPP Central Committee staff organs known as CPP National Organizations Department (NOD) and National United Front Commission (NUFC) where Arao was among those who helped facilitate the event.

Similar activities, Celiz said, were also held in March 2001 in preparation for the May 2001 elections in which Arao also participated.

Celiz said it might have been better if he was invited by the ANC when it interviewed Arao on its program on Tuesday.

He said the revolutionary tactic of the CPP-NPA-NDF of using front organizations and activities as cover were “masterfully exhibited and displayed by Danilo Arao in his interview with ANC”.

“How I wish that ANC could have also made due diligence in reaching out to me so that I can confront Danilo Arao, right before a public discussion and be able to tell ANC and the people, how the CPP-NPA-NDF and Danilo Arao operated in order to establish their cover and front electoral project known as Kontra Daya so that their pretensions and hypocrisy could have been exposed more distinctly in a public discourse,” Celiz said.

During the interview, Arao criticized and insulted the government's official media and information group, including the Philippine News Agency, and the media network SMNI and Remate.

Arao challenged Celiz to prove his accusations.

On Monday, the PNA published an article entitled “Watchdog ‘Kontra Daya’ brainchild of CPP-NPA-NDF: ex-cadre” based on a statement issued by Celiz linking Kontra Daya with the CTG.

Celiz, the top nominee of Abante Sambayanan party-list, said their group has been one of the victims of prejudiced and partisan public opinion manipulation, which he called a “mind frame game and conditioning modus operandi.”

Arao accused Celiz and the PNA of red tagging him and the Kontra Daya.

“Truth hurts for the CPP-NPA-NDF and their operatives and functionaries such as Danilo Arao when they are exposed to the people,” Celiz said.

Celiz said there is no such thing as red-tagging, adding that this word is an “invention of the CPP-NPA-NDF” as a defense and an escape switch to deceive the people.

“Conveniently, Arao and his group Kontra Daya used the CPP-NPA-NDF masquerade of 'red tagging' claim as his defense, while doing references to their so-called dangers of 'red tagging' against their personal safety,” he said.

He said Arao's pathetic use of “red tagging” claim as his defense also “blew him away when he parroted the CPP-NPA-NDF personalities.”

Celiz added that truth shall liberate the people from the clutches of communist terrorism that has destroyed the country and the people, most especially the youth, “and Danilo Arao and his Kontra Daya group are part of the conspirators and enablers of the CPP-NPA-NDF”.

“And the proof of it is my direct personal knowledge of the matters that I expose, and I am standing by the truth of what I declare,” Celiz said.

The CPP-NPA is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.

The NDF has been formally designated as a terrorist organization by the Anti-Terrorism Council on June 23, 2021, citing it as “an integral and inseparable part” of the CPP-NPA created in April 1973. (PNA)

Alipio “Ador” Juat is no stranger to political repression.

A longtime unionist and community organizer for the labor center Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), Juat was one of the scores of activists who survived arrest and torture during the martial law regime of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s late father.

Since that period, labor and peasant organizers and political activists were considered destabilizers, KMU secretary general Jerome Adonis told reporters on Wednesday.

“But it is not a crime nor will it ever be a crime to organize communities,” Adonis said.

On May 3 — just days before the presidential elections that was won by the dictator’s son and namesake — history repeated itself for Juat. He and fellow community organizer Elizabeth Magbanua were abducted by armed men who said they were from the Philippine Navy, according to Adonis.

He said the martial law survivor “has now been victimized twice over by a Marcos.”

Juat and Magbanua and two peasant organizers, Elgene Mungcal and Elena Cortez, had gone missing in a string of disappearances in Central Luzon.

Their families have called on the Marcos administration to help find their loved ones and stop the wanton arrests and enforced disappearances of dissidents. Asking AFP

On Wednesday, they filed a formal complaint before the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and asked the state rights watchdog to help them investigate the cases.

The CHR said it would send a representative to Camp Aguinaldo, the Armed Forces headquarters in Quezon City, as soon as possible.

