Uwazi

MANILA – Peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas is calling for the release of their two elderly and ailing leaders who were arrested on “trumped-up charges” in separate incidents in Caraga region on May 14.

Police arrested Marcela “Silay” Diaz, 59, who was taken at 4:30 A.M. on May 14 from her home in barangay Bayan, Marihatag, Surigao del Sur; and Virgilio “Yoyong” Lincuna, 70, who was taken at 11 A.M. in barangay Banza, Butuan City, Agusan del Norte.

Diaz, a member of Mag-uuma sa Surigao del Sur-Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KAMASS-KMP) is a stage 4 cancer patient who is in remission, while Lincuna is a former political detainee and a stroke patient who suffers from partial paralysis, said KMP.

The two elderly and sickly activists were charged with murder and attempted homicide.

The arrests happened on the same day of the burial of KMP national vice chairperson Joseph Canlas who died after contracting COVID-19 in jail. Canlas, who died on May 11, was arrested on March 30 in Pampanga on trumped-up charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives. Although he had hypertension and diabetes, Canlas was well and stable when he was arrested. He was transferred from one detention facility to another, and was denied medical attention when he complained of feeling ill. He was rushed to a hospital only when his condition worsened.

“The brutality of the Duterte regime is boundless,” said KMP in a Facebook post, as it denounced the arrest and detention as “a form of silent extra-judicial killing via COVID.”

The group said that Diaz and Lincuna both faced constant red-tagging and harassment from government forces. “Both are veteran peasant leaders campaigning for farmers’ right to land and against the militarization of peasant and indigenous communities in Caraga region,” KMP said.

Diaz is charged with attempted homicide, while Lincuna is accused of two counts of murder. The case against Diaz was in connection with a shooting on 29th infantry soldiers on combat patrol in Santiago, Agusan del Norte on Nov. 21, 2020, said PNP Region 13.

Lincuna, who has been an activist since the 80s, was first arrested in October 2019 on a trumped-up case of attempted murder. He was released on bail after several days in detention. He later suffered from stroke, and now “can barely walk and needs constant assistance in his daily chores,” said KMP.

The Philippine National Police Region 13 said the arrest warrant for Diaz was issued by the municipal circuit trial court, 10th Judicial region, Tubay-Santiago, Agusan del Norte. The arrest was made by a combined force of the Regional Intelligence Unit 13, Butuan City Police Intelligence Unit, Butuan City Mobile Force Company, Surigao del Sur Police Provincial office Intelligence unit, 1st Surigao del Sur Provincial Mobile Force Company, and 7th Special Forces Company of the Philippine Army.

Diaz is detained in Camp Rafael Rodriguez in Butuan City, Agusan del Norte, while Lincuna is in PNP-Lianga, Surigao del Sur.

With the retirement of Police Chief Gen. Debold Sinas and with his birthday today, May 8, human rights group Karapatan believes that the recent series of arrests of activists is the general’s despedida.

Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan, made this statement after four individuals were arrested on May 6 in the Southern Tagalog region. The day before, Karapatan alerted the public after receiving information that another series of police and military raids in Southern Tagalog is in the offing.

According to information received by Karapatan, on the night of May 5, search warrants were issued against 15 individuals. These search warrants were first denied by the courts prior to the May 7 incident, said Palabay. But these were eventually reapplied in different local courts and may have been approved resulting in the arrest of four people on Southern Tagalog on May 6.

These individuals, according to Palabay, are among the 15 people.

Among those arrested on May 6 were Gary Doroteo, a Dumagat from Tanay, Rizal who is opposing the Kaliwa/Kanan Laiban Dam and was arrested in his home in barangay Sta. Ines, Tanay, Rizal; Benito Lucio, president of the Integrated Association of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries and former president of the Anakpawis chapter in Rodriguez, Rizal, who was arrested together with his wife; and Loreto Balino was also arrested in his home in General Nakar, Quezon.

Prior to this, on May 2, Pastor Dan Balucio, secretary general of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Bicol, and Maria Jesusa “Sasah” Sta. Rosa, Jovenes Anakbayan spokesperson, were also arrested in simultaneous police raids in Bicol region.

According to Karapatan, the police used search warrants issued by Legazpi City Regional Trial Court Vice Executive Judge Edgar Armes on May 1 for the said raids and arrests.

Karapatan said it was 3:30 a.m. on May 2 when combined elements of the police and the military forcibly entered the Shannan Christian Academy in Brgy. San Isidro, Sto. Domingo, Albay, where Balucio, his wife and two children, and a staff of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines were staying. Balucio serves as the administrator of the said school.

The police forcibly brought out all the occupants including Balucio from the house and the police and military operatives went through their belongings inside.

“After 30 to 45 minutes, the barangay captain and a kagawad arrived — it was only then that search warrants were shown to Balucio — and the police and military conducted their so-called search for another 30 minutes after which they allegedly found guns, ammunitions, a grenade, and a red flag,” Karapatan said.

The same happened with the arrest of Sta. Rosa. State agents also forcibly entered her house and the residents were brought outside. Initially the authorities did not present search warrants. The police and the military began the search when barangay officials came after an hour. Afterwards, the authorities alleged they found guns, ammunition, a grenade, a book, a black t-shirt, a green envelope with documents, a wallet and a pack of panty-liners.

Witnesses in these raids assert that the firearms and explosives and other supposed evidence obtained from the search were planted.

The house of Justine Mesias, in Daraga, Albay, a second year Bicol University student and Youth Act Now Against Tyranny – Bicol spokesperson was also raided on the same day at 4:00 a.m. Afterwards a gun and explosives were allegedly found in his house. The group said Mesias was not in the house at the time of the raid.

Nica Ombao of Defend Bicol Stop the Attacks said there is no truth to the allegations made against the three activists. She said their weapon is only a megaphone as they are often present in protest actions held in the region.

Based on initial accounts of witnesses, Karapatan said that the patterns in the police raids are similar to the operations conducted in Negros, Iloilo, Metro Manila, Central Luzon and the Bloody Sunday raids in Southern Tagalog.

On April 25, union officers from manufacturing company Sun Logistics, Inc. were visited by police officers to “urge” them to disaffiliate their union from the labor federation Organized Labor Associations in Line Industries and Agriculture (OLALIA-KMU). According to the police, the unionists will be “arrested like Nedo” should they fail to comply.

Arnedo “Nedo” Lagunias was an officer in Honda Cars and a current officer of Alyansa ng Manggagawa sa Engklabo (AMEN). On March 4, police officers conducted a raid in his home and charged him with illegal possession of firearms and explosives. He is currently detained in Camp Vicente Lim in Calamba.

Twelve activists including youth leaders and a campus journalist have been released two days after they were arrested in Castillejos, Zambales on their way to a Labor Day protest.

Youth activists from the League of Filipino Students (LFS) Zambales and a journalist from College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP) Central Luzon, along with their driver, were detained on Monday for “lack of social distancing.”

According to CEGP, the police threatened to expose the victims’ personal information and posted their photos on a Facebook page called “Makatarungan Battalion.” In its post, Makatarungan Battalion labeled the activists’ placards with calls such as “Stop the attacks” and “Solusyong medikal, hindi militar” as “anti-government slogans.”

“Even with legitimate calls and demands for a systematic solution to the pandemic, these organizations and the people involved are still branded with hostility,” CEGP said.

CEGP added that posting photos of the victims and their vehicle’s plate number without their consent violates their right to privacy.

The police and military also forced the victims to sign a document linking them to the Communist Party of the Philippines – New People’s Army (CPP-NPA), CEGP said.

Kabataan Partylist said the Duterte government has chosen to address calls for a safe return to school, economic aid and a comprehensive Covid-19 plan with violence and repression.

LFS-Zambales called the arrest a “manifestation that the police and the military, who are fascist and mercenary in nature, shouldn’t be relied on to interpret terrorism.”

CEGP said, “As legitimate organizations are red-tagged and members are silenced and arrested, the point becomes clearer: that the Duterte administration cannot take truthful criticism and is hiding behind the state forces to stifle and arrest those who dare to speak up.”

The activists have been released on bail amounting to almost P72,00 collected through donation campaigns.

In a Facebook post, Free Zambales 12 Network said they will continue to campaign for the release of many other victims of illegal arrest and detention in the “government’s militaristic pandemic response.”

“As long as the current administration considers it a crime to forward the people’s demands during a pandemic, it only proves that its pandemic response is a failure and its only way of addressing it is attacking critics and progressives,” Kabataan Partylist said

Two progressive leaders were arrested by state forces in simultaneous early morning raids in the provinces of Camarines Sur and Albay in Bicol region.

Sasah Sta. Rosa, spokesperson of youth group Jovenes Anakbayan was arrested at her home in Villa Obiedo, Cararayan, Naga City, Camarines Sur.

Anakbayan Naga City said in a Facebook post that at least 10 armed men came to Sta. Rosa’s house at 3 a.m. supposedly to serve a search warrant. They forced the family outside the house, then after 40 minutes, came out with a grenade, guns and a red flag.

In the same manner, in Albay, a team who identified themselves with the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) served a search warrant to Pastor Dan Balucio, 61, of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines and spokesperson of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Bicol. The warrant was issued by Judge Edgar Armes, vice executive judge of the Regional Trial Court of Legazpi City. Karapatan Bikol said the Balucio family were made to lie on their stomach on the ground, while the police entered the house.

The Philippine National Police claimed they found a Remington .45 caliber pistol, seven bullets, two M-14 rifle magazines, a hand grenade, and a red flag at Balucio’s home.

Sta. Rosa is currently detained at the Naga city police substation 2. Balucio is detained at CIDG-Albay.

Police also raided the house of Justine Mesias, senior editor of student publication Cassipi Online and Youth Act Now Against Tyranny-Bicol spokesperson, in Daraga, Albay. at least 40 operatives from the PNP and CIDG forcibly entered the residence, pointed their guns at members of the Mesias family, and went through their belongings for two hours. A gun and explosive were allegedly found by the police and military in the said house. Mesias was not in the house at the time of the incident.

The arrests came just two weeks after two other Bicol activists were freed and acquitted of trumped-up murder charges. Jenelyn Nagrampa-Caballero, Gabriel’s national vice chairperson, and Pastor Dan San Andres, also of the UCCP and Karapatan-Bicol’s spokesperson, were arrested in July last year.

Human rights group Karapatan likened the incidents to the pattern of police raids in the operations conducted in Negros, Iloilo, Metro Manila, Central Luzon and the Bloody Sunday raids in Southern Tagalog.

Karapatan called on the Commission on Human Rights to conduct an investigation and the Supreme Court and the Department of Justice to immediately act on what it calls “disturbing pattern of use of the courts to judicially harass human rights defenders.”

Human rights defender Genelyn Dichoso and her daughter Jennifer were arrested by suspected elements of the 201st Infantry Brigade, Philippine Army on charges of attempted homicide, in Calauag, Quezon province, April 5.

Dichoso is the secretary general of human rights group Karapatan Quezon. The group stated that Dichoso has been the victim of black propaganda and red-tagging for years before the onset of the Duterte administration.

“There is a clear and systemic pattern of vilifying human rights defenders as ‘terrorists’ or ‘subversives’ that has started even before the Duterte regime,” said Kyle Salgado, spokesperson for the group. “Tita Jen’s illegal abduction only proves that Duterte is no different from the fascists that came before him.”

According to initial reports, Dichoso and her daughter were taken while undergoing a routine medical check-up. Karapatan is currently organizing a fact-finding mission to ascertain further details.

Dichoso was charged with attempted homicide last year, with claims that she was involved in a previous encounter between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the revolutionary New People’s Army.

Despite the charge, Dichoso continued performing her duties as secretary general of the organization, assisting in human rights cases such as the murder of Armando Buisan, chairperson of CLAIM in General Luna, Quezon, and the arrest of two CLAIM organizers in Atimonan.

Dichoso’s arrest comes as the latest in a series of attacks against activists and human rights defenders across the Southern Tagalog region. Quezon, in particular, has been the target of focused military operations since February 2021.

Since March this year, no less than nine activists were arrested in Southern Tagalog on charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives. Dichoso marks the tenth.

The Department of Justice has since committed to creating a task force to investigate the spate of arrests and killings in Southern Tagalog, by virtue of Administrative Order 35. However, justice remains elusive for the victims.

Karapatan ST insists that Dichoso’s arrest is another instance of the “state proving its insincerity.”

“While the Department of Justice drags its feet on fulfilling its mandate, state forces continue to act with impunity,” said Salgado. “How can we expect justice from the state when the state blatantly denies it from us?”

Karapatan is demanding that the 201st Infantry Brigade surface Dichoso and her daughter immediately, and to drop all charges against her.

Filipino netizens are up in arms over what appeared to be harassment as police officers were seen roaming near community pantries, a growing mutual aid movement in the country as many experience hunger and subjected to poor social protection amid the pandemic.

In a now-deleted Facebook post, one of the organizers of the community pantry in Pandacan shared that two police officers approached their community pantry, asked them to answer a profiling sheet, and took a photo of them.

Faith-based humanitarian worker Patis Mungcal, in a tweet, said two cops also visited their community pantry, pointing out that they should quickly replenish their supplies for everyone in the queue and abide by health protocols.

In a statement, urban poor group Kadamay said police presence is “definitely not needed” in the community pantries, adding that their atrocious record will scare away people who badly need food.

“The fear of being jailed and harassed is a legitimate one,” Kadamay Secretary General Mimi Doringo said.

On Labor Day last year, 10 relief workers providing warm meals in Marikina were arrested. Also last year, a former lawmaker and several peasant activists were also arrested while on their way to provide much-needed relief goods to Bulacan farmers who lost their livelihoods due to the lockdown. Community pantries are being set up in many parts of the country, as part of a mutual aid initiative among the poor. The movement adopted the phrase, “magbigay ayon sa kakayahan, kumuha batay sa pangangailangan” as their rallying call.

Urban poor advocates and human rights defenders are grieving over the killing of Negros-based community organizer who was gunned down by motorcycle-riding assailants last week along a busy road in Silay City.

Jesus Pason Jr., a tricycle driver and a member of their local homeowners association, was shot on April 15, 2021. He was brought to Teresita Jalandoni Provincial Hospital. Responders were told, however, that the hospital is not equipped to deal with the gunshot injury at the back of Pason’s head. He died while being given emergency treatment.

Urban poor group Kadamay said the 33-year-old community organizer spearheaded the occupation of idle government housing in 2018. This was inspired by the same Occupy movement in Pandi, Bulacan. Since then, the group said they have since become “regular targets” of the Duterte administration.

Pason’s killing, too, came amid the intensified human rights abuses in the Negros island under the Duterte administration. Among these include the extrajudicial killings of human rights lawyer Benjamin Ramos, activist Zara Alvarez, scores of farmers and other human rights defenders.

Resourceful, generous

Pason’s family hailed from the municipality of Toboso. Their family later moved to Silay City, where he took on all jobs possible to make ends meet. As a dedicated uncle, he sent his nieces to school.

“Madiskarte ‘yang tao,” (He was very resourceful) Clarizza Singson of Karapatan-Negros told Bulatlat in a phone interview.

Singson said he drove a passenger tricycle to make a living. He would also occasionally get hired to deliver goods and vegetables, or as school service for young children. Sometimes, he would also work as a construction worker.

Pason, known to many as a kind-hearted and cheerful person, would always bring local delicacies to their office.

“Where’s my Otap? Where’s my Biscocho?” Singson would jokingly greet him whenever they would see each other.

Pason’s remains would be transferred to his hometown in Toboso, where he would later be interred.

Kadamay’s Mimi Doringo said Negros island has turned bloodied in the hands of President Duterte with the rampant killings. She added, “people are either dying out of poverty or of killings. This will not stop until Duterte is not out of power.”

Elements of the Philippine National Police conducted a search operation at the office of labor alliance Alyansa ng Manggagawa sa Engklabo (AMEN) in barangay Market Area, Santa Rosa, Laguna, March 30, and claimed to have found firearms and explosives.

According to police reports, joint elements from CIDG National Capital Region, CID Region 4A, PNP Regional Mobile Force Battalion 4A, RACU4A, and PNP Santa Rosa issued a search warrant for Marites Santos David. The report identified David as a member of AMEN, as well as labor federation Organized Labor Associations in Line Industries and Agriculture (OLALIA-KMU) and labor center Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan (PAMANTIK-KMU).

The report labeled David as a member of the revolutionary organization Revolutionay Council of Trade Unions (RCTU), one of the organizations comprising the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.

According to AMEN, there was no one in the office at the time of the raid. “The office has not been used for over a year, since the first declaration of a lockdown in Luzon,” the group said in a statement sent to Bulatlat.

Progressive labor groups quickly condemned the operation, citing it as the latest in a “series of attacks against labor leaders and organizations.”

In a statement, Kilusang Mayo Uno stressed that workers need “aid, vaccines, an emergency allowance, paid pandemic leave, and a comprehensive medical solution,” not “fake arrests and planted firearms.”

OLALIA-KMU also stressed that Marites David is not a terrorist. “Teacher Laly is a member of OLALIA-KMU’s education and research staff,” said the group. “That she is in possession of any firearm, much less an entire armory’s worth of it, is simply impossible.”

The PNP claimed to have retrieved at least five rifles, three pistols, nine explosives, 14 landmines, and other accessories. They asserted that the office was used as a “firearms depot” for “members who will join the armed group in red areas and those who will stage violent actions against government troops.”

PAMANTIK-KMU debunked such claims. “PAMANTIK-KMU and AMEN have stood side-by-side to defend the rights and welfare of workers in Southern Tagalog,” the group said.

They stated that based on the surrounding facts, “it becomes clear that the PNP and NTF-ELCAC are simply looking for targets to raid.”

An indigenous peoples’ group assailed the freezing of accounts of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) – Haran Center in Davao del Sur.

The Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), in a resolution dated March 12, ordered the freezing of UCCP Haran’s three bank accounts and a real property under the name of Brokenshire Integrated Health Ministries, Inc. The AMLC allegedly found that “the assets are used to finance terrorism” which is in violation of the Republic Act 10168 or Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act.