Juat supposedly was able to send word to his family that he was taken there by the men who had seized him.

The families of the missing are demanding that the authorities allow them to return home “without condition and immediately.”

They also want the new administration to junk Executive Order No. 70, which created the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-Elcac) that was created by Marcos’ predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte. Last call to family

The anti-communist task force has become notorious for Red-tagging critics of the government, many of whom were later persecuted, prosecuted or killed.

Representatives of the women’s group, Gabriela, and KMU accompanied the relatives of Juat and the three others to the CHR.

Magbanua, a longtime member of KMU, has been missing since May 3. Gabriela members Mungcal and Cortez disappeared on July 3.

Juat was able to make a call to his family recently, telling them he was being held in Camp Aguinaldo

Adonis believes that no one else “would have an interest in our four colleagues except the government and the military who wish to silence those who fight for true justice.”

Apparently, Magbanua and Juat were together in Valenzuela City on May 3 to attend a meeting related to their community organizing work, according to Ruth Maglalan, Magbanua’s partner.

In his brief phone call, Juat told his family that the police were waiting for him and Magbanua at the gate of the subdivision where they were to hold their meeting. After they were seized, they were whisked away in separate vehicles.

Juat demanded to know where Magbanua was taken but the men just told him not to fret about his colleague, his relatives said.

Juat said he was brought to Camp Aguinaldo without being told what charges he was being detained for. He has not been heard from since making that call. ‘No right to take her’

Maglalan tearfully told reporters that Magbanua had been a community organizer for the past three decades and “has done nothing but help people realize their rights.”

“There is no just reason for them to take her away from us, from me, from everyone who loves her,” she said. “They have no right to take her away from the masses that she has served her entire life.”

She challenged President Marcos to “prove that he is not like his father” in the way that the ousted dictator let human rights abuses “run rampant” under his martial law regime, and to show that he was different, he should order the military to surface Magbanua and all other victims of enforced disappearances.

Cortez’s daughter, Azaze Galang, was distraught over the disappearance of her mother years after her father, also a peasant organizer, went missing.

She asked the military “to open the camps and let us look for our loved ones freely.” Worst fears

The last time she saw her mother was when she was heading to a meeting with Mungcal in Moncada town, Tarlac province. A closed circuit television footage at Moncada’s Winfare Supermarket was the last image of her mother that she saw on July 3.

Cortez has not returned home since then.

There were no members of Mungcal’s family that met with the reporters and the CHR staff on Wednesday.

Galang fears that both her parents are victims of enforced disappearances, never to be heard from again.

Karapatan condemns in the strongest terms the shooting incident against indigenous Manobo-Pulangiyon leaders and community members in Quezon, Bukidnon earlier today during their consultation meeting with presidential aspirant Leody de Guzman and senatorial candidates Roy Cabonegro and David D’ Angelo. The incident was livestreamed on Facebook and several were reportedly injured, including a local peasant organizer and a Manobo-Pulangiyon leader.

This act of violence is not merely a flagrant violation of election gun bans: it is a shameless attack which clearly aims to intimidate the indigenous Manobo-Pulangiyon community from asserting their rights to ancestral domains against land-grabbing. That this attack was committed in broad daylight speaks of the brazenness and impunity enjoyed by its perpetrators as well as of other cases of land-grabbing against indigenous communities in Mindanao. It also threatens the safety and integrity of our elections.

We call on the Commission on Elections to immediately investigate this incident. The perpetrators of this incident should be held accountable. We also call on all candidates in the upcoming elections and all freedom-loving Filipinos to condemn this attack and to stand in solidarity with our indigenous brethren in their struggle for their rights to their ancestral domains and self-determination, and in asserting the call for free, safe, and fair elections.

The family of a church worker who was arrested in Cagayan De Oro denied the claims of authorities that there were firearms and ammunition found in his home.

Aldeem Yañez, a member of Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI), was arrested when combined members of the Philippine military and the Philippine National Police raided his home early morning of Sunday, April 10.