Sandugo – Movement of Moro and Indigenous Peoples for Self-Determination condemned the action, saying it is ironic that amid massive corruption and the non-disclosure of President Duterte’s statement of assets, liabilities and networth, human rights advocates are the ones whose accounts are being investigated.

“For decades now, UCCP-Haran Center has been a known sanctuary for Lumad people in Southern Mindanao, whose communities have repeatedly been terrorized by the Philippine Army and paramilitary groups. The UCCP Haran is simply performing their calling to ‘participate in the establishment of a just and compassionate social order,’” the group said in a statement.

They added that the UCCP compound in Haran also served as shelter for the displaced Lumad due to intense militarization of their communities.

“That is not a crime. It is an act of faith and kindness,” the group said.

Constant target

In the past years, the UCCP-Haran has been subjected to a series of harassment as the Lumad continue to seek refuge in their compound.

In 2015, the police forcibly entered the compound hurting a number of elders. In 2016, there was a fire incident in the Lumad sanctuary that resulted in the injuries of five people. This was followed by several incidents of raids and attempts to break in the sanctuary by state forces.

In September last year, 48 church workers of the UCCP and their advocates were charged with trafficking, child abuse and violation of international humanitarian law.

In a report by Davao Today, Bishop Hamuel Tequis of UCCP maintained, “The Church’s mission is to help the marginalized and the oppressed such as the Lumad. It is sad that we are being persecuted for doing God’s mission.” http://davaotoday.com/main/human-rights/uccp-bishop-to-ntf-elcac-no-abuse-and-child-trafficking-at-haran-shelter/

Meanwhile, Sandugo assailed the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) for its moves to eject the Lumad in the premises of UCCP-Haran. “This is because the said sanctuary has exposed the military’s atrocities against Manobo communities in Mindanao,” the group said.

“By exposing their real situation, the struggling Lumad have earned the solidarity, not only of the religious, but of other institutions, organizations and individuals that advocate for peace here and abroad. It has also spurred support for the protection of the imperiled Pantaron Mountain Range, one of the few remaining virgin rainforests in the country currently threatened by destructive projects such as corporate mining and logging,” Sandugo said.

Sandugo added that the NTF-ELCAC aims to cut support for the Lumad “in order to open the floodgates for these money-making projects.”

“With the Anti-Terror Law, the NTF-ELCAC can simply tag the New People Army as a terrorist organization, easily link the Lumad to the NPAs and justify all kinds of repression versus Lumad civilians and their supporters. In this way, the NTF-ELCAC shows that it is protecting corporate interests, and not the people’s welfare,” the group said.

The UCCP-Haran is not the first institution to suffer freezing of assets. The AMLC also ordered a 20-day freeze on Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) bank accounts due to allegations of financing the NPA. On Oct. 7, 2020 the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 37 also issued an Asset Preservation Order against several bank accounts of the RMP over alleged charges of financing terrorism.

SANTA ROSA, Laguna – Exactly three weeks after the Bloody Sunday killings, another labor leader was shot dead, March 28.

Dandy Miguel was the vice president of Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan (PAMANTIK-KMU) and the president of the Lakas ng Nagkakaisang Manggagawa sa Fuji Electric union (LNMF-OLALIA-KMU). According to PAMANTIK-KMU, he was on his way home from work when he was shot at least eight times near Asia 1, Brgy. Canlubang, Calamba.

“While Duterte was having his birthday party, his minions were busy following his order to kill Leftists,” KMU said in a statement in Filipino.

On March 5, Duterte ordered the police and military to kill all communists.

Miguel was among those who filed a complaint on March 15 before the Commission on Human Rights, a week after the so-called Bloody Sunday. On March 7, nine activists were killed in simultaneous police operations conducted with the support of the military and six were arrested on charges of illegal possession of firearms and/or explosives.

Miguel is the tenth activist killed in the Southern Tagalog region in one month.

Among those killed were Emmanuel Asuncion of Solidarity of Cavite Workers. Two of those arrested were Mags Camoral, former president of Nagkakaisang Lakas ng Manggagawa sa F. Tech (NLMF-OLALIA-KMU), and Steve Mendoza, executive vice Ppresident of OLALIA-KMU.

Two more labor leaders were also arrested this month; on March 4, Arnedo Lagunias of Alyansa ng Manggagawa sa Engklabo (AMEN) and Ramir Corcolon of Water System Employees Response (WATER) were both arrested on illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

PAMANTIK-KMU has stated before that the Duterte administration is specifically targeting labor activists and unionists. These attacks, the group claims, intensified since the start of lockdown due to COVID-19 on March 17, 2020.

Several labor leaders have also received threats and harassment from unknown perpetrators. These include Hermenegildo Marasigan, president of OLALIA-KMU, and Efren Arante, an organizer for the same labor federation. Both of them. Arante, in particular, received threats through text messages sent to his son.

Red-tagging against workers and union-busting also intensified under the lockdown. In Coca-Cola Santa Rosa, batches of workers were repeatedly forced to “surrender” as members of the New People’s Army. In Fuji Electric, where Miguel worked, barangay Canlubang officials once tried to summon workers to “have a talk,” roughly a week following Bloody Sunday.

Miguel is the latest victim of these attacks against workers in the Southern Tagalog region. He is the second in Laguna under the Duterte administration, following the murder of Reynaldo Malaborbor in Cabuyao under similar circumstances.

As of press time the assailants are still unknown. PAMANTIK-KMU is currently investigating the situation.

Canlubang, Calamba.

After freeing two activists and clearing them of charges, a Mandaluyong judge was red-tagged in a tarpaulin along the busy EDSA thoroughfare in Shaw.

Photos showed a tarpaulin "thanking" Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 209 Judge Monique Quisumbing-Ignacio for her "quick action" in freeing "mga kasama (our comrades)." The logo of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) appeared on the tarpaulin.

"Hindi natin alam kung sino ang naglagay, pero alam naman natin sino ang mahilig ngayon sa tarpaulin. At kung sino ang mahilig sa ganyang tarpaulin na hayagang nangre-redtag," Bayan Muna Representative Ferdinand Gaite told Rappler.

(We don't know who put it there, but we know who is fond of doing tarpaulins. And who is fond of putting out tarpaulins that brazenly red-tag.)

Ignacio cleared journalist Lady Ann "Icy" Salem and trade unionist Rodrigo Esparago of charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives. Ignacio also voided the search warrants of Quezon City Judge Cecilyn Burgos Villavert, who is notorious to activists for issuing search warrants that resulted in dozens of arrests over the last two years.

Ignacio freed the two a month after her initial resolution, despite opposition from the local prosecutor.

A photo of the tarpaulin in daylight, unfurled fronting EDSA, was sent to Rappler late Tuesday afternoon, March 16, while a photo at nighttime showing the tarpaulin inside a different footbridge was tweeted by Gaite late Tuesday night.

Advertisement

Gaite said his photo was taken by members of indigenous peoples group Sandugo.

"The tarps speak for themselves. Independent, fair minded judges are under attack. Who has the motive to produce such inanity other than those extremely fond of red-tagging. Their handiwork will boomerang on them," said Fides Lim, spokesperson of prisoners' rights group Kapatid.

Marco Valbuena, who tweets as CPP's chief information officer, said, "CPP disowns tarp found in Metro Manila in w/c CPP/NPA/NDF purportedly thanks judge who dismissed case against 2 HRDay polprisoners."

This recent development adds up to a string of incidents that threaten members of the legal profession. Calbayog police intelligence chief Lieutenant Fernando Calabria Jr earlier asked their local court for a list of lawyers representing alleged communists.

Calabria was relieved after the Philippine National Police disowned the move. The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that a month before this, police in Luzon had been digging around for archived cases and warrants against alleged communists.

"The courts are under attack," said Gaite.

National Union of Peoples' Lawyers president Edre Olalia said this latest incident sends "a very chilling effect on judges."

"It sends a very chilling effect on judges who would stand up for truth and is an open attack on the independence of the judiciary. They want everyone to be on their side of the ring with a two-dimensional thought process: If you are not for us, then you are against us," said Olalia.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) condemned the arrest of a union leader in Butuan City and called for her immediate release.

Rosanilla “Teacher Lai” Consad, ACT secretary in Region XIII, a special education teacher and an assistant principal of San Vicente National High School, was arrested yesterday, March 17, at around 4:30 pm in Butuan City by Regional Intelligence Unit 13 of National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), the police and military.

Consad is also a member of ACT’s National Council.

Consad is being charged with attempted homicide in relation to a New People’s Army ambush in Sitio Manhupaw, Brgy. Poblacion 2, Santiago in Agusan del Norte last November 21.

ACT secretary-general Raymond Basilio said that Consad had been a victim of state vilification and repression since 2018.

In November 2019, she reported about intelligence agents visiting her school to inform her that she and her husband are part of a certain hit list supposedly for being activists.

“Teacher Lai’s case only proves that terrorist-tagging serves as a prelude to worse, more fascist attacks on rights, freedoms, and lives. All of which are part of the Duterte regime’s systematic attack on the Filipino people as it desperately seeks to silence all dissent and establish its tyrannical rule,” Basilio said.

ACT Teachers Party slams DILG memo

Meanwhile, ACT Teachers Party Rep. France Castro said that teacher Lai has been a victim of harassment, threats and red-tagging by state security forces for standing up for the rights and welfare of her fellow public school teachers in Caraga.

“The arrest came days after the DILG release a memorandum tagging ACT and other progressive groups in the public sector as a communist terrorist groups. These are the real threats of red-tagging to the safety, security and freedoms of activists, human rights defenders and union leaders who have been vocal about the failure of the Duterte administration in addressing the perennial crisis of the country’s health system, education system and economy,” Castro said.

ACT Teachers Party will file a house resolution in Congress to investigate Consad’s arrest, Castro added

Consad is expected to file a petition today to be allowed post bail.

MANILA – Human rights group Karapatan is calling for the release of their Lumad colleague who was arrested by police in Cagayan de Oro City early morning Sunday, March 21.

Renalyn Tejero, 25, a Karapatan Caraga paralegal and a Manobo, has turned up under arrest at the Camp Col. Rafael Rodriguez, the Philippine National Police (PNP) Caraga regional office 13 in Butuan City, Agusan del Norte.

Tejero had been missing for half a day, having lost contact with her colleagues after she was last seen being taken by armed men at 5 A.M. in another province, in barangay Lapasan, Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental.

It turned out a joint police and military team arrested her on charges of murder and attempted multiple murder, as announced by the PNP Caraga late this afternoon. They flaunted having nabbed Tejero, who they claimed is the region’s “top 1 most wanted NPA (New People’s Army).”

The PNP Caraga also claimed that Tejero is “one of the primary suspects” in the killing of Zaldy Acidillo Ybañez and Datu Bernandino Astudillo Surigao del Sur last year.

This was the same charge against Rogelio de Asis, Pamalakaya Caraga chairperson, and auditor of Pamalakaya National. De Asis was arrested on Feb. 11 at his home in Buenavista, Agusan del Norte.

The arrest warrants issued by the Regional Trial Court branch 34 recommends no bail for the murder case, and a fixed bail of Php120,000 for the multiple attempted murder case, the PNP Caraga said.

Tejero is the second activist from Caraga who was arrested in four days. On March 17, a similar joint police and military operation arrested Rosanilla “Teacher Lai” Consad, ACT secretary in Region XIII, a special education teacher and an assistant principal of San Vicente National High School in Butuan City, Agusan del Norte.

Also in the region just last February, four prominent activists were arrested on murder charges, which their organizations denounced as trumped-up cases.

The PNP Caraga said Tejero was arrested by a composite team of the PNP regional intelligence units from Region 13 and Region 10, the Philippine Army’s 402nd Brigade under the 4th Infantry Division, the 23rd Infantry Battalion and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Progressive groups denounced Tejero’s arrest and called for her release. The Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) in a Facebook post said Tejero is an “IFI active youth member.” Katribu Youth called the arrest “an attack on indigenous peoples and people’s rights.”

Motorcycle-riding gunmen shot dead a village chief of an indigenous people’s community in Tapaz town in Capiz on Sunday, two months after nine tribal leaders were gunned down in a police operation.

Julie Catamin, village chief of Roosevelt, died from multiple gunshot wounds.

Catamin, 49, was driving a motorcycle on his way home around 8:45 a.m. when two assailants wearing helmets on board a black motorcycle repeatedly fired at him at Barangay Malitbog Centro, according to an initial report of the Calinog police station.

The police launched pursuit operations against the gunmen who fled towards the town proper.

Investigators are still determining the identity of the assailants and the motive for the attack. They recovered four .45-caliber empty shells at the crime scene.

Pamanggas, a farmers federation in Panay decried the attack on Catamin accusing state forces of being behind the attack.

“(Catamin’s killing) is meant to silence him and sow fear among residents to stop them from telling the truth on the killing of nine Tumandok (indigenous people’s group) leaders and the arrest of 16 others,” according to a statement in Filipino.

In a post on his Facebook page on Dec. 30, Catamin accused policemen, who arrested four residents of his village, of planting firearms and explosives.

“They were arrested and handcuffed. Bullets and firearms were planted and their houses were destroyed. Where is justice? I am appealing for help from any government agency that can help me,” Catamin said in his post.

The nine tribal leaders, including three village council members, died when operatives from Metro Manila and Calabarzon of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police (PNP) served search warrants for firearms and explosives in two villages in Calinog and six villages in Tapaz.

Police and military officials alleged that the nine died after they fired at the policemen. They also accused those who died and were detained, as leaders or supporters of the Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army.

But relatives of those who died and were arrested and several village officials, including Catamin, have belied the police and military claims. They accused the police operatives of planting firearms and explosives and shooting those who died while they were begging for their lives.

Church leaders, including eight Catholic bishops in Western Visayas and Romblon Island, have called for impartial and transparent investigation.

The Jaro Archdiocese has assisted the families, including providing legal counsel.

Academics, researchers, artists, writers, and other cultural workers have called for an independent investigation and raised concern over the impact on the tribe.

The Regional Internal Service of the PNP and the Commission on Human Rights are conducting separate investigations on the incident.

Members of the tribe, also known as Panay Bukidnon or Sulodnon by scholars, are among those at the forefront in opposing an ongoing P11.2-billion mega-dam project in Calinog, which the tribe said would displace residents in at least 16 out of 17 indigenous communities.

The tribe, the biggest indigenous people’s group in Panay, is known for its rich oral tradition that provides insights into the history, psyche, and culture of the prehispanic Panay Bisayan, according to scholars.

BACOLOD CITY: Negros Island-based leaders of human rights group Karapatan on Thursday said they received death threats recently.

In a Facebook post, the group reported its public information desk received on Monday a text message, which listed names of some militants, believed to be the “next target” of a “kill kill kill” program.

The text message was received a day after multiple raids by authorities in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon) resulted in the killing of nine activists and arrest of six others.

Karapatan identified those on the “next target” list as Iver Lavit of Kadamay Negros; John “Butch” Lozande, secretary-general of National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW); Ereneo Longinos, spokesman for Bayan Negros; Clarissa Singson, secretary-general of Karapatan Negros; Christian Tuayon of the NFSW; Felipe Gelle of the September 21 Movement and Rolando Rillo, also of the NFSW.

Karapatan did not identify a certain “Alyas Tatay Ogie” and “Berting” who were also included in the list.

In a separate text message received also on Monday, the unidentified sender also threatened Bayan Negros media liaison Julius Dagatan, husband of Clarissa Singson who was among those included in the first text message.

In the message, the sender said Negros was “next.”

Karapatan said the sender was referring to the multiple Calabarzon killings last Sunday, March 7.

“Oh ano takot na kayo noh? Susunod namin Negros. Humanda na asawa ni Clarissa na si Jules! Matataymingan din yan,” the message read.

In a statement, Karapatan-Negros said: “The horrible crackdown in Southern Tagalog was patterned in the ‘Tokhang-nanlaban’ style that was first executed here in Negros through Oplan Sauron that resulted in the death of six during Synchronized Enhanced Managing of Police Operations (SEMPO) and the arrest of more than 100 farmers and activists.”

“These brazen attacks and intimidation against human rights defenders is a clear manifestation of how cowardly Duterte’s government is. His desperate tyrannical approach to sow fear among the people failed tremendously, he proved that he cannot silence the struggling people, and he is now trembling in fear because of the continued growing resistance of the Filipino people,” the group said.

“After the series of mass murders led by State forces, the whole island still suffers from relentless fascist attacks. W ith these recent incidents of threats directed against our fellow human rights defenders, it is imperative that we push and fight back against this reign of tyranny.”

The Observatory has been informed by Karapatan Alliance Philippines about the extrajudicial killing of nine human rights defenders and the arbitrary detention of four others in four provinces in Calabarzon region.

On March 7, 2021, the Philippines National Police (PNP) and the Philippine Army (PA) carried out raids into the houses and offices of several human rights defenders in Calabarzon region, southern Philippines as part of a joint operation against alleged members of “communist and terrorist groups”.

During the raids, the PNP and the PA killed Emmanuel “Manny” Asuncion, labour leader and Secretary-General of BAYAN-Cavite, in Dasmariñas, Cavite Province; fisherfolk leaders Ana Marie “Chai ”Lemita-Evangelista and Ariel Evangelista, in Nasugbu, Batangas Province; Melvin Dasigao, Mark Lee “Makmak” Coros Bacasno, Abner Esto, and Edward Esto, all members of the urban poor group Sikkad K3 in Montalban, Rizal Province; and indigenous rights defenders Dumagats Puroy and Randy de la Cruz in Tanay, Rizal Province.

Furthermore, the PNP and the PA arbitrarily arrested Esteban “Steve” Mendoza, Vice-President of the trade union Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU - May First Movement)-Olalia and Elizabeth “Mags”Camoral, spokesperson of BAYAN-Laguna, in Cabuyao, Laguna Province. Nimfa Lanzanas, paralegal of Karapatan and member of Kapatid-Families and Friends of Political Prisoners was arbitrarily arrested in Calamba, Laguna Province. Eugene Eugenio, member of the public sector union Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (COURAGE)-Rizal was arbitrarily arrested in Antipolo City, Rizal Province.