The Promotion of Church People’s Response described Yañez’s arrest as an “established pattern where authorities have planted firearms and ammunition during the operations.”

In a video uploaded in social media, Yañez’s mother, Kathleen, said that her son is known as a good man in their village and in the IFI national office, dedicating his life to serve the marginalized.

She thanked all those who are supporting their Yañez and their fight for justice and the truth.

On Monday, April 11, church groups held an online indignation rally to condemn Yañez’s arrest.

Last June 4, 2018, Yañez was among 13 activists and church workers who were arrested during a program consultation of the IFI’s Visayas-Mindanao Regional Office for Development regarding issues of farmers and the lumad communities in General Santos City, South Cotabato.

IFI priest Fr. June Mark said that the allegations against his brother is impossible because he has been taking care of their sick father at their home for the past months. “Who in their right mind will bring firearms and ammunition in this kind of situation? He also does not have a record of being a gun smuggler or drug dealer for him to bring firearms and ammunition where our parents live,” June Mark said.

“He is not a priest like me, or bishop like my other brother but he is eager to serve the people. Guitar is his most favorite instrument of proclaiming the good news as well as what we can call a weapon of resistance as an activist, not guns and ammunition as claimed by the state agents,” he said.

In a statement, IFI Supreme Bishop Rhee Timbang decried what he described as a “grave abuse of police and the military power and the cooptation of the civil courts.”

“We root this in the tyrannical rule of the present dispensation which has no regard and respect for the law, human rights, social justice and human dignity,” Timbang said in a statement.

Yañez is currently detained at Camp Evangelista, Patag, Cagayan de Oro City with charges of illegal possession of firearms.

Timbang said Yañez is in good standing as a member of the IFI. “He is active and committed in his participation to the life and work of the Church as being a consistent church youth leader in the parish, diocesan, regional [Mindanao], and national level,” Timbang said adding that Yañez also served as the national youth president of the church.

Yañez also served as a volunteer staff of Visayas-Mindanao Regional Office for Development (VIMROD), a development program of the IFI, and of Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform (PEPP).

“He is a musician and songwriter of many church songs used popularly within and outside the IFI,” Timbang said.

Frontliners led by the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) filed charges against the anti-insurgency task force’s spokesperson Lorraine Badoy before the Office of the Ombudsman on Thursday, April 7, World Health Day.

The group, together with union leaders from different government hospitals, filed their complaint on the same day when Badoy tagged the AHW along with other progressive groups as a “creation of the CPP-NPA-NDF” to infiltrate the government.

Speaking to members of the press, Antonio La Viña, who serves as counsel for the health workers, said they are filing the complaint against Badoy to make her stop her red-tagging activities.

“As we can see, all those who are doing good things are being red-tagged, even Vice President Leni Robredo and her supporters,” La Viña said in Filipino, adding that red-tagging should be stopped.

“USec. Badoy insulted and demeaned our dignity as leaders and damaged the good reputation of our organization,” said Robert Mendoza, AHW national president, adding, “As we fight the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been at the forefront in consistently and wholeheartedly serving the Filipino people as we also fight for our safety, protection and welfare.”

After red-tagging AHW, Mendoza said that last April 12, 2021 Badoy accused him and Benjamin Santos Jr., AHW’s secretary general as operatives and cadres of the CPP-NPA-NDF.

In a position paper, Filipino Nurses United said that some of their colleagues experienced threat, harassment and vilification from state forces.

“There have been instances when hospital workers engaged in union activities were stalked in their workplaces and/or red-tagged and caricatured in social media to denigrate their persons and even portray them as enemies of the state,” the group said.

In a statement, Santos asserted that vilifying their organization is putting their lives in imminent danger, citing cases of leaders of legal organizations who, after being red-tagged, were arrested due to trumped-up charges or are even killed.

In December 2020, Dr. Mary Rose Sancelan and her husband were killed in Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental. This after her name was included in a hitl ist tagging her as JB Regalado, spokesperson of the New People’s Army in Central Negros. However, Sancelan was working as city health officer and head of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) in the province.