At the time of publication of this urgent appeal, Mr. Mendoza and Ms. Lanzanas remain detained at Camp Vicente Lim in Calamba; Ms. Camoral at Canlubang City Jail, Laguna Province; and Mr. Eugenio at the Antipolo Police Station. All of them are being detained on charges of “illegal possession of firearms and ammunition”.

According to the information received, two other individuals were arrested during the raids. However, at the time of publication of this urgent appeal, their identities had not been disclosed by the PNP. Many more human rights defenders are in fear of being arrested or killed.

Two days before the above-referenced events, on March 5, 2021, President Duterte had ordered the PNP and the PA to “ignore human rights” and “kill” and “finish off” communist rebels in any armed encounter with them.

A blue and yellow screwdriver was still embedded in the left temple of human rights lawyer Angelo Karlo “AK” Guillen when paramedics took him to a hospital in Iloilo City following what the largest lawyers’ group in the country on Thursday denounced as a “brazen and bloody assassination attempt.”

The police said the near-fatal stabbing on Wednesday night could have been a botched robbery, but they were looking into other possible motives.

But Guillen’s colleagues and the human rights community believe the assailants had intended to kill the 33-year-old lawyer who has been Red-tagged and represents 16 members of the indigenous Tumandok who were arrested in Capiz and Iloilo provinces on Dec. 30, 2020, for illegal possession of firearms and explosives, and for alleged links to communist rebels.

Terror law petitioners At least nine Tumandok were killed in last year’s Rizal Day raids by the military and police on the indigenous group, which opposes a government dam project that they said would inundate their ancestral lands.

The brutal attack follows the Feb. 28 assassination of Barangay Roosevelt Chair Julie Catamin, a key defense witness for the Tumandok represented by Guillen.

Guillen is also a legal counsel in one of the 37 petitions questioning the constitutionality of the Anti-Terrorism Act in the Supreme Court.

The young lawyer, whom colleagues describe as soft-spoken and unassuming, also took part in a fact-finding investigation and reported on the coordinated police operations in Negros Oriental in 2019 that led to the deaths of 14 people, mostly farmers.

Rene Estocapio, National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers vice president for Visayas, said Guillen was attacked at 9:15 p.m. on Wednesday by two men in ski masks who stabbed him in the head and neck as he walked from his car toward his boarding house in Barangay Villa Anita in Iloilo City.

Two other men on two motorcycles arrived moments later and fled with the assailants who took his bag that contained his laptop and some documents, he said.

Doctors on Thursday said he was in stable condition after they removed a 25-centimeter screwdriver from his left temple, a few centimeters of which had been jammed into his skull by one of the assailants.

At the hospital, Guillen told a friend on Thursday that he ran when he saw two men going after him. He said the men stabbed him repeatedly after he tripped, according to his friend who spoke with the Inquirer.

Guillen heard one of the assailants shout, “Get the bag!” before they fled, his friend said, adding that the men did not get his wallet, cell phone and other valuables.

Pro bono cases In a statement, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) said it “condemns the brazen and bloody assassination attempt on human rights, public interest, and indigenous peoples lawyer Atty. Angelo Karlo Guillen.”

IBP national president Domingo Egon Cayosa said Guillen handled “pro bono cases for the poor and the marginalized” and had been “Red-tagged and threatened many times.” “Inflicting violence on those who seek justice is criminality in the highest degree,” Cayosa said.

He pointed to “the primary role of government to secure its citizens and its international obligation to ensure that lawyers can do their job without fear, harassment or retribution.”

Police Maj. Mark Evan Salvo, chief of the Iloilo City Police Station 1, said that based on an initial investigation, robbery could have been the the motive for the attack.

But he said they were also looking at the possibility that it was work-related because the lawyer’s laptop and files were taken.

“We still need to talk with [Guillen] to determine what was taken and the cases that he is handling,” Salvo told the Inquirer.

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas said he was “very much alarmed” about the attack and decried that it took place just half a kilometer from the Iloilo City Police Office.

“Lawyers only do their function to protect their clients. As a lawyer myself, this is doubly important for me to be solved,” Treñas said in a statement.

He called on the Philippine National Police “to do everything possible to resolve this at the earliest possible time.”

Government prosecutors are blocking the release of journalist Lady Ann Salem and labor organizer Rodrigo Esparago despite the local court’s dismissing the charges against them last Feb. 5.

The City Prosecutor Office of Mandaluyong, on behalf of the Philippine National Police, filed on Feb. 9 an opposition to the urgent motion for release filed by Salem’s lawyers from the Public Interest Law Center (PILC).

The prosecutors claimed that the decision of the Mandaluyong Regional Trial Court Branch 209 is not yet final, thus, Salem and Esparago could not yet be released.

Salem’s lawyers disagreed, saying that “the rules on criminal proceedings require that a judgment of acquittal, whether ordered by the trial or the appellate court, is final, unappealable, and immediately executory upon its promulgation.”

“The dismissal of the cases, drawn upon the quashal of the search warrant and consequential declaration that the seized evidence is inadmissible as evidence, is one tantamount to an acquittal,” PILC said in its reply.

“The Order of the Honorable Court, being an adjudication on the merits, is final and executory,” Salem’s lawyers asserted.

Salem, editor of Manila Today and communications officer of the International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT), and Esparago were arrested on December 10 last year. They were charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

On Feb. 5, Judge Monique Quisumbing-Ignacio dismissed the charges, noting “numerous inconsistencies and contradictions” in the sworn statements and testimonies cited in the search warrant.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines expressed their concern over yet another red-tagging incident of a journalist who reported on the plight of Aetas who were tortured to admitting that they are members of the New People’s Army.

The red-tagging of Philippine Daily Inquirer reporter Tetch Torres-Tupas took place just two days after petitioners against the Philippine terror law raised its dangers.

On February 3, 2021, Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr., labeled Inquirer.net journalist Tetch Torres-Tupas a propagandist over her story “Tortured Aetas seek SC help against anti-terror law”, saying she should have “[checked] the side of the [Armed Forces of the Philippines] and [government] if what you are reporting is true or fake.”

“Congratulations for a sloppy work Tetch Torres-Tupaz of Inquirer.net. You did not even bother to check the side of the [Armed Forces of the Philippines] and [government] if what you are reporting is true or fake. Propagandista. No such thing happened. That unit is not even there but in Davao,” Parlade’s Facebook post read.

Parlade’s post was referring to an August 2020 incident where Philippine soldiers allegedly detained and beat three Indigenous people in Zambales province.

However, the story penned by Torres-Tupas touches on the petition-in-intervention filed by Aeta farmers Japer Gurung and Junior Ramos on February 2, 2021 and the allegations made in that petition.

A social media user also commented in Filipino asking, “Sir, can we file charges against them?,” to which Parlade replied: “Aiding the terrorists by spreading lies? Yes.”

In another post, the lieutenant general asks if Torres-Tupas referenced “propaganda machines of the [Communist Party of the Philippines],” with an attached photo of links directing to the websites of Human Rights Watch and Kodao Productions.

The NUJP reiterated that while the government has issued reassurances that the ATA will not be used to stifle dissent or clamp down on the press, statements and actions similar to what Parlade has shown holds more value than the press statements.

The group added, “the Facebook post against Torres-Tupas, are threats directed not only at those questioning the ATA but also at those covering the controversial law.”

The NUJP expressed fears that government inaction on the threat against Tupas and on similar threats against journalists and activists would signify that the government is consenting and even endorsing such actions, contrary to the claim that the ATA will not target government critics.

Justice and Court Reporters Association (Jucra) also condemned Parlade’s threat against Tupas saying that it is “utterly unacceptable.”

In a statement the group said journalists at the justice beat also reported the same story which is based on two Aeta’s petition for intervention. “Should we all wait for threat from Parlade too?”

“Had Parlade also done his research and listened to the oral arguments, he would have known that posts like these are what petitioners claim as evidence of a credible threat of prosecution – threat that can warrant a judicial review of the law he seeks to protect and promote,” JUCRA said in a statement.

National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers president Edre Olalia also said Parlade’s threat against Tupas is validating the myriad of objections and criticisms against the ATA.

“This is a big favor he is giving us which is awfully unwelcome and outrageously unacceptable. Thanks but no thanks,” Olalia said.

Four leaders of progressive groups were arrested in separate incidents in Butuan City last weekend, according to human rights group Karapatan in Caraga region.

Arrested were community health worker Vilma Dalangin-Yecyec, Gabriela Women’s Partylist Coordinator Gina Tutor, PISTON Spokesperson Isaias “Sayas” Ginorga, and Pamalakaya-Agusan del Norte member Greco Regala.

Police in Caraga claimed in a statement that those arrested are high ranking members of the New People’s Army. Three of them are being implicated in the killing of members of the Manobo tribe and former New People’s Army fighters in the region but rights group assert that all of them are active in the people’s organizations based in the city.

Two of those arrested are both 72 years old. One of them, Yecyec, was arrested on Feb. 6, in Mainit, Surigao del Norte. According to the group, she was taken to Camp Rafael Rodriguez, Butuan City.

Yecyec is suffering from various ailments, according to Karapatan.

The Council for Health and Development condemned the arrest. “Yet again, for perpetually failing to quell people’s resistance against the quagmire of poverty and oppression that breeds disease, state forces went after the unarmed civilian merely doing what she does best from decades ago up to the twilight of her life — serving the people through community-based health work,” CHD said.

On the same day, Tutor also arrested in her home in Buenavista while Regala was arrested in Tubay.

Meanwhile, Ginorga, also 72 years old, was arrested by the Butuan police on Feb. 5.

Ginorga and Tutor are known in Butuan City as leaders of progressive organizations. They were also slapped with trumped-up charges in relation to NPA offensives last year. Two of the charges filed in Surigao del Sur were later dismissed.

Pamalakaya said in a statement that Regala is involved in local campaigns, including the protection of municipal waters against illegal fishing and other destructive projects.

Gabriela Women’s Party, meanwhile, said Tutor has been working with the group in “pushing for pro-women and pro-poor legislation that will benefit Caraga, one of the poorest regions in the country.”

“Gina, along with the other community organizers arrested, are clearly not terrorists. This cruel act of arresting progressive community organizers demonstrates the perils of the Anti-Terror Law against unarmed civilians who are merely voicing out their legitimate concerns amid the crises we are facing,” the group said in a statement.

The Observatory has been informed by Karapatan - the Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights - of the judicial harassment of Karapatan National Council member Daisy ‘Jackie’ Valencia.

On September 25, 2020, the Regional Trial Court Branch 30 in Tagum, Davao del Norte Province, issued an arrest warrant for Daisy ‘Jackie’ Valencia. However, she was only recently made aware through a reliable source of the murder charges pressed against her. At the time of publication of this Urgent Appeal, Ms. Valencia had not received any formal notice from the Court.

Daisy ‘Jacky’ Valencia is accused of being a member of an armed rebel group responsible for the killing of Mr. Garito Tiklonay Malibato on March 22, 2018 in Mindanao, although she was not in Mindanao when the killing took place. It is believed that Mr. Malibato was killed by members of the paramilitary group Alamara, from which he was receiving death threats for his work with indigenous people’s organisation Karadyawan.

The Observatory notes that since 2018, Daisy ‘Jackie’ Valencia has been a victim of red-tagging[1]. Her name has appeared on leaflets in Isabela and Cagayan provinces that label her as a “communist” and a “terrorist” and link her to the armed opposition group New People’s Army (NPA).

The Observatory recalls that since President Duterte took power in June 2016, human rights defenders have faced relentless vilification and red-tagging, and have been repeatedly subjected to trumped-up charges and lengthy pre-trial arbitrary detention, with the aim to discredit their legitimate work and to silence critical voices. Karapatan members have been subjected to frequent harassment, criminalisation and attacks, including the killing of Ms. Zara Alvarez in August 2020.

The Observatory expresses its utmost concern over the judicial harassment of Daisy ‘Jackie’ Valencia as it seems to be only aimed at punishing her for her legitimate human rights activities.

The Observatory urges the Philippines authorities to immediately and unconditionally drop the charges against Daisy ‘Jackie’ Valencia and to put an end to all acts of harassment against her, including at the judicial level.

Peasant groups condemned the arrest of six farmers in Norzagaray, Bulacan after harvesting their own crops, and the series of eviction of farmers in Bataan, Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan and Iloilo.

On Jan. 18, police arrested six farmers in Sitio Compra, San Mateo, Norzagaray, Bulacan following the filing of theft and grave threat by Royal Mollucan Realty Holdings Inc. (RMRHI) against 16 farmers who were evicted from their farm lots.

Arrested were Salvacion Abonilla, John Jason Abonilla, Jenny Capa, Marilyn Olpos, Catherine Magdato, and Eden Gualberto. All are active members of local peasant group SAMA-SAMA, an affiliate of Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Bulacan-KMP.

Since 2005, the RMRHI has been claiming ownership to the 75.5-hectare land in Sitio Compra in San Mateo village, which farmers have been tilling for decades.

Evicted and harassed

Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and Amihan documented other cases of land grabbing and rights violations in the past few months.

Two houses were demolished by the private armed group of Ayala land in Hacienda Yulo, Calamba, Laguna on Jan. 6 and 9. Four farmers were reportedly injured.

On Jan. 13 in Hacienda Ambulong, Talisay, Negros Occidental, peasant couple Marilyn and Edwin Madin were held for questioning by the local police station after an early morning raid conducted by the 79th Infantry Battalion Philippine Army. A two-month old baby under their care was also taken by the soldiers.

On Jan. 14, in barangay General Lim, Orion, Bataan, the houses of about 70 peasant families were destroyed by at least 200 police upon orders from former GSIS President Federico Pascual. Policemen also reportedly threatened to destroy all the crops in the 33-hectare land.

In a press conference on Monday, Jan. 18, Shirley Valentin, a farmer and coordinator of Samahan ng Magsasaka sa Sitio Bangad, narrated how they are being harassed every day by the private goons and the police.

“We do not have anything because they destroyed our house. We just stay outside. Last night it was raining and our things are just out there getting wet,” she said in Filipino.

She added that even the blanket they used to shield themselves was confiscated by blue guards and the police.

“We have nowhere to go. We cannot harvest our crops,” Valentin said. She added that the relocation site offered to them has no power, water supply, and is located in the mountainous area.

Meanwhile, farmers in San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan have long been fighting against land grabbing as there are several real estate development projects in the city. The KMP said the projects of Villar, Ayala Land Inc., SMDC and others in San Jose Del Monte City are intertwined.

There are also about 400 peasant families of Lupang Ramos in Dasmarinas, Cavite who were threatened to be evicted from their farms and houses due to National Grid Corporations of the Philippines (NGCP) project in December last year.

In a statement, Amihan National Chairperson Zenaida Soriano strongly condemned the continuous abuses against “food security frontliners.”

Soriano said it is immoral that in the middle of a pandemic and poverty brought about by lockdown, farmers are being evicted and their houses are being demolished.

Then and now, peasants’ calls are still the same

In time for the commemoration of Mendiola massacre, peasants groups will hold a nationally- coordinated mobilization on Jan. 22 to “denounce and protest the intensifying land grabbing and land-use conversion of productive agricultural land, coupled with state-sponsored human rights violations against farmers.”

KMP Chairperson Danilo Ramos said that then and now, the farmers’ demands are still the same – land reform and free land distribution.

“The situation of Filipino peasants when they marched from Central Luzon to Mendiola in 1987 remains unchanged, and even worse this 2021, especially with the rising cases of peasant massacres and mass killings under the Duterte administration,” Ramos said.

He added that under President Duterte’s administration there are 21 incidents of peasant massacres and mass killings of farmers with 107 victims, based on the documentation of Tanggol Magsasaka.

Ramos blamed the absence of genuine agrarian reform and government projects such as the ‘Build, Build, Build’, which “authorizes the massive conversion of land for the building of arterial roads and linkages, mega-dams, airport, and railway expansions, among other big-ticket infrastructure projects that are the most common source of bureaucratic corruption.”

Members of progressive groups on Thursday condemned the Rizal Day killings of nine members of an indigenous community that is opposed to a dam project on Panay Island and demanded justice for the victims of what they called a “massacre.”

The Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives said it would seek a congressional investigation of the predawn raids on Dec. 30 by police and soldiers that led to the deaths of several leaders and members of the Tumandok, the largest ethnic group in the hinterlands of Panay.

“The year-end spate of killings in Panay is a chilling conclusion of a year marred by bloody attacks on rights defenders and ordinary citizens amid the pandemic,” said Rep. Arlene Brosas of Gabriela Women party list.

“These butchers in uniform have long been terrorizing communities since time immemorial. Now, under a bloodthirsty Commander in Chief, they have ramped up their efforts to silence the growing number of Filipinos calling for justice and opposing development aggression,” Brosas said.

She said the Gabriela Women’s Party and her colleagues in the Makabayan bloc would file a resolution to investigate the police and military operation.

The nine people were killed in separate raids in seven hinterland villages in Tapaz town, Capiz province, on Wednesday. One of them was Roy Giganto, chair of Tumanduk nga Mangunguma nga Nagapangapin sang Duta kag Kabuhi (Tumanduk), a former village chief and an incumbent village councilor of Barangay Lahug.

Tumanduk is an alliance of 17 indigenous communities in Tapaz and Jamindan towns in Capiz and Calinog in Iloilo. It is a member of Sandugo, an alliance of indigenous peoples organizations under Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan).

NPA rebels?

The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National Police said those killed were New People’s Army (NPA) rebels who fought back when the officers served search warrants and found firearms, ammunition and explosives in their houses.

Police said 16 other villagers in Tapaz and neighboring Calinog were arrested.

Lahug village chief Jobelyn Giganto, Roy’s sister-in-law and neighbor, said policemen barged into his house around 4 a.m. and “dragged his wife out [of the house] and shot him.”

“We are not armed and how can they say he fought back when all of us were asleep when they came,” Jobelyn told the Inquirer by phone on Thursday.

Another villager who was killed, Eliseo Gayas Jr. of Barangay Aglinab, was reportedly “tortured to the point of vomiting blood prior to his death,” according to Angelo Suarez, coconvener and spokesperson for Sama-samang Artista para sa Kilusang Agraryo.

Also killed in Lahug were Mario Aguirre and Reynaldo Katipunan. The other fatalities were Garson Catamin and Rolando Diaz of Nayawan village, Maurito Diaz of Tacayan, Artilito Katipunan of Acuña and Jomar Vidal of Daan-Sur. Fear on New Year’s Eve

Jobelyn said villagers were afraid to sleep in their own homes and planned to spend New Year’s Eve at the barangay day care center after most of their community and tribe leaders were killed.

“We fear that something will happen again while we are sleeping,” Jobelyn said.

“I have been telling the people here that despite what happened, we should continue to unite and face our situation together,” she said.

According to Danilo Ramos, chair of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, the Tumanduk leaders were fighting against the construction of the multibillion-peso Jalaur megadam in Calinog, Iloilo province, which would submerge their homes and farmlands in their ancestral land.

Some of them were also previously harassed and put under surveillance by the military, and most were accused of being rebels, Ramos said.

A month before the raids, the Tumanduk leaders were told by the military to sign up as NPA surrenderers, said Defend Negros spokesperson Ariel Casilao. When they refused, he said, they were warned that they could be charged under the new antiterrorism law. ‘Killed Negros-style’

“True enough, they were killed Negros-style,” he added, referring to the brutal massacre of farmers in Negros Oriental in 2018 and 2019.

ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro condemned the killing of indigenous peoples who were just protecting their ancestral lands “from destructive projects that do more harm than good for the Filipino people.”

“The Tumandok indigenous community has been vocal in resisting the construction of the Jalaur Mega Dam in Calinog, Iloilo. Because of their resistance and voices of dissent, they have been victims of Red-tagging and now EJKs (extrajudicial killings) and arrests on trumped-up charges,” Castro said.

“The Tumandok massacre proves further how Red-tagging kills and how the Duterte administration is determined to silence all voices of dissent,” she said.

The National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) said the Rizal Day killings showed that the Duterte administration “does not choose any time to sow terror” in rural communities.

“Innocent civilians and indigenous peoples continue to suffer due to the culture of impunity that remains even as the year is about to end,” the group said. Dam opponents

The activist science group Agham, which helped conduct an environmental investigation of the dam project, demanded justice for the Tumandok and the punishment of state forces for their “heinous crimes.”

The Jalaur River Multipurpose Project Phase II (JRMPP), locally called the Jalaur Dam, was designed to produce hydropower and supply water for irrigation in the province of Iloilo.

Agham said that in partnership with the Jalaur River for the People Movement, it found that the project proponent “failed to establish a detailed geological mapping and subsurface investigations that are crucial in determining the potential natural hazards that will affect the dam, particularly with regards to the stability of the structure and its foundation.”

It said that geologic hazards, such as earthquakes posed dangers to the dam, which may lead to massive flooding.

Agham said there also was no “free and prior informed consent” from the tribe, which is required by law for such projects in ancestral lands.

“Also, risks and possible negative impacts were still not addressed and were not communicated to the stakeholders. These key findings have validated the fears and concerns of the Tumandok people who are valiantly fighting for the protection of the people and the environment,” Agham said.

A peasant activist was shot to death by still unidentified motorcycle-riding assailants in Antequera town, Bohol around 9 a.m. on Wednesday.

Lorenzo “Dodoy” Paña, 55, a resident of Barangay Bantolinao in Antequera town, was driving his motorcycle around 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday when two men on board another motorcycle drove alongside him.

The backrider then pulled out a gun and shot Paña, who succumbed to gunshot wounds on his body.

Lt. Victor Tagsa Jr, acting chief of Antequera Municipal Police Station, said Paña was supposed to deliver lunch to his son who worked at a construction site in Barangay Dorol, Balilihan town when the incident happened.

Scene-of-the-Crime Operatives recovered two spent shells of an M16 rifle and four empty shells of a .45-caliber gun.

Investigators have yet to identify the suspects as well as the motive behind the killing.

The Hugpong sa Mag-uumang Bol-anon-Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Humabol-KMP) said in a statement that Paña was a former officer of Hugpong sa Mag-uuma Dapit sa Kasadpan (Humanda Ka), a district formation of Humabol chapters in the first district of Bohol.

Paña, along with his wife and children, voluntarily worked in the construction of a coconut processing plant managed by farmers’ organizations in Barangay Tinibgan in Maribojoc town, which now produces virgin coconut oil.

Paña and his family have been repeatedly red-tagged and harassed by the police and the military even if he was no longer a full-time organizer of Humanda Ka.

Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 24 ordered the arrest of Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and reporter Rambo Talabong for cyber libel over the latter's investigative story about an alleged corruption scheme at the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (CSB).

In that scheme, students allegedly paid P20,000 to pass their thesis subject.

Judge Maria Victoria Soriano-Villadolid issued arrest warrants against Ressa and Talabong on Monday, January 11, and recommended bail amounting to P30,000 each. It was Talabong's first arrest warrant and his first libel case, while it was Ressa's 10th arrest warrant and her 3rd cyber libel case in less than two years.

Talabong, who wrote the allegedly libelous story, posted bail on Thursday, January 14, while Ressa posted bail the day before, on Wednesday, January 13 – both ahead of the service of the warrants against them. Arraignment and pre-trial of the case has been set for February 4 at 8:30 am.

Reacting to the cyber libel case against him, Talabong said, "I stand by our story. I spent weeks reporting, and weeks more doing everything, to ensure that the story is fair. This case further proves that decriminalizing libel is imperative. No journalist should be intimidated for doing his job."

Advertisement

To date, there have been 28 libel/cyber libel cases filed against journalists under President Rodrigo Duterte, as of November 28, 2020, according to the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines. The story

The cyber libel complaint was filed in October 2020 by Benilde faculty member Ariel Pineda, whom a student accused of accepting payments in exchange for passing students in their thesis subjects under him.

Talabong wrote the story, "Thesis for sale: Benilde students say they paid P20,000 to pass," published on January 23, 2020, based on a documented complaint filed with the school against Pineda by a student – AK Paras – who spoke on the record. Ressa was not at all involved in the writing and editing of Talabong's story.

CSB confirmed to Rappler, as indicated in the story, that the school was already investigating Paras' complaint.

In his complaint, Pineda said that Talabong's story contained "libelous, malicious and defamatory statements using their own website and linking it to the other social media platform to ensure that they accomplished their purpose of attacking the complainant's credibility, to discredit, demean and to shame him."

As mentioned in his story, Talabong sought Pineda's side but the faculty member said through email that he would consult his superior first. Though the draft story was written in December 2019, it was not published until January 2020 to give Pineda enough time to respond to repeated requests to air his side.

Advertisement

"Will have to consult your request with my superior and keep you posted," Pineda wrote Talabong in an email on January 2, 2020.

Talabong followed up with Pineda 3 more times, and tried to reach Pineda through Benilde's Export Management Program Department phone line, but he no longer received any response.

After the story was published, CSB Chancellor Robert Tang released a statement, saying that the school's Human Resources Services was "in the process of completing the investigation." No malice

In his affidavit submitted to Manila Senior Assistant City Prosecutor John Allen Farinas, Talabong said: "The care and prudence taken in verifying the information and the extent to which the side of Mr Pineda had been sought show the due diligence on my, and Rappler's, part before the story was even written and posted. This belies Mr Pineda's unfounded claim of malice."

Talabong, through Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) lawyer Ted Te, former spokesperson of the Supreme Court, argued that "there was no malice in the writing and posting of the story, which is impressed with public interest and also falls under privilege." In his story, Talabong specified that Rappler would update the article once he gets a reply from Pineda, which he never did.

Advertisement

But in a resolution dated December 7, 2020, Farinas said he found "probable cause" to charge Talabong and Ressa with libel.

In a statement, Te said, "We are studying the resolution, which we disagree with, and will exhaust all possible legal remedies to have the same dismissed." Decriminalize libel

Te also said this new cyber libel case is "disturbing because it seems like cyber libel is now the first option in case of disagreement on reporting. That is the problem with libel and cyber libel laws, which make these acts criminal – a private dispute becomes a public offense where the government gets involved; as a result, the implications on freedom of expression and of the press are significant. Perhaps Congress should consider whether it is high time to decriminalize libel and cyber libel."

For its part, Rappler said in a statement that it stands by the story and the "rigorous process that we went through before publishing it. While libel suits are part of the risks that come with the profession, we also know that they are a tool that is used to intimidate journalists who expose wrongdoing."

"We reiterate the multi-sectoral call to decriminalize libel and to stop these relentless attacks against journalists who, despite obstacles thrown their way, continue to shine the light on the pandemic and other forms of everyday terror."

Windel Bolinget is an indigenous rights defender and the Chairperson of the Cordillera PeoplesAlliance (CPA), an alliance of over 300 indigenous people’s organisations in the Cordillera region ofthe Philippines. The human rights defender has been leading many of CPA’s campaigns againsthuman rights violations such as extrajudicial killings, trumped-up cases, enforced disappearance,harassment, and intimidation of Cordillera indigenous peoples. He has also been at the forefront oflocal movements against large-scale mining projects, mega-dams and other projects that pose athreat to the environment.

On 6 August 2020, a criminal case was filed at Davao del Norte, against ten individuals, includingindigenous rights defender Windel Bolinget, for their alleged involvement in the murder of GaritoMalibato, a member of a local indigenous peoples organisation called Karadyawan, on 21 March2018.

On 25 September 2020, the Regional Trial Court in Tagum City issued a warrant of arrest formurder against the individuals. However, the CAP and Windel Bolinget were only made aware ofthe arrest warrant in the last week of December 2020.The murder charges brought against the defender appear to be completely fabricated. WindelBolinget has never been to Barangay Gupitan, Kapalong, where Garito Malibato was murdered.Following the murder, local indigenous organisations pointed to a paramilitary group as theperpetrators. Further, a relative of the victim also expressed that Malibato had received severaldeath threats from the same paramilitary group before he was killed. With the defender yet to be arrested, police intelligence agents have regularly been approachingrelatives, friends and colleagues of the human rights defender, interrogating them for informationon his whereabouts. There has also been heavy physical surveillance, with men, believed to bemembers and assets of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police,walking around Windel Bolinget’s house and also the regional secretariat of the CPA, in search forthe defender.Windel Bolinget’s family and colleagues fear that, if the defender is arrested, he maybe subjected to the “tokhang”-style execution (extrajudicial killing under the pretext of “resistingarrest” or “nanlaban/fought back”), which is a common occurrence in the country.This is not the first time that the defender has been targeted for his peaceful human rights work. In2006, Windel Bolinget was included in a military hit list, along with other leaders of the CPA. InFebruary 2018, the Department of Justice’s terrorist proscription list included the defender’s nameand that of former CPA leaders. Their names were eventually dropped from the list due to lack ofproof. Since mid 2020, the targeting of the defender has intensified, with many pages on socialmedia branding him, his family and his colleagues as terrorists. On 10 December 2020, flyers witha photo of the defender and text calling him immoral and recruiter of the armed revolutionarygroup, New Peoples Army, were scattered along the road 80 from his house in La Trinidad,Benguet to Baguio City.

On the celebration of Human Rights Day on Thursday, December 10, the Philippine National Police (PNP) launched a string of operations which led to the arrest of a journalist and 6 trade unionists over firearms and explosives possession charges that are believed by rights groups to be fabricated.

The operations were led by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) – the police unit tasked to handle high-profile and special cases – which acquired 5 search warrants for 4 different homes in Metro Manila. The search warrants were all signed by Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert, Executive Judge of the Regional Trial Court Branch 89 in Quezon City.

By Thursday afternoon, the following were arrested by the CIDG:

Journalist Lady Ann Salem
Unionist Dennise Velasco
Unionist Mark Ryan Cruz
Unionist Romina Raiselle Astudillo
Unionist Jaymie Gregorio
Unionist Joel Demate
Unionist Rodrigo Esparago

They were all arrested over illegal possession of firearms and explosives – the usual charges against activists.

Salem is a recognized progressive journalist working as an editor of the online news site Manila Today. Her publication was earlier red-tagged by the controversial National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

In a statement, rights group Karapatan condemned the arrests as a "mockery" of the celebration of Human Rights Day. "The fact they were staged today, on the very occasion of International Human Rights Day, sends a loud message: this fascist regime will stop at nothing to bare its fangs against activists, human rights defenders, trade unionists, journalists, and critics as it ramps up its crackdown on dissent in the most brazen of ways," rights group Karapatan said in a statement, condemning the arrests.

Prosecutors claimed Ressa's tweeting of a Philstar.com story published in 2002 was malicious. The news group, saying it was threatened with legal action, took down the article the same day Ressa tweeted the screenshot.

This is uncharted territory for the new Philippine cybercrime law. Ressa filed a motion to quash on Wednesday, December 2, citing a Supreme Court decision that says aiding and abetting a cyber crime is not a crime in itself. In this context, it refers to tweeting screenshots of a supposedly libelous article.

The complaint was filed in February 2020 in Makati by businessman Wilfredo Keng, whose earlier suit in Manila got Ressa and former researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr convicted of cyber libel in June this year. The conviction is on appeal at the Court of Appeals (CA).

In charging Ressa before a Makati court on November 23, Makati prosecutors said that the journalist's tweeting of screenshots was not a mere act of sharing – an act, which the Supreme Court ruled, could not be described as criminal because it constitutes knee-jerk internet reaction.

Advertisement

"Obviously, the foregoing cannot be considered a knee-jerk reaction on the part of respondent, hence, she should be liable for the consequences of her Twitter post," said the resolution signed by Senior Assistant City Prosecutor Mark Anthony Nuguit, and approved by Senior Assistant City Prosecutors Aris Saldua-Manguera and Roberto Lao.

The motion to quash prepared by Ressa's lawyer Ted Te of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), said: "(Ressa) is not the author of the defamatory PhilStar.com article, she cannot be made liable for sharing or RT’ing the content under Section 4(c)(4) (online libel)."

Ressa posted bail on Friday, November 27, before Makati City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 147 Judge Maria Amifaith S. Fider-Reyes, who issued the arrest warrant that same day and set bail at P24,000. This is Ressa's 9th arrest warrant for what she claims are "politically motivated charges" meant to intimidate her. PhilStar takes down its story

The case stemmed from a tweet that Ressa posted on February 16, 2019, three days after the journalist was arrested for the Manila case.

Ressa tweeted screenshots of an August 12, 2002 Philstar.com article linking Keng to an alleged murder. On the same day in February 2019, Philstar.com issued a statement that said it had removed the 2002 news story from its site because, according to the news organization, Keng had raised "the possibility of legal action" against the company.

Advertisement

Ressa had argued to prosecutors that when the Supreme Court upheld the Cybercrime Law, it declared unconstitutional the provision that punishes the aiding and abetting of a cybercrime which, in this context, means sharing a supposedly libelous post.

"Except for the original author of the assailed statement, the rest (those who pressed Like, Comment and Share) are essentially knee-jerk sentiments of readers who may think little or haphazardly of their response to the original posting," the Supreme Court had said.

"Its vagueness raises apprehension on the part of internet users because of its obvious chilling effect on the freedom of expression, especially since the crime of aiding or abetting ensnares all the actors in the cyberspace front in a fuzzy way," the Supreme Court added.

Posting of screenshots of deleted articles and posts have been a habit of gutsy Filipino social media users as a way of protesting revisionism, for example. Not a mere share

In Ressa's case, Makati prosecutors said the journalist's posting of the screenshot "involved a series of physical acts and mental or decision-making processes," citing as example the effort to search for the deleted article, screenshot it, post it on Twitter and make a caption.

"(The Supreme Court) opined that online libel (is not applicable) to others who merely pressed like, comment and share because these are essentially knee-jerk sentiments of readers who may think little or haphazardly of their response to the original posting. In this instant complaint, respondent did not merely press the share button," said the prosecutors.

Advertisement

Ressa's motion to quash argued that the only content that the journalist should be accountable for is the accompanying caption of the screenshots, which was: “Here’s the 2002 article on the ‘private businessman’ who filed the cyberlibel case, which was thrown out by the NBI then revived by the DOJ. #HoldTheLine”

"By any reasonable and unbiased reading, the sentence is not defamatory—read singly, none of the words are; read together, the sentence is not. The sentence is correct, true, and factual," said the motion.

Before filing the complaint, Keng demanded in November 2019 that Ressa delete the tweet and make a public apology "otherwise we shall be constrained to file a complaint for cyber libel against you."

Ressa had said she will never delete the tweet, reasoning, "Imagine if I said, 'Well, this a really, really small thing and maybe I'll just step back just a little bit,' and then I step back a thousand times and a million times, then I've just lost all my rights."

Ressa faces 7 other charges before the Court of Tax Appeals and the Pasig City Regional Trial Court, stemming from the mother case over the company's Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs), which the Court of Appeals (CA) has ruled to be already cured.

Peasant organizations and Anakpawis Partylist denounced the arrest of Amanda Echanis and her one-month old son.

Amanda is the daughter of extrajudicially killed Randall “Ka Randy’ Echanis. She was arrested early morning of December 2, Tuesday, in Baggao, Cagayan.

It was 3:30 a.m. of December 2 when combined forces of police and military raided the house of Isabelo Adviento of Danggayan Dagiti Mannalo ti Cagayan Valley, regional chapter of peasant organization Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, without search warrant. The raiding team showed a search warrant one hour later.

Amanda’s house is just three houses away from Adviento’s and was also raided. She was then arrested together with her one-month old newborn, Randall Emmanuel. She was charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

Former Anakpawis Partylist Representative Ariel Casilao condemned what he called as planting of evidence against activist, adding that this not at all new and has been a practice by state forces in an attempt to silence dissent.

Adviento was not at home at the time of the raid. His family members were reportedly ordered to go out of the house during the duration of the search.

The police reportedly found an M16 assault rifle, 1 long plastic magazine for M16 rifle, 1 long steel magazine for M16 Rifle, 6 pieces live ammunition for M16 Rifle, 13 pieces live ammunition for M16 rifle, 1 live ammo for M16 rifle.

“She is with her one-month old newborn. Why would she keep high-powered arms and ammunition that everyone would know would be dangerous to herself and her baby,” Casilao said.