Community health workers and human rights defender Zara Alvarez was also killed in Bacolod City. She was also relentlessly red-tagged by the state forces.

Recently, Dr. Natividad Castro who was also red-tagged and arrested, but fortunately was released from prison after the court dismissed the charges against her.

Another health worker, 72-year old Vilma Yecyec, remains in prison after authorities arrested her last February of this year. She is accused of being a member of the NPA.

FNU said that red-tagging by the State is a “blatant violation of one’s right to speak up about issues and concerns affecting our role as health care providers.”

“When we raise our grievances about work life conditions, for instance, and assert our rights to fair wages and humane work conditions, we are justly exercising our fundamental rights to free speech as an organization. But an extreme response by some state forces is to stifle the exercise of legitimate rights, sow fear by red-tagging, hurl trumped-up charges to exact arrest and worse, as has happened, even physically eliminate the targets,” the group said.

Meanwhile, the AHW assert the legality of their organization which, for the past four decades, has championed the rights not only of health workers but also of the people’s right to health.

The group is also behind the legislation of significant laws such as Republic Act 7305 or the Magna Carta of Public Health Workers that ensures the benefits and well-being of government health workers. It also significantly contributed to the proclamation of May 7 as “National Health Workers Day” under Republic Act 10069.

“AHW also played a major role in fighting for salary increase and just benefits of both public and private health workers and made various concerted efforts to seek and improve the living and working conditions of public and private health workers,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza said the AHW was also established in accordance with Executive Order No. 180, s.1987, otherwise known as the Public Sector Unionism. It is also registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and its member organizations are registered and accredited by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

“For the longest time, the so-called ‘modern-day heroes’ have been fully committed to render service to our country, even risking their lives in battling the deadly virus. Yet, they remain overworked and underpaid while the promised COVID-19 benefits were not equally and fully provided to them,” said Mendoza.

“Instead of addressing and supporting our just call for safety, protection, rights and welfare, Usec. Badoy managed to red-tag us. This is grave misconduct and conduct unbecoming of a government official and as a medical doctor. She has no sympathy with us as her colleagues in the health profession,” Mendoza added.

Santos said filing a case against red-taggers is one way of protecting their loved ones and their organization.

“Thus, we earnestly urge the Office of the Ombudsman to issue an immediate preventive suspension and ultimately dismiss USec. Badoy from the service, cancel her civil service eligibility and permanently disqualify her to enter any government service,” Santos said.

Prior to this filing by AHW, several groups and individuals have already filed complaints against Badoy at the Office of the Ombudsman after her relentless red-tagging of Robredo, her supporters and groups who are supporting her candidacy.

Groups maintained that Badoy, as a government official, should not be using government resources in attacking the opposition.

On April 5, Kadamay-Negros education officer Iver Larit is reported missing after he left his residence in Bacolod City. According to Karapatan, Larit left his house around 9:00 a.m. that day but he reportedly did not arrive at an appointment with an urban poor community which he was helping to organize against threats of demolition. By 10:00 a.m. Larit’s son could no longer reach him through his mobile number.

Larit is a former political prisoner and has been a target of harassment and other attacks throughout the years, Karapatan said. In 2011, he was detained for eight months over a trumped-up robbery-in-band charge. He was eventually released after the court dismissed the charges against him due to lack of substantial evidence.

Karapatan said Larit’s name was also included in a ‘kill, kill, kill’ list of activists in Negros which was sent to the Karapatan national office’s public information desk through a text message just mere hours after the Bloody Sunday raids throughout the Southern Tagalog region last year.

A Lumad council leader was arrested by state forces last March 18, Friday.

In a statement, the Save Our Schools Network said that Lumad leader Edwin Oribawan Sr. was arrested by combined forces of the Philippine National Police and the 72nd Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army at 4:00 a.m. in sitio Aguila, Kabalantian, Arakan, North Cotabato.

The group said authorities forcibly entered the residence of Oribawan, threatening his daughter and two other children.

“They held them at gunpoint while asking about their father’s whereabouts. At 5:00 a.m., elements of the 72nd IBPA illegally arrested and handcuffed Oribawan. The elements of the PNP and 72nd IBPA planted bullets in order to prove their allegations,” the SOS Network said.

Oribawan was then brought to the Arakan Police Station and was reportedly charged with attempted murder, rebellion, and use of illegal drugs.

SOS said Oribawan was also instrumental in the establishment of the Mindanao Interfaith School Foundation, Inc. (MISFI) in Arakan, North Cotabato and was part of its Parents Teachers and Community Association (PTCA).

This was also not the first time that Oribawan was falsely accused by the authorities. In 2017, the SOS Network said he was falsely implicated in an ambush in sitio Gambodes.

The group condemned the illegal arrest of Oribawan.

“We also urge everyone to stand with us in condemning the intensified attacks on Lumad schools and communities,” the group said.

A peasant youth organizer was arrested by soldiers in Quezon province, March 18.

Carlo Reduta, a member of the peasant organization Coco Levy Funds Ibalik sa Amin (CLAIM Quezon), was arrested by elements of the Philippine Army’s 85th Infantry Battalion at barangay Cawayan, Gumaca, Quezon province while engaged in field work with the local farmers in the area. He was charged with violations of Section 4 of the Anti-Terror Act, murder and frustrated murder and is currently detained at the Gumaca Munipical Police Station, according to Karapatan-Southern Tagalog.

Section 4 of the Anti-Terror Act defines acts of terrorism, which implicitly includes “advocacy, protest, [and] dissent” which are intended to “cause death or serious physical harm to a person, … endanger a person’s life, or … create a serious risk to public safety.”

Reduta comes from a family of coconut farmers and peasant organizers. According to human rights watchdog Karapatan Southern Tagalog, the Redutas have “a long history of being victims of state terrorism, surveillance, and harassment from the military.”

Reduta’s father Maximo is a longtime political prisoner who died due to illnesses last 2021. Maximo passed away at the Gumaca District Jail without seeing freedom. He was the third political prisoner from the Southern Tagalog region to die while imprisoned under President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration.

Carlo also has a brother who faced similar charges. According to Karapatan ST, those charges were eventually dismissed.

Under CLAIM Quezon, the Reduta family pushed for the rights of coconut farmers in the province, including the return of the coco levy funds stolen by the Marcos dictatorship and its cronies during Martial Law. As of 2021, these funds now amount to some P75 billion.

The coconut industry remains an important part of agricultural life in Quezon and a major source of export income for the Philippines – in 2017, total exports from the industry amounted to over 70 percent of coconut production and were worth over 1.5 trillion USD.

Despite this, however, attacks against coconut farmers and CLAIM members in particular have intensified under the Duterte administration. Last March 6, CLAIM member Felizardo Repaso and his wife received threats and repeated harassment from military units, including surveillance and visits to their home in Atimonan.

Last August 30, 2021, at least 50 CLAIM members were forced to ‘surrender’ as members of the New People’s Army in a ceremony headed by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), an inter-agency task force and the centerpiece of the Duterte administration’s “whole-of-nation approach” in attempting to solve the over five decades’ long revolutionary war waged by the Communist Party of the Philippines.

In November 2020, CLAIM General Luna chapter President Armando Buisan was shot dead by two unidentified gunmen in a hit and run operation. The Philippine Army’s 201st Infantry Battalion claimed that Buisan was an “NPA supporter” and a member of the NPA’s “milisyang bayan” (people’s militia).

Given the Reduta family’s history of encounters with the police and military, Karapatan ST said that they are “deeply worried about Carlo’s condition, especially the threat of mental torture, harassment, and repeated jail transfers in an attempt to ensure that the family doesn’t see him while he is under police custody.”