Casilao likened Amanda’s case to those of Reina Mae Nasino and Cora Agovida from Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) – Metro Manila and Gabriela respectively.

Casilao said that Echanis, who is a member of Amihan – Cagayan, “is active in campaign for the welfare of small farmers, especially peasant women.”

Adviento, meanwhile, has been active in promoting human rights in the region and handles farmers’ concerns regarding land rights in their community. Of late, he has been busy helping fellow farmers who have been affected by the massive flooding caused by typhoon Ulysses.

“Before the raid, we have been working extra hours to give victims of typhoon here in our province necessary aid,” Adviento said.

It was only late morning that day of the raid when he knew his house was raided, and his family members including his small children kicked out of the house.

His wife said that when she tried to go inside their house to get hot water, she saw unfamiliar plastic bags in their living room. Adviento believes it contains the evidence used against at him.

“It is the very place where my children would play,” he lamented.

Despite the trumped-up charges, Adviento said that he and his colleagues will continue to “serve the people.”

Camarines Norte journalists Virgilio “Bagwis” Avila Jr., Deo Trininad, and Mia Concordia were arrested and detained Tuesday, November 10, for several counts of cyber libel filed against them by Camarines Norte governor Edgar Tallado.

As of this writing, all three have been released after six hours in detention after posting bail.

First to be arrested was Avila, who was served a warrant by local police headed by SSgt. Jesus Tugorez. Concordia was arrested when she visited Avila in jail.

Hearing of his colleagues’ arrest, Trinidad turned himself in a few hours later.

The warrant of arrest, issued by Judge Ivan Dizon of the Regional Trial Court Branch 40, said each of the three face four counts of cyber libel, with bail set at 80,000 pesos for each count.

However, the charges against Trinidad and Concordia were reduced to one count. Avila remains accused of four counts.

The cyber libel cases stemmed from posts the journalists made separately on their personal Facebook accounts criticizing the local government’s alleged negligence in its COVID-19 response as well as corruption.

Avila also faces a separate libel case filed against him and four other journalists, including Rommel Ibasco Fenix, who was arrested last September 15 while hosting his local radio program. Their charges were filed by provincial board members Romeo Marmol and Rodolfo Gache. Avila claims that, like Fenix, libel cases filed against him earlier over his radio program have been resurfacing lately.

A leader of coconut farmers in Quezon was shot dead, November 14, by unknown assailants.

Armando Buisan, chairperson of the General Luna chapter of Coco Levy Fund Ibalik sa Amin (CLAIM), was found dead in barangay Santa Maria, Catanauan, some 24 kilometers from where he lived, according to initial reports by Karapatan Quezon.

Buisan was a copra farmer and a resident of sitio Luyahan, barangay Magsaysay, General Luna, Quezon. He fought for the rights of coconut farmers in the community for almost three decades and was a well-known leader.

Buisan, who was 60 when he was gunned down, was subjected to harassment over the years. In 2019, the military presented him alongside 39 others as a “rebel surrenderee” in a staged ceremony in General Luna.

“The farmers’ call for higher prices of copra and lukad (coconut meat) and for aid, in this time of successive storms and a pandemic, were met with summary killings from the state and the military,” said Orly Marcellana, secretary-general of the regional farmers’ organization Katipunan ng Samahan ng Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan (KASAMA-TK).

In a statement, Karapatan Timog Katagalugan decried the “latest cases of extra-judicial killing during the time of pandemic.”

“Although a storm had just passed over the province, human rights violations are still rampant and the desperate moves of these butchers in government still prevail. They still prioritize their bloody counter-insurgency operation, affecting civilians, instead of assisting those affected by the storm,” the group said.

General Luna is part of the Bondoc Peninsula in Quezon. Three successive storms (Typhoon Quinta, Supertyphoon Rolly, and Typhoon Ulysses, international names Molave, Goni, and Vamco, respectively) hit the area in the span of one month and caused widespread devastation and flooding in the area.

A large number of evacuees have yet to return, while houses and crops were ruined. The Department of Agriculture, meanwhile, estimates that the three storms caused over P10 billion worth of damage nationwide.

Adding to this, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are still felt in General Luna as limited transportation and months of economic shutdown have severely affected the coconut farmers in the area. Groups like KASAMA-TK and CLAIM have long clamored for additional aid and subsidies to farmers, as well as price controls to protect against losses in profit.

Despite all of this, however, reports from progressive organizations Anakbayan Quezon and Karapatan Quezon state that police and military units, particularly the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ 85th Infantry Battalion, remain active in “harassing farmers and accusing them of being members of the New People’s Army.”

KASAMA-TK is calling for justice for the slain peasant leader. A fact-finding mission is currently underway to investigate the details of Buisan’s murder.

A journalist was shot and killed by government soldiers in Milagros, Masbate, last Saturday, November 14.

Ronnie Villamor, 50, a stringer for local tabloid Dos Kantos Balita was killed by troops led by a certain 2nd Lieutenant Maydim Jomadil after covering an aborted survey of a disputed property.

Villamor was also a pastor of the Life in Christ Church.

A spot report on the incident by Milagros police chief Major Aldrin Rosales quoted army troops as saying they were investigating the presence of five armed men in Barangat Matanglad who fled at their approach.

The army and the police said Villamor was a New People’s Army (NPA) member who allegedly drew a firearm when ordered to stop his motorcycle at a Scout Platoon-2nd Infantry Battalion Philippine Army checkpoint.

The victim’s colleagues however disputed the soldiers’ version of the incident, saying there was no encounter between the government soldiers and the NPA.

Masbate Tri-Media President Dadong Briones Sr. told Dos Kantos Balita the victim just came from a coverage of an aborted survey of a piece of land being disputed by certain Dimen family and businessman Randy Favis.

Favis’s goons reportedly prevented the survey from proceeding, prompting the surveyors to return to mainland Bicol and the victim to proceed to his brother Arthur’s house at Barangay Bonbon.

Dos Kantos Balita reported that witnesses saw army troopers flagging down the victim and, after being identified by Favis’s men Johnrey Floresta and Eric Desilva, shot Villamor dead.

In a statement, the Masbate chapter of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) condemned the killing of their colleague and demands a thorough investigation of the incident.

“The killing of our colleague…at the hands of government soldiers sends a chilling message to us journalists not only here in Masbate but all throughout the country,” the victims’ colleagues said.

Villamor is the fourth journalist murdered in Masbate after Joaquin Briones (March 13, 2017), Antonio Castillo (June 12, 2009), and Nelson Nedura (December 2, 2003), the NUJP said.

“He (Villamor) is the 19th slain during the Duterte administration and the 191st since 1986. He was also the second killed this month, only four days after NUJP member Virgilio Maganes, who had survived an attempt on his life in 2016, was shot dead outside his home in Villasis town, Pangasinan,” the group added.

Authorities arrested on Sunday, Oct. 25, an Igorot woman leader who has been consistent in defending their ancestral land in Lubuagan, Kalinga.

According to the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA) and the Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA), a composite team from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), Philippine National Police and Philippine Army came to the Western Uma and Lower Uma villages at 4:00 a.m. to search several houses, including that of Beatrice Belen, a leader of Innabuyog-Kalinga, the local chapter of Gabriela.

Belen, her husband and her two children were led outside of their home before the search was conducted. The police later claimed they found firearms and explosives, and proceeded to arrest and detain Belen at the Tabuk City Jail. The CHRA said Belen has been placed in a cell with male detainees.

In a statement, Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan, condemned the arrest of Belen. “Like other activists who were arrested on questionable legal bases, Belen has asserted that those allegedly seized in her home were not hers nor of any member of her family,” she said.

Palabay noted that before the incident, Belen was tagged as a communist by soldiers belonging to the Philippine Army’s 503rd Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army.

The arrest of Belen, Palabay said, is a “very clear example of the dangers of red-tagging, resulting in violations to the right to life, liberty and security of human rights defenders, including indigenous women human rights defenders who are fighting for their communities’ land, resources and rights.”

Staunch defender of ancestral land

In a statement, the CPA said that for decades, Belen has shown strong leadership in her community against destructive projects.

In 2012, the CPA said that Belen led the campaign against Chevron Energy company’s geothermal power project in Kalinga, “citing detrimental effects of the said project to lives and health of the community members, especially women and children.”

In 2018, Belen was awarded Gawad Bayani ng Kalikasan (Environmental Hero) for her sustained defense of their ancestral land from destruction by private companies.

The CPA further said that as Belen has continued to oppose the geothermal project and human rights violations in their village, harassment and threats against her also persisted.

Palabay called for the immediate release of Belen. She added that placing Belen in a cell with other male detainees is in direct violation of the Nelson Mandela Rules or the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.

Palabay said that the overcrowded and unsanitary prisons in the country are among the “most vulnerable places for women, where numerous forms of sexual violence are most likely to happen.”

Karapatan said Belen is the most most recent among Gabriela’s regional leaders who have been arrested on “fabricated charges.” Last July 7, Gabriela’s national vice chairperson, Jenelyn Nagrampa was also arrested in Camarines Sur.

Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Arlene Brosas also expressed strong condemnation of Belen’s arrest.

“Facing a stinging rebuke of their red-tagging spree, the military has resorted to the use of state terror and naked force in silencing women’s rights defenders with the arrest of Manang Betty [Belen],” Brosas said.

Brosas appealed to the public to “strongly denounce Belen’s arrest in the same way that we stand for celebrities who are red-tagged by the military.”

Brosas lambasted the police and military “for once again planting evidence to detain another woman leader,” citing the cases of Reina Mae Nasino and Cora Agovida.

Based on Karapatan’s documentation, there are 102 women political prisoners, most if not all are women human rights defenders, who are languishing in various jails and detention centers in the country.

Baguio-based online media outfit Northern Dispatch decries harassment as another cyber libel case is filed against its editor-in-chief, Kimberlie Ngabit-Quitasol.

Two courts initially dismissed the libel charge filed against Quitasol early this year but it was elevated to cyber libel and refiled in another court. La Trinidad, Benguet Provincial Prosecutor Andres Gondayao first filed the libel case against Quitasol at the Regional Trial Court Branch 59 in Baguio City, but it was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.

Gondayao then refiled the case at the La Trinidad Municipal Trial Court, and was also dismissed for the same reason.

The prosecutor then filed another case against Quitasol at the RTC 59 in Baguio City on Sept. 28, and amended the charge to cyber libel, which has stiffer penalties than regular libel.

The charges were all based on the complaint of Police Regional Office Cordillera Regional Director Brigadier General R’Win Pagkalinawan, who also filed a similar case against NorDis volunteer, Khim Abalos, last Sept. 22.

The cyber libel case stemmed from Quitasol’s article published in the Northern Dispatch website last April 7, about human rights alliance Karapatan’s reaction to Pagkalinawan’s order “to shoot communist organizers who unnecessarily organize people during the COVID-19 lockdown.”

The police general claimed that both Quitasol and Abalos deliberately removed a part of his statement, “kapag nanlaban.” (if they fought back) The omission, according to the complaint, was done in order to portray the Pagkalinawan in a negative light.

Quitasol said they never received a subpoena summoning them to the courts despite being charged three times.

“The filing of cases against two Nordis staff, me included, is an escalation of attacks against our media group,” said Quitasol.

Quitasol also claimed that attacks and harassment against their team steadily worsened under the current government but she vowed to “remain steadfast and continue to defend the people’s right to truth and information.”

NorDis has been consistent in its reporting of indigenous peoples’ issues and human rights violations in Cordillera and Ilocos regions.

“We have been holding the line too long enough, it is time to push back,” Quitasol said.

Journalist Jobert “Polpog” Bercasio was shot dead as he was riding a scooter in Sorgoson City, Sorgoson, Luzon on the evening of September 14. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its affiliate the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) in condemning the killing and calls on the authorities to conduct a swift investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Bercasio, a former radio reporter who ran his own Balangibog TV channel on social media, was killed by two gunmen riding in tandem on a motorcycle. The police found empty casings of an M16 rifle at the crime scene. According to Sorsogon City Police Chief Supt. Benito Dipad, Bercasio died on the spot.

Bercasio hosted a program broadcast via Facebook live and commented on social issues, including illegal logging. He has been described as a “hard-hitting” commentator. An hour before the killing, Bercasio wrote on his personal Facebook page about the irregular movement of trucks from a “quarry area” in Bulan town.

According to NUJP, Bercasio is the 17th journalist killed under President Rodrigo Duterte's rule and the 189th since 1986. This year, he is the second journalist killed, after radio host Cornelio “Rex Cornelio” Pepino was gunned down by two men on separate motorcycles in Dumaguete City on May 5, just days after World Press Freedom Day.

NUJP said: “NUJP stresses again that we see no official government policy at work in the continuing murder of journalists and other attacks on the press. But the general disinterest, apathy even, in solving and, just as important, bringing an end to media killings and the harassment of journalists have served to embolden those who seek to silence those in the profession of truth.”

A human rights leader has been killed in the central Philippines in what observers and rights defenders have said is a continuing escalation of the “war against dissent” under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Zara Alvarez, former education director of the human rights alliance Karapatan, died on the spot after being shot six times on Monday evening as she was heading home after buying food for dinner. She was the 13th member of the organisation killed since mid-2016, when Duterte came to power, the group said.

Police said Alvarez was killed by an unidentified assailant in the central city of Bacolod. Witnesses reportedly chased the attacker, who got away with the help of an accomplice on a motorcycle.

On Wednesday, government investigators promised to investigate the case, adding that they are looking into the victim’s affiliation with alleged “leftist groups” as a possible lead for the attack.

Alvarez’s death comes just weeks after Duterte signed into law controversial anti-terror legislation, which allows for warrantless arrests and longer detentions without charge – provisions that legal experts warned could be directed at anyone criticising the president.

Karapatan’s national leader, Cristina Palabay, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that given the circumstances of Alvarez’s murder, she is blaming the government.

“Considering the prior threats that they received from state forces, it is not really far from our mind that those who killed them are from the state forces,” she said, adding that Alvarez was among those listed by Duterte’s justice department as suspected “terrorists”.

Palabay pointed out that with the coronavirus pandemic, cities have imposed curfews and set up checkpoints in their respective areas.

“Everything is on lockdown, isn’t it? The streets are very much guarded by state forces with all the checkpoints. And yet, the killers were able to get through these cordons of state forces.” Failed peace talks

Communist rebels have been fighting a rebellion for more than 50 years in a conflict that has so far killed more than 30,000 people. In recent years, the number of rebel fighters has dropped significantly, and there have been several attempts by both the government and communist leaders to reach a peace agreement.

During his 2016 campaign for the presidency, Duterte promised to negotiate with the rebels and found some allies among activist groups, proclaiming himself as the country’s “first leftist president”. As mayor of the city of Davao, Duterte had also established cordial ties with the communists.

But while he quickly initiated talks with the rebels once taking office, negotiations collapsed in mid-2017.

Since then, the president has stepped up his rhetoric against the rebels, declaring them “terrorists” and pledging to wipe them out after a series of recent ambushes against government troops.

As the prospects of a peace deal with communists dimmed, Duterte even goaded the military in early 2018 to shoot female rebels in their genitals to render them “useless”.

Later that year, Duterte ordered more military troops and police to Negros Occidental – where Bacolod is the capital – and two other central Philippine regions, “to suppress lawless violence and acts of terror”.

He also created a national task force “to end local communist armed conflict”.

Duterte also directed his ire against other activists, farmers organisations, land rights campaigners, as well as those who have openly criticised his deadly war on drugs and other alleged rights abuses.

Around the same time, the military and other officials in the Duterte administration started accusing several activist groups of acting as “fronts” of the rebels, raising fears that they could be killed after the president tagged the communists as “terrorist”.

The government has denied carrying out targeted killings, and said that those who have been killed had resisted arrest. Advocate for farmers

Alvarez, the 39-year-old rights leader killed on Monday, had been advocating for years for farmers’ rights in Negros, a resource-rich island, where a few politically connected families own vast tracts of sugarcane plantations.

In 2019, she led a group of farmers in documenting and denouncing alleged rights abuses by government troops following the killing of farmworkers, accused of being members of the communist rebels. Alvarez herself was accused of being a rebel sympathiser, or an outright rebel member.

In an interview with Al Jazeera’s 101 East in 2019, Alvarez said that with regards to the recent killings in Negros, “it is very clear that it is the police who killed those victims.”

Authorities denied those allegations and have pledged to investigate the dozens of killings, although no suspects have been apprehended or prosecuted.

Now, Alvarez herself has been killed.

Palabay said her group, Karapatan, and other activist groups are in anguish with the series of killings of their colleagues, including Alvarez.

In a statement obtained by Al Jazeera, San Carlos Catholic Bishop Gerardo Alminaza decried the death of Alvarez saying that her work on behalf of the poor residents of Negros “is worthy of emulation”.

The Philippines’ National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) also condemned the killing, saying Alvarez was “a constant force in the struggle for justice” for farmers in her hometown.

In a separate social media post, NUPL President Edre Olalia said that “the obvious intent” of the Alvarez’s killing was “to sow terror”.

Earlier on Monday, activists buried Randall Echanis, one of the land rights activists who negotiated for a peace deal with the Duterte administration.

Echanis, head of the urban poor organisation, Anakpawis, was killed on August 10 following an alleged encounter with police in Metro Manila. His relatives, however, said the 72-year old activist was undergoing medical treatment and unarmed when he was killed.

The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict has accused reporter Atom Araullo from GMA broadcast network of spreading inaccurate news following a documentary on the education of the Lumad indigenous group. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its affiliate the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) to denounce the accusation and urge the authorities to respect the independence of media institutions and journalists.

Araullo highlighted the Lumad schools in Metro Manila in a 20-minutes documentary entitled Ang Iskul kong Bakwit or My refugee School in the I-Witness program which was premiered on GMA on August 14.

The documentary focuses on the efforts of the Lumad young generation, from Mindanao, to seek an education. They left their hometown to pursue an education in Metro Manila. However, the government closed the schools, arguing that the curriculum was unsuitable to their cultural heritage. Volunteer Lumad teachers joined forces to keep one school running with the financial help from international NGOs. The school’s location was kept confidential so as not to jeopardise the student’s access to education. Indigenous people have long faced challenges in securing their basic rights, including access to education, and are often displaced from their traditional lands.