Both Karapatan ST and the Reduta family maintain that the charges against Carlo are “trumped up.” Karapatan ST is calling for Reduta’s immediate release and the junking of the Anti-Terror Law.

The Commission on Human Rights condemned the ambush of Infanta, Quezon mayor Filipina Grace America on Wednesday as it vowed to launch its own probe into the attempted killing.

To recall, local police reported that the mayor was on her way home from church when her vehicle was repeatedly shot by unidentified gunmen in Poblacion Uno, Infanta, Quezon on Sunday, February 27.

In a statement, the CHR said that it launched its investigation "in hopes that our independent investigation may help in holding perpetrators to account."

"It is deeply alarming that violations of human rights are becoming more brazen—committed in broad daylight and without regard for human life," lawyer Jacqueline de Guia, CHR spokesperson said.

"Under a democratic society, any dispute—may it be politically-motivated or otherwise—should never be settled through the barrel of a gun."

America is running for re-election in Infanta.

She and her office also voiced strong opposition to the construction of Kaliwa Dam, which advocates say will submerge parts of Quezon and Rizal provinces, threaten wildlife and biodiversity, and displace indigenous communities in the area.

She is still recovering after sustaining gunshot wounds in different parts of her body, the Philippine National Police.

The military said that five alleged New People’s Army (NPA) rebels were killed after a series of encounters with soldiers in Davao de Oro on Thursday morning, February 24. Two of those slain, however, were known teachers of Lumad schools.

Captain Mark Anthony Tito, information officer of the Army’s 10th Infantry Division, identified one of those killed as activist and volunteer community school teacher Chad Booc, who gained prominence after he and several others were accused of training Lumad “child warriors” at the University of San Carlos Talamban campus in Cebu City in early 2021. The university denied that the children received military training in its campus.

Tito said the other one who died was Jojarain Alce Nguho III, a volunteer teacher at the Community Technical College of Southern Mindanao in Barangay Lapu-lapu, Maco, Davao de Oro.

The military referred to the two as among the alleged NPA members killed in a series of encounters with soldiers in Purok 8, Barangay Andap, New Bataan town in Davao de Oro on Thursday.

Tito said the soldiers did not immediately know that Booc was one of the casualities. “The soldiers did not know it was Booc until he was positively identified by one former rebel,” he added.

Tito said civilian residents had alerted soldiers of the 1001st Infantry Brigade to the presence of rebels foraging for food in a hinterland village.

“The firefight started at around 4 am and lasted throughout the morning. There were three encounters in the forested section of the village,” Tito said.

Tito said that based on the documents found at the scene, the estimated 20 rebels apparently belonged to the NPA-Southern Mindanao Regional Committee and its regional operational command. He said they fled after the firefights and left behind the slain victims.

Also found in the area were an M653 rifle, a caliber .45 pistol, a grenade, and an anti-personnel landmine, according to Tito.

Booc graduated cum laude from the University of the Philippines-Diliman with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. After he graduated, Booc volunteered as a Mathematics teacher at the Alternative Learning Center Agricultural Development (ALCADEV), a school for lumad children in Lianga, Surigao del Sur.

The military has repeatedly tagged ALCADEV and other lumad schools as NPA fronts, and the government has since closed down the schools in Mindanao.

Police in February 2021 charged Booc and several others for allegedly trafficking children in Cebu City. The court dismissed the charges and Booc was released from jail. ‘Bloody massacre’ of civilians

Save Our Schools Network (SOS) condemned the incident as a “bloody massacre” of civilians.

SOS said in a statement on Friday that according to residents of Barangay Andap in New Bataan, there was “no encounter between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the New People’s Army” in the area.

The family, lawyers and colleagues of development worker Dr. Ma. Natividad Marian Castro called on the authorities to surface her.

Castro, or Doc Naty, was arrested on Feb. 18 in her house in San Juan City allegedly based on an arrest warrant on trumped-up charges of kidnapping and serious illegal detention in Caraga.

According to lawyer Theodor Te, Castro’s whereabouts are still unknown. She was reportedly last seen by her relatives at Camp Crame. Upon inquiry, Te said police officers told the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) that Castro is no longer at Camp Crame as “she was supposedly brought to the airport to be delivered to the court in Butuan City.”

Her lawyers waited at the airport yesterday afternoon but they did not see Castro nor the arresting team. As of press time, Castro is yet to be found.

Former Commission on Elections Luie Tito Guia who was with Castro’s family yesterday said they were given a runaround. In a Facebook post, Guia said he was only allowed to talk to his client for a few minutes while at the Quirino Memorial Medical Center. When Castro was taken out of a building, Guia said he asked for the names of the arresting team but he was ignored and the police vehicle sped away.

Before her arrest, Castro was red-tagged along with 32 other progressive leaders in November 2020. Their photos and names appeared on tarpaulins in Lianga, Surigao del Sur and Butuan City, Agusan del Norte. On March 21, 2021, one of those who were red-tagged, Lumad human rights worker Renalyn Tejero, was arrested in Cagayan de Oro City.

Karapatan said the arrest of Castro is another form of attack against human rights defenders.

“This despicable policy and practice of the Duterte regime of filing trumped up charges against rights defenders in an attempt to silence them should stop,” the group said.

Karapatan Secretary Deneral Cristina Palabay lamented that those who are guilty of seven counts of graft are still at large while a doctor who is helping the poor is being accused of being a criminal.

The group said Castro could have made a prominent career in medicine in the urban areas or even abroad after her graduation, but she chose to work in the rural areas of Mindanao.

Castro, is, in fact, a cum laude in BS Zoology in University of the Philippines-Diliman in 1990. In 1995, she graduated with a degree in Medicine at the UP College of Medicine. She was also a Scholastican High School Valedictorian in 1986.

In 2006, Castro’s alma mater, St. Scholastica’s College-Manila honored her with the Centennial Award as one of the 100 Outstanding Graduates in the last century.

“There is a huge lack of doctors in the rural areas where one out of 10 Filipinos die without even being able to have a health consultation. There are only a few doctors who choose to work for the poor. Why arrest her?” the Health Alliance for Human Rights said.

Philippine authorities must drop their legal threats against the independent news outlet Rappler and allow the press to work without fear of legal harassment, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.

On Saturday, February 5, Lorraine Marie T. Badoy, a spokesperson for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, a body tasked with responding to and raising awareness about communist activities in the country, published a statement on her official Facebook page saying that the task force “is taking legal action” against Rappler, according to news reports.

The statement accused Rappler of spreading “disinformation” in a January 31 article fact-checking statements by Badoy. She also said the task force would act against Facebook for allowing Rappler and Vera Files, the two local news outlets approved by Facebook to serve as fact-checkers, to “abuse the immense powers of [that] designation” and harm national security.

Gemma Mendoza, head of digital strategy at Rappler, told CPJ in a phone interview that the outlet had not received any official legal complaint, and that it was not clear under which law it could be charged.

“Philippine authorities must drop their frivolous legal threat against Rappler and stop harassing the independent news group and its employees,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “Even in its waning days, the Duterte administration will stop at nothing to silence one of the Philippines’ most credible independent news outlets.”

The January 31 Rappler article labeled as “false” statements by Badoy claiming that members of the Makabayan Bloc minority political coalition included operatives affiliated with “communist guerillas.”

Previously, in March 2021, the task force accused Rappler of being a “friend and ally” of communist rebels over a separate fact-check, according to news reports.

The government practice of claiming journalists and activists are associated with banned communist or leftist groups is known as “red-tagging” in the Philippines, and has resulted in the wrongful criminal suits, detentions, and deaths, according to Rappler.

CPJ sent requests for comment to Badoy and the task force’s official Facebook pages, but did not receive any replies.

Last year, Rappler founder Maria Ressa received the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to safeguard press freedom amid legal threats in the Philippines. She also received CPJ’s Gwen Ifill Press Freedom Award in 2018.