Following the airing of documentary, Datu Rico Maca, the Indigenous People Mandatory Representative (IPMR) of San Miguel, Surigao del Sur, published a statement decrying the documentary. He said it presented a one-sided story, calling the documentary a “blatant propagandistic documentary”.

This statement then was reiterated by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict through its Facebook post published on August 17. The agency said that documentary failed to describe the reasons behind the closure of the Lumad schools, accusing the schools of being “terrorist training camps set up by the CPP NPA NDF”. The task force also added that students were trained to be child warriors and radicalised with the violent and communist ideology.

A human rights leader has been killed in the central Philippines in what observers and rights defenders have said is a continuing escalation of the "war against dissent" under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Zara Alvarez, former education director of the human rights alliance Karapatan, died on the spot after being shot six times on Monday evening as she was heading home after buying food for dinner. She was the 13th member of the organisation killed since mid-2016, when Duterte came to power, the group said.

Police said Alvarez was killed by an unidentified assailant in the central city of Bacolod. Witnesses reportedly chased the attacker, who got away with the help of an accomplice on a motorcycle.

On Wednesday, government investigators promised to investigate the case, adding that they are looking into the victim's affiliation with alleged "leftist groups" as a possible lead for the attack.

Alvarez's death comes just weeks after Duterte signed into law controversial anti-terror legislation, which allows for warrantless arrests and longer detentions without charge - provisions that legal experts warned could be directed at anyone criticising the president.

Karapatan's national leader, Cristina Palabay, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that given the circumstances of Alvarez's murder, she is blaming the government.

"Considering the prior threats that they received from state forces, it is not really far from our mind that those who killed them are from the state forces," she said, adding that Alvarez was among those listed by Duterte's justice department as suspected "terrorists".

Palabay pointed out that with the coronavirus pandemic, cities have imposed curfews and set up checkpoints in their respective areas.

"Everything is on lockdown, isn't it? The streets are very much guarded by state forces with all the checkpoints. And yet, the killers were able to get through these cordons of state forces." Failed peace talks

Communist rebels have been fighting a rebellion for more than 50 years in a conflict that has so far killed more than 30,000 people. In recent years, the number of rebel fighters has dropped significantly, and there have been several attempts by both the government and communist leaders to reach a peace agreement.

During his 2016 campaign for the presidency, Duterte promised to negotiate with the rebels and found some allies among activist groups, proclaiming himself as the country's "first leftist president". As mayor of the city of Davao, Duterte had also established cordial ties with the communists.

But while he quickly initiated talks with the rebels once taking office, negotiations collapsed in mid-2017.

Since then, the president has stepped up his rhetoric against the rebels, declaring them "terrorists" and pledging to wipe them out after a series of recent ambushes against government troops.

As the prospects of a peace deal with communists dimmed, Duterte even goaded the military in early 2018 to shoot female rebels in their genitals to render them "useless".

Later that year, Duterte ordered more military troops and police to Negros Occidental - where Bacolod is the capital - and two other central Philippine regions, "to suppress lawless violence and acts of terror".

He also created a national task force "to end local communist armed conflict".

Duterte also directed his ire against other activists, farmers organisations, land rights campaigners, as well as those who have openly criticised his deadly war on drugs and other alleged rights abuses.

Around the same time, the military and other officials in the Duterte administration started accusing several activist groups of acting as "fronts" of the rebels, raising fears that they could be killed after the president tagged the communists as "terrorist".

The government has denied carrying out targeted killings, and said that those who have been killed had resisted arrest. Advocate for farmers

Alvarez, the 39-year-old rights leader killed on Monday, had been advocating for years for farmers' rights in Negros, a resource-rich island, where a few politically connected families own vast tracts of sugarcane plantations.

In 2019, she led a group of farmers in documenting and denouncing alleged rights abuses by government troops following the killing of farmworkers, accused of being members of the communist rebels. Alvarez herself was accused of being a rebel sympathiser, or an outright rebel member.

In an interview with Al Jazeera's 101 East in 2019, Alvarez said that with regards to the recent killings in Negros, "it is very clear that it is the police who killed those victims."

Authorities denied those allegations and have pledged to investigate the dozens of killings, although no suspects have been apprehended or prosecuted.

Now, Alvarez herself has been killed.

Palabay said her group, Karapatan, and other activist groups are in anguish with the series of killings of their colleagues, including Alvarez.

In a statement obtained by Al Jazeera, San Carlos Catholic Bishop Gerardo Alminaza decried the death of Alvarez saying that her work on behalf of the poor residents of Negros "is worthy of emulation".

The Philippines' National Union of Peoples' Lawyers (NUPL) also condemned the killing, saying Alvarez was "a constant force in the struggle for justice" for farmers in her hometown.

In a separate social media post, NUPL President Edre Olalia said that "the obvious intent" of the Alvarez's killing was "to sow terror".

Earlier on Monday, activists buried Randall Echanis, one of the land rights activists who negotiated for a peace deal with the Duterte administration.

Echanis, head of the urban poor organisation, Anakpawis, was killed on August 10 following an alleged encounter with police in Metro Manila. His relatives, however, said the 72-year old activist was undergoing medical treatment and unarmed when he was killed.

Randall Echanis, peace consultant and known peasant leader, was killed in a house raid early this morning, August 10 in Novaliches, Quezon City.

Echanis, 72, was seeking medical treatment.

�Our anger is beyond words. This is a culture of extrajudicial killings with impunity under the Duterte regime. This is a declaratory act that national leaders of legal-democratic movement are now targeted to be killed by the Duterte regime. The entire civil society, human rights advocates and freedom fighters must totally denounce this criminal act,� said former Anakpawis Rep. Ariel Casilao.

Echanis was first arrested under the Marcos dictatorship, where he was detained incommunicado. He was released in 1986. He and wife Linda, along with their then two-year-old daughter were arrested four years later. Charges against them were later dropped.

In 2008, Echanis was arrested in Bago, Negros Oriental while holding a consultation with sugarcane workers. He was charged with multiple murder over the Hilongos mass grave.

Under the Duterte administration, Echanis was a member of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines� Reciprocal Working Committee on Social and Economic Reforms, where he pushed for free land distribution, better living conditions for farmers and fisherfolk, rural development, to name a few.

He faced threats of re-arrest after the termination of peace talks between the Philippine government and the NDFP Peace Panel.

Bulacan police arrested four women activists July 27 in barangay Cacarong Matanda, Pandi, Bulacan after staging an online protest coinciding with President Duterte�s fifth State of the Nation Address.

According to urban rights group Kadamay, Janet Villamar, April Tricia Musa, Marilou Amaro, and Edmylyn Gruta staged an online protest 11 a.m. to call for mass testing, aid, and the release of fellow Kadamay Pandi member Rose Fortaleza, who was arrested July 26 after police raided a Kadamay office and confiscated copies of alternative publication Pinoy Weekly.

Hours later, police arrived at their homes and began arresting the four individuals. When asked why, they were unable to cite any violation. According to Mimi Doringo, Kadamay spokesperson, the four were already resting or tending to other duties when the police arrived.

This is contrary to the official police report which claimed that officers on patrol saw members of Kadamay conducting a rally. The officers �asked for a permit�, which they protesters were unable to provide, and were asked to go home. When they could not comply, the protesters �persisted and pushed the officers, resulting in their arrest.�

As of July 28, or 24 hours after the arrest, no charges were filed against them. Kadamay also stated that the four were forced to sign a form �voluntarily waiving their rights under Article 125 of the Revised Penal Code,� as well as having a �gag order� placed on them, preventing them from talking to anyone, including their families.

Article 125 sets restrictions on how long a person can be detained without charges filed, depending on the severity of the case. Article 125 also guarantees the right of the accused to legal counsel at any time.

On July 28, the four activists in Pandi were charged with violations of Republic Act 11332 and Batas Pambansa Blg. 880, or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifying Disease Law and the Public Assembly Act of 1985. The paralegal team only learned of this 24 hours after their arrest. Section 9 of RA 11332 requires any person or entity to report �notifiable disease� to authorities. The Department of Justice has used this provision to justify warrantless arrests of people �violating quarantine protocol.�

BP 880, meanwhile, argues that permits are needed to hold rallies or other mass gatherings. However, lawyers� group National Union of People�s Lawyers (NUPL), stressed that no provisions exist that prohibit rallies during the pandemic. The group stressed that the Constitution states that �no law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances.�

Inquest proceedings took place via online on July 28 in the afternoon. Under Article 125, only �crimes or offenses punishable by afflictive or capital penalties, or their equivalent� are given 36 hours for law enforcement to deliver a person to proper judicial authorities before it can be considered a violation of rights.

Two protesters in Tuguegarao City were arrested by the police Monday afternoon, July 27, as they were preparing to hold a demonstration coinciding with President Rodrigo Duterte's 2020 State of the Nation Address (SONA).

In a phone interview with Rappler, Cagayan provincial police chief Colonel Ariel Quilang said two teenagers were arrested and were facing criminal complaints for violating the following laws:

Republic Act No. 11332 or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Concern Act;
Revised Penal Code Article 151 or disobedience to a person in authority.

The two were identified as members of the League of Filipino Students and Kabataan Partylist - Cagayan Valley.

According to Quilang, the two demonstrators violated the general community quarantine rule that anyone aged 21 and below must stay at home unless they are out for essential travel.

With this rule applied, Quilang said it does not matter if the two were not part of a group of 10 �the general number of people that police consider as a mass gathering�as long as they are minors who went outside.

"We were just implementing the COVID violations. Here in Cagayan, we are strictly implementing COVID violations," Quilang said.

As of Sunday, July 5, the PNP has arrested a total of 76,340 alleged quarantine violators. Of them, 3,148 continued to be detained as they undergo preliminary investigation.

Labor federation Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan (Pamantik-KMU) denounced assertions by the police and military that they were �front organizations of the CPP-NPA� after a July 23 surrender ceremony where they claimed that most of the participants came from �the labor sector in various parts of Laguna.�

Last July 23, Police Chief PGen. Archie Gamboa presented 131 alleged former members of the revolutionary New People�s Army in Camp Vicente Lim, Calamba, Laguna, along with what they claimed were surrendered arms and propaganda materials used by the so-called surrenderees. The �surrendered� materials included books, pamphlets, Mao caps, and election materials for progressive party-list Bayan Muna.

Pamantik-KMU questioned the legitimacy of the surrender ceremonies and disputed the claim by the PNP Police Region 4A that 94 of the 131 �surrenderees� were members of the group, asserting that this was another case of �forced surrender and harassment against Coca-Cola workers.�

�If you would look at the video posted on July 23,� the group pointed out, �you could clearly see that Raffy Baylosis �surrendered� again while pretending to be [an] NPA [member].�

Baylosis was a former leader inside the Coca-Cola Sta. Rosa plant as president of Liga na Pinalakas ng Manggagawa sa Coca-Cola FEMSA Philippines Sta. Rosa Plant (LIGA). In 2018, LIGA staged a picket protest and won regularization for 675 contractual employees inside Coca-Cola.

On May 1, Baylosis appeared as a spokesperson for 16 �NPA surrenderees� in a ceremony in Camp Vicente Lim. The 16 �surrenderees� were actually Coca-Cola employees who were forcibly brought to the camp the day before after their shift. Ten of the 16 employees were recently hired and had no connections with the labor union inside Coca-Cola.

According to Pamantik-KMU, Baylosis and another turncoat, Rey Medellin, have been responsible for the spate of harassments against Coca-Cola workers, including house-to-house visits by police officers to force them to �surrender�, and so-called �union seminars� which actually �recruit AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] reservists within the workforce to serve as toadies for Coca-Cola and the AFP.�

Pamantik-KMU also disputed claims by PNP PRO4A and the AFP Southern Luzon Command (SOLCOM) that they have been advocating �peaceful means to end� the armed conflict between the GRP and the CPP-NPA. According to the group, the police and military are using the fake surrenderee program to profit off the government�s Enhanced Comprehensive Livelihood Integration Program (E-CLIP).

�P/Brig. Gen. Vicente D. Danao, Jr. and Lt. Gen. Antonio G. Parlade, Jr. are profiting off fake surrender ceremonies while also discrediting legitimate organizations like Pamantik-KMU,� the group said.�They are even rewarding turncoats like Raffy Baylosis, who find �surrenderees� from wherever they could so they could profit off them, by giving them a share in stealing taxpayers� money.�

The labor organization reiterated that acts like this are meant to impinge on workers� rights. �It is clear that Duterte, the PNP, and AFP, are still pushing their dark designs to silence unionists and workers who only wish for decent living, wages, and benefits; things which they claim they are willing to give, but in actuality do not,� they said in a statement.

�Their promises are nothing more than mere words by wolves in sheep�s clothing.�

The chairman of the Alyansa ng Mamamayan para sa Pagsusulong ng Karapatan-Bicol has been arrested at his house, human rights group Karapatan said on Thursday. Pastor Dan San Andres of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) was apprehended in his house in Sipocot, Camarines Sur on Thursday, according to Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan. The arrest of San Andres, 61, came on the heels of the arrest of Gabriela Bicolana chairman Jenelyn Nagrampa on July 7. Palabay said the two were accused of double murder in relation to an alleged New People�s Army ambush that resulted in the deaths of two soldiers in Ragay, Camarines Sur, on May 13, 2018. Nagrampa is currently a village councilor of San Isidro, Nabua, Camarines Sur, and the national vice chairman of Gabriela. �In a matter of days after the Anti-Terrorism Act was signed, the harassment of human rights defenders in the country has already visibly worsened, from policemen attempting to serve a moot arrest warrant to the arrests of activists on clearly falsified murder charges,� Palabay said in a statement. Nagrampa and San Andres have already filed their respective counter-affidavits last December 2019 where they vehemently denied participation in the alleged ambush. During the incident, San Andres was conducting a Mass in his parish in the UCCP Church South Centro in Sipocot, Camarines Sur, while Nagrampa was campaigning for the barangay (village) elections, Palabay said.

An official of human rights group Karapatan said a policeman wearing the uniform of a local courier company tried to serve her a warrant of arrest on Tuesday.

�Is this the usual procedure now?� Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said in a Facebook post.

In an interview with CNN Philippines, Palabay recalled that she even found it �funny� at first that an LBC courier would serve her the warrant. The man was wearing a shirt and ID bearing the company's name, which later turned out to be a clear case of misrepresentation, she said.

She asked the man to wait for her to get the court order recalling her arrest warrant. When she returned, another man, wearing civilian clothes, introduced himself as a policeman from Camp Karingal, headquarters of the Quezon City Police District.

They later admitted that one of them masqueraded as an LBC courier to make sure she gets the warrant.

Palabay told them that the court had the warrant recalled on April 29 after she posted an ?18,000 bail. This is in connection with the perjury complaint filed against her and other activists by National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon, Jr.

Palabay said her legal counsel has already informed the court about the incident.

Palabay said the policemen were �apologetic,� saying they did not know about the recall. She also told them that they should read the Miranda rights before arresting someone, but the policemen said the suspects would escape if they do that.

Philippine National Police Spokesperson Bernard Banac told CNN Philippines he will refer Palabay�s report to Camp Karingal �for their action and appropriate response.�

Palabay called on the public to know and assert their rights, noting that these are "dangerous times" following signing of the Anti-Terrorism Act. The controversial measure allows the warrantless detention of suspected terrorists for up to 24 days.

Critics fear that the law can be used to go after red-tagged individuals and human rights defenders, while government officials say the measure has enough safeguards.

A day after President Duterte signed the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 into law, 11 activists holding a protest in barangay Pulo, Cabuyao, Laguna, were arrested, July 3 by combined elements of Cabuyao police and the Army�s 2nd Infantry Division.

The eleven activists were part of a larger delegation conducting a peaceful protest to condemn the passage of the Anti-Terrorism Bill, which they said �would lead to abuse and widespread arrest of activists.�

Three minors were among those arrrested. Others arrested are:

Kyle Salgado � Karapatan ST spokesperson
Casey Cruz � Bayan ST spokesperson
Shirley Songalia Gabriela ST spokersperson
Jemme Mia Antonio � Liga ng Manggagawa Para sa Regular na Hanapbuhay (LIGA-ST) spokesperson
Miguel Portea � STARTER-PISTON spokersperson
Helen Catahay � Gabriela ST
Sweden John Aberde � Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan (PAMANTIK KMU)
Renero Maarat � PAMANTIK KMU

Human rights alliance Defend Southern Tagalog condemned both the violent dispersal and the detention, calling it the �height of irony.�

�Exactly 24 hours since Rodrigo Duterte affixed his signature on the draconian Terror Law, the first arrests were made on activists who held a peaceful protest against the dangerous law,� said Charmaine Maranan, spokesperson for DEFEND ST. �We now see where the fascist footprints of Duterte�s police and military are headed to in case the law finally takes effect.�

Maranan pointed out the incident was the exact opposite of what National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperson promised when he stated that the Ani-Terror Bill would not be used to impinge on the rights to peaceful assembly and expression.

�Esperon is lying through his teeth when he said that peaceful protests will be protected under this law,� said Maranan. �In light of the arrests today in Cabuyao, that claim is now exposed as a brazen lie, and we all know that state forces are hell-bent in weaponizing the Terror Law to suppress the people�s growing dissent against State abuses.�

Other progressive groups also voiced their concerns. A statement released by Kabataan Partylist Laguna called the dispersal and detention �proof that [the Duterte] regime could not be trusted on issues of protecting people�s rights.�

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan Laguna (BAYAN Laguna) meanwhile contended that the arrests had no legal basis. �There is nothing illegal with being an activist,� said Jevi Quitain, spokesperson for BAYAN Laguna.� and there is nothing wrong with expressing one�s right to dissent. What there is, however, is police brutality and impunity; the hallmarks of the fascist Duterte regime.�

According to firsthand accounts, the program began 5 p.m. After the program, state agents approached the protesters who were packing up and began to restrain them, leading to the 11 arrests.

The arrests were described as a �violent dispersal�; Miguel Portea, a former jeepney driver and a member of STARTER PISTON, suffered bruises and cuts on his arms and legs.

According to DEFEND ST, at around 4:30 p.m., a military truck belonging to the 2nd CMO Batallion of the 2nd Infantry Division, Philippine Army was parked near the barangay hall blaring out disinformation about progressive organizations, calling them �front organizations of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People�s Army-National Democratic Front.�

This would not be the first time the military was engaged in black propaganda, attested KPL Laguna. According to the youth organization, police and military agents have been �hard at work attacking KPL and other progressive organizations� through its �Kabataan Kontra Droga at Terorismo� initiative, a series of forums aimed at schools and communities.

According to the group, evidence showed that the content of KKDT forums had speakers �blatantly terror-tag progressive organizations.�

Labor group Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan (PAMANTIK KMU) also attested to the fact. Last May 2020, the group received information that a letter coming from the 2ID�s Task Force Ugnay was sent to Cabuyao mayor Rommel Gecolea, calling barangay Pulo the �nerve center of militant, ergo, violent trade union movement in the region� as well as a �provincial youth recruitment center� in Calabarzon.

PAMANTIK KMU also reported that elements of the 202nd Infantry Brigade were terrorizing barangay officials in Pulo since at least June when they set up camp within the barangay hall. According to the labor group, the 202IB were looking for OLALIA national president Hermenegildo Marasigan as well as forcing barangay officials to renounce the usage of an office space adjacent to the barangay hall that was being used by Anakpawis Partylist.

As of press time, the 11 Cabuyao activists are still detained in the Cabuyao Municipal Police Station and are awaiting inquest. The police have not informed them of the charges against them.

Police arrested at least 20 people at the Pride March in Mendiola, Manila, on Friday, June 26.

Ten members of LGBTQ+ rights group Bahaghari, 8 from other progressive groups, and two drivers have been detained at the Manila Police District.

They were being charged with disobedience of person in authority in relation to Republic Act 11332, otherwise known as the Law on Reporting of Communicable Diseases, and Batas Pambansa 880, otherwise known as Public Assembly Act.

The protesters were observing physical distancing and other health protocols when the police arrived to disperse them.

The police did not cite any violations while arresting the protesters and only told them, "Nasa batas iyan na bawal iyan (It's in the law that it's prohibited)," without citing any specific law.

Prior to the the "grand mananita� themed indignation rally on Philippine Independence Day, June 12, human right lawyers had stressed that the Bayanihan To Heal As One Act as well as the public health law, Republic Act No. 11332 or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases Act, do not prohibit rallies.

At 10 am on Friday, the group marched from Morayta and held a program near the Mendiola Peace Arch to �resist [President Rodrigo] Duterte�s tyranny.�

The Bahaghari-led protest was held to celebrate Pride month and to oppose the anti-terrorism bill.

Advertisement

Bahaghari spokesperson Rey Valmores-Salinas argued, while being taken away, that they were just excercising their rights.

Salinas, who was among those arrested, said the program was peaceful.

�Hinuli man kami ngayon, walang pandemiya, walang lockdown, at mas lalong walang mga pasistang baboy ang makapipigil ng pagsinag ng Bahaghari (We may have been arrested now but no pandemic, lockdown, or facsist pigs could stop us from making Bahaghari shine)," Salinas, who was already onboard the police vehicle, added.

According to human rights group Karapatan, �queers have the right to protest, speak out, and to take action against a draconian terror law that will impact on citizens� rights.�

�We call on PNP to #FreePride20! To all members of the LGBTQ community and our allies, your support is very important. Let us show them that Pride is not just about the colors that we wear, it is about our love, our solidarity for those who fight for our humanity,� said Karapatan secretary-general Cristina Palabay.

A video posted by Karapatan paralegel officer Jon Callueng showed that the police also attempted to arrest an intern at independent news group Manila Today, who was mistaken as a protester.

This is not the first time for police to arrest protesters during the pandemic, even if they did not violate quarantine rules.

The local court denied the motion filed by lawyers of Tacloban community journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio and two human rights defenders during the first hearing, June 23.

Judge Georgina Perez of Tacloban Regional Trial Court Branch 45 junked the omnibus motion to quash information, to quash issued search warrant, suppress evidence and return seized items not included in the search warrant.

Cumpio, executive director of online media outfit Eastern Vista; Marielle Domequil, staffer of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) � Eastern Visayas; and, Alexander Abinguna of Katungod Sinirangang Bisaya, the local chapter of Karapatan in the region, are charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives. They were arrested along with two others following the February 7 simultaneous raids of Eastern Vista office and joint offices of Bayan-Eastern Visayas and Alliance of Peasants in Eastern Visayas in Tacloban City.

The two others � Marissa Cabaljao of People�s Surge and Mira Legion of Bayan-EV � were charged with illegal possession of firearms and allowed to post bail in February. Cumpio,Domequil and Abigunia remain detained in Tacloban City Jail.

Altermidya, of which Eastern Vista is a member, lamented the court�s decision. �We fear that with this development, the motion to dismiss Frenchie Mae�s case and the other motions filed by her lawyers will also yield an unfavorable ruling,� Altermidya National Coordinator Rhea Padilla told Bulatlat.

�Our call to drop all charges against Frenchie Mae and to immediately release her is now more urgent than ever,� Padilla added.

�To detain our colleague Frenchie Mae for over four months is already a grave travesty and mockery of Philippine democracy. At a time when volunteer human rights defenders and community journalists are needed as frontliners to observe, report, and extend support to their communities in the arduous battle against COVID-19, the spurious charges that locked them up resulted in great disservice to the people. How many stories of the marginalized and underrepresented remain unreported because Frenchie Mae�was not able to perform her duties due to her incarceration?� Padilla said further.

A fact-finding mission in February revealed that the evidence were planted, with guns and ammunition allegedly recovered under the beds and under the tables. A witness said the raiding teams forced all people in both offices to head outside and made them lie on the ground at gunpoint. Members of the raiding team then went inside both offices unaccompanied by any witness, as required by the law, and stayed inside for about 10 minutes.

It was only about 45 or so minutes into the raid were members of the barangay council appeared in the scene to serve as witnesses. It was only when the search party and the barangay officials entered the offices this time around were the guns, ammunition, and explosives were found on top of beds and tables.

Padilla called on fellow journalists and the public to continue demanding Frenchie Mae�s freedom and �resist all attempts to silence critical media and truth-tellers.�

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), College Editors Guild of the Philippines as well as international groups Committee to Protect Journalists, International Association of Women in Radio and Television and AMARC (World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters) have issued statements calling for the immediate release of Cumpio.

In Defense of Human Rights and Dignity Movement (iDEFEND) and the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA) condemn the latest attempt by government agents to disseminate false information and libelous claims against human rights defenders. Similar to the red tagging of PAHRA by the 303rd Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army last April, anonymous groups disseminated on social media, a poorly constructed �matrix� identifying Ritz Lee Santos III as part of the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas.

On Sunday Santos posted on his facebook timeline an �illustration board� identifying him as a member of the PKP because he organized a rally protesting the Anti-Terrorism Law. The material held no further proof nor details of these accusations. Other human rights lawyers and media personalities in Mindanao were also wrongfully accused as supporters of terrorists.

Contrary to these allegations, in fact, Santos is a board member of Amnesty International, iDEFEND�s Steering Committee member and Executive Director of Balaod Mindanaw, a member organization of PAHRA and the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA).

Last week, hundreds of cloned accounts of protesting students also appeared on social media, some of which have appropriated their photos and their online data.

Religious leader Sr. Mary John Mananzan has been repeatedly accused by PCOO Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy of being a high-ranking member of a terrorist organization.

In 2018 President Duterte tagged more than 600 personalities of being members of the communist party including former UN Special Rapporteur Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, in an attempt to activate a witch hunt using the Human Security Act, which has since been replaced by the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020. The accusations drew national and international criticism for putting human rights defenders� lives at risk and has prompted the UN Secretary General to suggest a psychiatric examination for Duterte.

Likewise, the Foreign Affairs Department has led missions overseas to vilify legitimate civil society organizations as terrorists to try and stem financial and material support for their activities. In local areas posters have been put up in public places pointing to community organizers and activists as terrorists including church workers, students and lawyers.

The government�s fake news and terrorist tagging machinery, including vigilante groups, are �locked and loaded� for the enactment of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, following which we believe, will be head on assaults on public dissent and political opposition.

In the midst of a global pandemic which has exposed the serious incompetence of government�s crisis management � failed lockdowns, unaccounted billions for COVID19 response, plummeting economic conditions, corruption at the highest levels in agencies dealing with the pandemic, erratic and uncoordinated decision making- government prioritized the doubling down on political repression and �lawfare� against its own citizens.

Government does this to escape accountability for its failures. It mobilizes the national security apparatus to tag people into silence, while it continues to blame the people for the increase in COVID cases, for the economic collapse, for terrorism.

However, the people will not be denied of their rights, and the people will not give up their voices. We will join them, we will raise them, and we will be louder- against injustice, violence, tyranny. Until finally the new despot and his new cronies, meet the fate of his predecessor.

A court in the Philippines has found journalist Maria Ressa and former Rappler reporter Reynaldo Santos Jr guilty of "cyber libel", in a controversial case seen as a major test of press freedom under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.

In a decision issued on Monday, the court sentenced Ressa, the executive editor of the news website Rappler, and Santos Jr to a minimum of six months and one day to a maximum of six years in jail. It allowed them to post bail, pending an appeal. They are the first two journalists in the Philippines to be convicted for cyber libel.

Judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa also ordered the payment equivalent to $8,000 for moral and exemplary damages to the businessman who lodged the complaint. The complainant originally sought an estimated $1m in damages.

In a press conference following the verdict, Ressa vowed to fight the case, saying the case of Rappler was "a cautionary tale" for the Philippine media.

"It is a blow to us. But it is also not unexpected," Ressa said. "I appeal to you, the journalists in this room, the Filipinos who are listening, to protect your rights. We are meant to be a cautionary tale. We are meant to make you afraid. But don't be afraid. Because if you don't use your rights, you will lose them.

"Freedom of the press is the foundation of every single right you have as a Filipino citizen. If we can't hold power to account, we can't do anything," she added, as she fought back tears.

Santos said he was "disappointed" of the verdict and felt "very sad" at the outcome.

The case is the first of at least eight active cases filed against Ressa and her media organisation since Duterte came to office in 2016.

Following the verdict, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said "the court decision should be respected", adding that Duterte "has never been behind any effort to curtail press freedom in the country".

In a statement, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) called the decision "a dark day" for independent Philippine media and all Filipinos.

"The verdict basically kills freedom of speech and of the press," the organisation said. "But we will not be cowed. We will continue to stand our ground against all attempts to suppress our freedoms."

The Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) described the latest development as "a menacing blow to press freedom".

Amnesty International's Regional Director Nicholas Bequelin described the verdict as a "sham" that should be quashed.

"The accusations against them are political, the prosecution was politically motivated and the sentence is nothing but political," Bequelin said in a statement.

"This guilty verdict follows the shutdown of ABS-CBN, which remains off the air - also after coming under the President's attacks. The international community cannot remain silent in the face of this brazen vendetta against the press."

The cyber-libel case against Ressa and her publication stemmed from a 2017 complaint filed by a businessman over a Rappler story that was published in 2012, before the cybercrime law was passed.

The businessman, Wilfredo Keng, said he was "defamed" when he was linked to the then-Supreme Court chief justice, who was later removed from office through impeachment.

The libel complaint was dismissed in 2018, but the National Bureau of Investigation reversed the decision and recommended to the justice ministry that Ressa and the reporter, Reynaldo Santos Jr, be prosecuted. Prosecutors said they were only following the law. 'Absurd' case

Around the same time, Duterte had sought to close Rappler for alleged foreign ownership and tax evasion, allegations Rappler denied.

The news site had attracted Duterte's ire for its relentless coverage of the so-called "war on drugs" during which thousands of people have died. It also exposed a pro-Duterte network circulating alleged fake news on social media.

In addition to Rappler, Duterte has seemingly also targeted and forced the closure of ABS-CBN, the largest media company in the Philippines, while the owners of the country's largest newspaper, Philippine Daily Inquirer, were forced to sell the publication to a Duterte ally after publishing news reports and editorials critical of the mounting deaths in the "war on drugs".

In a statement, the International Center for Journalists condemned the "state-sponsored legal harassment" in the Philippines.

"ICFJ will continue to support her and her team as they report the news - despite official attempts to silence them."

Ahead of the verdict, Carlos Conde, of Human Rights Watch in the Philippines, said the case against Rappler "should never have been filed to begin with."

"The absurdity of this particular case against Maria Ressa - prosecutors deemed the story in question 'republished' after Rappler corrected one word that was misspelled - suggests the desperation of those behind it to silence her and Rappler," Conde said in a statement to Al Jazeera.

While the article in question had been published in 2012, a spelling correction had been made to one word in 2014, something the prosecutors dubbed a "republication" of the article that put it within reach of the cybercrime law.

During an online forum on Monday, Jose Manuel Diokno, a leading human rights lawyer, predicted a "long battle ahead" as the defendants moved to file an appeal.

"This is not the end of it," said Diokno, a critic of the Duterte administration and opposition candidate for senator in 2019. "There's a strong need for us to generate a lot of public opinion, a lot of press on the government, on the courts, to look very deeply into this case. The ramifications of this case go deep into whether we can still call the country a real democracy."

ON JUNE 13 around 8 p.m., four unidentified armed men barged into the home of community worker Elena Tijamo in Brgy. Kampingganon, Bantayan, Cebu. The abductors, masked and clad in black, reportedly put a tape on Elena�s mouth and tied her hands before taking her away.

Days after her abduction, she remains missing.

Tijamo works as a coordinator for non-government group Farmers Development Center (FARDEC), a regional peasant support organization based in Central Visayas.

Elena, called �Ate Lina,� by her colleagues, oversees the promotion of traditional crop varieties and natural farming methods to FARDEC�s partner-communities across the region. She also coordinated their group�s relief and rehabilitation drive in Yolanda-affected communities in Northern Cebu including Bantayan island.

Tijamo lives with her elderly parents, sister, and her daughter in Bantayan. They witnessed Elena�s abduction last Saturday, and remain at a loss why she was abducted.

According to Patrick Torres, executive director of FARDEC, the group received reports in 2018 that its partner communities in Bantayan Island were visited by the police and military. They reportedly discouraged community members from attending FARDEC�s meetings because the group allegedly �goes against the government�.

He added, �A few months ago, Ate Lina reported that a man claiming to conduct a survey for elderly Covid-19 beneficiaries visited her home but asked for her personal details instead. She later found out that the barangay had no knowledge of a survey.�

Prior to her abduction, Tijamo had shared to her FARDEC colleagues that her neighbors reported of unidentified men constantly asking for her home address.

After her capture, Tijamo�s family was contacted by her abductors. According to Torres, her relatives received text messages instructing them not to contact authorities, and that Elena �will be returned later�.

�But the following day, the abductors called again and allowed the family to talk to Ate Lina,� Torres said. �She was told that she will be released only if social media posts and news reports of her abduction were taken down.� Red-tagged

Torres believes that recent red-tagging incidents against FARDEC and its community workers are connected to the abduction of Tijamo. In November 2019, the organization was labeled a �local front of a communist group� by the military, particularly by Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence Major General Reuben Basiao, during a hearing in the House of Representatives.

�The abduction confirmed our worst fear that there is a pattern. Community workers are first vilified through red-tagging, and just like what happened to Ate Lina, became under surveillance and then abducted,� Torres said.

He fears that this pattern would only get worse when the controversial Anti-Terror Bill is signed. �The law removes the protection away from civilians, and gives attackers the legality and freedom to arrest people like community workers,� Torres said. Illegal arrests in the Visayas

This is not the first time that a community worker was captured in the Visayas in recent years, Torres shared.

In March 2018, six community organizers in Negros, known as the Mabinay 6, were arrested and accused of being members of the New People�s Army (NPA). Only this month, a local leader of the National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW), Gaspar Davao, was arrested in Cadiz City while on his way home.

�With the terror bill, anyone can easily be tagged as �terrorist�, and this makes it alarming,� Torres said, adding that they found it ironic that a recent protest against the bill resulted in the arrests of seven Cebu rallyists and a bystander.

�Ate Lina is being held hostage and threatened so she will stop her work among the farmers,� Torres said. �Whoever these people are, they are the terrorists.�

Laguna � Progressive groups in Iligan City refuteD claims by Iligan City Police regarding the June 12 arrest of 14 students who were protesting the Anti-Terrorism Bill.

On Friday, 16 students, among them members of Kabataan Partylist Northern Mindanao (KPL-NMR), staged a ma�anita-style protest in barangay Palao, Iligan City which lasted five minutes.

According to the Iligan City Police Office (ICPO), the students were invited to ICPO Station 5 for �violating the health protocols on social distancing.�

KPL-NMR and the Students� Alliance for the Advancement of Democratic Rights of MSU-IIT (STAND-IIT) disputed this, stating that the police�s statement was �misleading and is clearly meant to save face and make their warrantless arrest appear legitimate.�

�As shown in a video recorded by one of the protesters, the students were not invited, the police officers dragged them by the arm, caught them in a chokehold and when the students asked them on what grounds they were being arrested, the arresting officers couldn�t cite any violations,� read a joint statement by KPL-NMR and STAND-IIT.

One the officers even shouted �Shoot them!� while the students were being dragged.

This, despite the fact that the students were able to produce legal documents for their protest while observing strict physical distancing. The students were also given ten minutes to conduct their program but chose to stage a five-minute protest, intending to clear out immediately after.

The 14 arrested students were then detained without probable cause for roughly seven hours before they were released before 6 p.m. KPL-NMR and STAND-IIT state that the students were subjected to abuse and intimidation, with one student choked by an officer in plainclothes while he was trying to explain. One student was also labelled as a �recruiter for the New Peoples� Army.�

The officers also confiscated the students� phones and interrogated seven of them before legal counsel arrived, taking personal information from them. Their legal counsel Kristine Campilan stressed that the police officers were violating Republic Act 7438 by conducting a �custodial investigation without the assistance of counsel.�

KPL-NMR and STAND-IIT contend that the state is �trivializ[ing] the protests as mere violations of the government�s social distancing measures,� instead of �addressing the root issues surrounding them.�

�These draconian measures are but a taste of what the government and its fascist machinery can do should the railroaded Anti-Terrorism Bill be passed. It shows how they can set their very own laws aside if these contradict their interests,� their joint statement read.

Not the only case

Police have also used intimidation tactics against protesters in other parts of the country. In Tuguegarao City, police threatened members of Kabataan Partylist Cagayan Valley with arrests should they continue with their own ma�anita.

In Manila, about 40 police officers were immediately deployed in response to a protest staged inside the De La Salle University � Manila campus. There were approximately 20 protesters conducting a short program, including former Deputy Speaker Atty. Erin Ta�ada.

In Manila�s San Pablo Apostol Church, UP Rises Against Tyranny and Dictatorship reported that police officers led by Station Commander Lt. Navidad and Vic Blanco confiscated placards from protesters despite observing proper social distancing measures.

Even the UP Diliman �grand ma�anita� wasn�t safe. Quezon City Police Department officers blocked the entrances along the Commission of Human Rights and the Asian Center, blocking protesters from entering the campus.

These protests were part of a nationwide series of actions calling for the junking of the Anti-Terrorism Bill, which critics have repeatedly slammed as actually targeting activists.

The 7, including minors, belong to local progressive organizations in Cebu. A local journalist is reportedly also among them.

Police arrested at least 8 activists during a protest rally against the anti-terrorism bill on Friday, June 5.

The activists were arrested at the protest site near the University of the Philippines (UP) Cebu for violating a ban on mass gatherings under the general community quarantine (GCQ), according to Cebu City police.

The rally started peacefully until the protesters were met by Cebu City police in combat gear and members of the SWAT team.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Melbert Esguerra, deputy director for administration of the Cebu City Police Office, told reporters that the protesters would be taken to the CCPO headquarters at Camp Sotero Cabahug pending the filing of complaints.

None of those detained have been charged as of this posting.

Bayan Central Visayas confirmed that the 8 belonged to local progressive organizations in Cebu. They also said there were minors among those arrested.

According to initial reports, among those arrested was Dyan Gumanao, a community organizer and a reporter for ANINAW Productions, a local affiliate of AlterMidya � People's Alternative Media Network.

Media were not allowed to see the detained activists when they went to the police office.

Videos showed cops, some in plain clothes, entering the campus and chasing down students.

The video also showed campus security guards watching as activists were being chased in the open field area of the college.

Under the Soto-Enrile accord of 1982, the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) are barred from entering any of the UP campuses without prior permission from the administration or unless they are in hot pursuit of a crime suspect.

The anti-terror bill, approved by the House of Representatives on Thursday and by the Senare months earlier, sparked outrage among human rights groups and concerned citizens, who noted that this law would hand too much power to President Rodrigo Duterte, who had been widely criticized for his human rights record. (READ: 'Draconian' anti-terror bill, feared to be used vs gov't critics, hurdles Congress)

As of posting, at least 27 protesters were still stuck inside the campus while police were posted outside, on Gorordo Avenue.

The College Editors Guild of the Philippines condemned the arrest of the activists. "Duterte's police and military are using militaristic approach instead of heeding the people's demands," the CEGP said in a statement.

UP Office of the Student Regent (UPOSR) also released a statement, urging police to release the detained protestors.

"This clearly manifests how the systemic targeting of critical voices is prevalent everywhere," UPOSR said. "When those in power are not even held accountable, students like ours who are only echoing the public�s sentiments are those who are handcuffed and silenced."

Long-time urban poor leader Carlito Badion was killed in Ormoc City, Leyte.

He was found dead along a highway in Ormoc City on May 28, 2020.

Kadamay, where Badion served as its secretary general for a long time, assailed his killing, describing the slain leader as �determined and brave.�

Two days before his killing, Kadamay said Badion was red-tagged and received death threats.

In a statement, Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdinand Gaite said Badion was �another victim of state-sponsored murders as his death comes after numerous incidents of political harassment, vilification, and red-tagging that he experienced.�

�Badion championed the cause of the homeless and the informally settled. He was instrumental in Kadamay�s housing occupation campaigns and community barricades against demolition. Because of this, he and other fellow urban poor activists were repeatedly and ruthlessly maligned and harassed, and were labeled as criminals, or worse as enemies of the state, as terrorists,� Gaite said.

Stop the Killings in the Philippines � Canada Network said Badion was a �leader who valiantly defended the right to housing of marginalized sectors.�

He has helped various communities facing threats of demolition such as Sitio San Roque in Quezon City and Corazon de Jesus in San Juan City � fighting with residents along barricades they built to defend their homes and livelihoods.

Badion also brought to fore the issues confronting substandard relocation sites.

Journalists over the weekend condemned the misuse of a photo from a safety training seminar in 2013 to insinuate links between an ABS-CBN journalist and communist rebels.

The photo used was of Rowena "Weng" Carranza-Paraan�former National Union of Journalists of the Philippines chair�and other women journalists in a forested area crouching around what looks to be an injured man. "A MindaNews photograph of a simulation exercise during the first aid module of the country�s first all-women media safety training in Cagayan de Oro City in March 2013 has been maliciously used to red-tag a journalist, an act MindaNews vehemently condemns," Davao City-based MindaNews said on Friday.

In a series of social media posts published on Wednesday, May 13 over Facebook, a certain Aram dela Cruz accused Paraan, along with ten other women, of treating wounded communist rebels in the photograph.

"What is the real connection between Paraan and the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People�s Army-National Democratic Front. Does ABS-CBN know this?" Dela Cruz wrote in Filipino in the posts, which also included a solo photograph of Paraan.

The photo and the false claim have since been spread by other Facebook users.

The picture was taken almost a decade ago, during an all-women safety training seminar organized by the NUJP at the Malasag Eco-Tourism Village in Cagayan de Oro City., MindaNews, which carried the photo in its 2013 article on the workshop, said.

According to an earlier fact check by journalism students at UP Diliman, "the 2013 training was held ... for about 20 journalists from Pagadian, Zamboanga, Lanao del Norte, Kidapawan and Surigao del Norte and development communication students from Mati, Davao Oriental."

Taken by photojournalist Vic Kintanar, the photograph shows a simulation module on administering first aid to an injured person facilitated by Paraan, a media safety trainer certified by the International News Safety Institute.

The ten other women as well as the "wounded man" in the photo were also journalists.
'Malicious twisting to mislead others'

Paraan, also a former Philippines Center for Investigative Journalism research head, currently serves as the head of "Bayan Mo, Ipatrol Mo", the citizen journalism arm of ABS-CBN Corp. whose broadcast operations were ordered ceased by the government after its franchise expired.

On her social media accounts, Paraan said: "Unfortunately, those who want to maliciously twist a media safety training photo taken in 2013, conducted in coordination with the 4th ID...are using the MindaNews photo to mislead others."

Though Dela Cruz's photos have been taken down, the same photos have been reposted by pro-administration Facebook page Enlightened Pinoy.

The two posts read in Filipino: "Run NPA run. Pictures of injured NPA rebels being treated in the forest," and "Exposed! Please explain. What is the real connection between Rowena Paraan, (NUJP) head of Bayan Mo, Ipatrol Mo of ABS-CBN, and the CPP-NPA_NDF? What are you doing in the mountains?"

"MindaNews condemns the malicious use of the 2013 photograph as it endangers the lives of Paraan, the 10 Mindanao-based women journalists in the photograph and the lone male reporter who acted as the 'injured' person," the news website said.

It adds that "the historic all-women safety training was organized by NUJP in coordination with the Philippine Army�s 4th Infantry Division, which handled two sessions."

NUJP, in a separate statement, said that it "has been holding media safety trainings all over the country for more than a decade amid the continued killing of media workers, intensified attacks and increased cases of harassment against the media."

It added: "It is utterly shameless but dangerous that a historic media safety training aimed at protecting and ensuring the safety of media workers is being used to malign, threaten and put journalists and the NUJP in danger."

Academics both local and international have said that the Philippines today is the "patient zero" of digital disinformation owing to cyber-troll armies linked to supporters of President Rodrigo Duterte. 'Utterly shameless but dangerous'

In a statement, the NUJP slammed the posts for twisting the photographs' narratives and endangering the lives of the journalists depicted.

The union is one of many progressive groups publicly accused of being a legal front for communist rebels by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), which earlier erroneously claimed in a series of graphics that the halt order on ABS-CBN's broadcast operations was due to numerous legal issues.

These issues had been addressed at a Senate hearing but not at the House of Representatives, which did not hold hearings on bills to renew the network's franchise. The National Telecommunications Commission's cease and desist order against ABS-CBN was premised on the lapsed franchise, and not on the legal issues that NTF-ELCAC claimed.

After being criticized for being a peddler of false information, NTF-ELCAC said that communist rebels were "taking advantage" of the closure of the broadcast giant. It did not acknowledge or explain why it spread the false claims. In the past weeks, media groups have expressed caution over what they called shrinking space for fundamental freedoms, as the past two months of enhanced community quarantine have seen citizens arrested for posting opinions critical of the administration on social media.

Human rights watchdog Karapatan Rizal reported that their secretary general, Gloria Rodriguez and three other companions were temporarily detained on �violations� of the enhanced community quarantine in Antipolo, Rizal, May 7.

The group stated that Rodriguez, or Nanay Oya to her colleagues, 65, and her team were investigating reports related to a March 28 encounter between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the New People�s Army. The encounter left two dead, with one missing. Karapatan Rizal responded to requests from family members of the missing individual, whose remains they suspect were taken by the military and eventually found on April 3, in Tanay, almost 80 kilometers away from the site of the encounter in barangay Puray, Rodriguez, Rizal.

Rodriguez and her team worked to recover the bodies for autopsy. They managed to secure a police report and a death certificate from the Rodriguez PNP on April 3, but were denied access to the remains. They have since continued to clamor and arrange documents for the release of the remains.

The group was filing necessary documents and had just come from the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory in Taytay when they were stopped at a checkpoint in barangay San Jose, Antipolo by soldiers of the 80th Infantry Battalion, Philippine Army.

Although her group had quarantine passes signed by barangay officials, they were arrested on May 7 on alleged ECQ violations and detained at the Antipolo Municipal Police Station around 7:30 p.m.

No charges were filed and the group was released that same evening, 9 p.m.

Karapatan Rizal was quick to point out that the incident was only the latest in a series of �harassment and delaying tactics� performed by the 80th IB designed to �deny the family of their latest victim justice and hide their crimes.�

As of this writing, Rodriguez and her team are still trying to secure the remains of the deceased.

The group noted that the military has been �characteristically uncooperative� to their requests, instead opting to �pass [them] around from agency to agency in hopes of frustrating the fact-finding mission.�

Karapatan Rizal also reported cases of harassment done against the family and relatives of the dead, as well as the imposition of �unnecessary qualifications� to dispute the family�s claim.

�These are the tell-tale signs that the military is trying to cover up their tracks,� Karapatan Rizal said. �It�s almost sickening how the AFP can just play with the tragedies of their victims like it was a game.�

The March 28 encounter occurred well within the period of simultaneous unilateral ceasefire between the AFP and NPA. Both sides claim that the other broke their own ceasefires by launching an attack in barangay Puray.

In a statement, the 80th IB claimed that they were conducting �community work� when they were ambushed by �about 30 NPA fighters�, resulting in a firefight.

The National Democratic Front of the Philippines, however, disputed this. The NDFP said �sources within the military� stated that a team led by a Staff Sargeant Angot was conducting a patrol when they ambushed NPA members conducting a medical mission in the area.

�This is another addition to the 80th IB�s laundry list of human rights violations and crimes against the people of Rizal,� said Karapatan Rizal in a statement. �They are exploiting the pandemic and ECQ to spread fake news and black propaganda against the people�s clamor for mass testing and social amelioration.�

They condemned the 80th IB and called on them to �provide medical services and relief,� instead of �sticking to the fascism and harassment that they know.�

A Philippine radio broadcaster from the central island of Negros has been shot dead, becoming the third media worker slain in Dumaguete City since 2018 and the 16th nationwide since President Rodrigo Duterte came to office in June 2016.

Cornelio Pepino was riding home from work on his motorcycle with his wife late on Tuesday when he was shot and killed, capping a turbulent 24 hours in the country's media industry, which also saw the closure of its largest television network.

According to the police report obtained by Al Jazeera, two unidentified male perpetrators on a motorcycle shot and killed Pepino, also known as Rex Cornelio to radio listeners in the community.

Before fleeing, the attackers shot the victim once more in the head, according to a radio report quoting Pepino's wife, Colen.

The 48-year-old Pepino was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

In a video, Colen, who was unharmed, was seen weeping and begging for help on her mobile phone, while cradling her bleeding husband who was slumped next to their overturned motorcycle. Police said an investigation is "still ongoing".

The Philippines is one of the world's most dangerous countries for journalists, with at least 186 media professionals killed since the country's return to democracy in 1986, according to the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP).

Media observers say the level of impunity has reached an unprecedented level since Duterte was elected president.

This latest media killing comes as the country is under lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. Across the country, police have set up several checkpoints, raising questions about how Pepino's killers managed to flee.

Al Jazeera has learned that just days before Pepino's killing, a police checkpoint was set up near the area of the shooting incident, but that had been decommissioned after some of the restrictions were eased in the city. Critic of government corruption

In his afternoon radio programme, Pepino was known as a critic of corruption in local government in Negros. He had also criticised the distribution of allegedly overpriced food packs to communities affected by the coronavirus lockdown.

The management of the radio station where Pepino worked told Al Jazeera it was "saddened and angered by the senseless and brutal killing".

While "hard-hitting" in his commentaries, colleagues were quoted as saying the victim never used profanity and would never flare up with emotion on the radio.

"Authorities should leave no stone unturned in bringing the killers of journalist Rex Cornelio Pepino to justice," said Shawn Crispin, Committee to Protect Journalists senior Southeast Asia representative.

"Until the Philippine government shows it is serious about solving media murders, the vicious cycle of impunity will continue."

The Dumaguete Press Club said the attack could be "politically motivated since politics was his favourite topic, which might have hit the nerve of some political sectors", adding that "divine justice in all its forms will unmistakably come and be served". 'New level of impunity'

Meanwhile, the NUJP urged the Duterte administration to investigate the murder immediately.

"We demand justice for Cornelio Pepino, aka Rex Cornelio, and will continue to hold this government accountable for every death that remains unsolved."

In a statement, Joel Egco of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security vowed that "justice will be served" and that police have been directed "to hunt down the suspects".

"As in the past cases we handled, we will leave no stone unturned," Egco said.

Maria Ela Atienza, professor of political science at the University of the Philippines, said that while the killing of journalists and targeting of media companies are nothing new in the country, "it got worse".

"The level of impunity and the killing of journalists and critics has been pushed to a new level by the Duterte administration," Atienza told Al Jazeera.

Since becoming president, Duterte has been known to denounce the press for critical coverage of his administration, including the deadly war on drugs that left thousands of people dead.

He had previously cursed foreign journalists for their reporting and said corrupt journalists are legitimate targets of assassination.

On Tuesday, the country's largest media company, ABS-CBN, which was a frequent target of the president's tirades, was forced to shut down after his allies in Congress refused to renew on time the station's 25-year licence to operate.

The government had also filed charges against the Rappler website and its editor, Maria Ressa and forced the country's largest newspaper, The Philippine Daily Inquirer, to sell the publication to billionaire Ramon Ang, a Duterte ally.

President Duterte, however, has repeatedly assured reporters that he welcomes questions from the media and that the country still has a free press.

"I have nothing against you. I am not at liberty to [be] angry at anybody," said Duterte.

Atienza said that given Duterte's popularity now as president, it is surprising that "the level of insecurity of his administration is so high it has to threaten and harass critics".

"This is worsened by a group of rabid bloggers and PR (public relations) machine working relentlessly not only through regular media but social media to attack critics and promote intrigues and fake news."

At least 76 were arrested by authorities in separate incidents today, May 1.

Scores of those arrested were providing meals to the poor communities of Metro Manila. Ten volunteers of a feeding program in Marikina and 18 youth volunteers of a community kitchen in barangay Central in Quezon City were apprehended by the police.

In Jaro, Iloilo, 35 members of progressive organizations were arrested while holding a protest caravan on the killing of Bayan Muna officer Jory Porquia. Seven community journalists, including the daughter of Porquia, were also nabbed and charged with violation of BP 880, disobedience to persons in authority and Republic Act 11332.

Four other activists were arrested in Paso de Blas in Valenzuela City and two workers in Rodriguez, Rizal.

Cristina Palabay, Karapatan secretary general, described Labor Day in the Philippines, �Arrests of a grieving daughter and colleagues of a slain relief worker in Iloilo, of relief workers providing aid to hungry residents of Marikina and workers in Quezon City, and of those expressing workers� just demands for rights and welfare, staged/fake surrenders of workers in Laguna � these should make everyone realize that it is but just and it is but right to speak out and act for our people�s rights and wellbeing.�

In Camp Vicente Lim, Laguna, 16 Coca-Cola workers who were picked up by members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) yesterday were presented to the media this afternoon as New People�s Army surrenderees.

�Why is the Duterte regime on mass arrest mode? Is that the only government response they are capable of? Why are Filipinos being prevented from speaking out on their legitimate issues and grievances?� said Renato Reyes Jr., secretary general of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan).

Tulong Kabataan decried the arrest of their volunteers, including the group�s spokesperson Joshua Marcial.

�Many of our workers, the backbone of our society, have lost their jobs during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ). Millions are still uncertain regarding job security, as well as receiving social amelioration program and other aid from the government,� the group said in a statement.

Meanwhile, urban poor group Kadamay-Metro Manila reported that at about 4 p.m. members of the police went to the house of Fidel Columna, leader of Kilos na Homeless. The police reportedly said that they needed to be brought to the police station because of their social media posts. Also arrested are Marlina Abique and couples Danny and Ann Calunsad.

Harassment

Meanwhile, members of the ACT4PH team on the other hand were able to evade arrest by showing their permit to the police in front of the members of the media and barangay officials in Visayas Ave., Quezon City.

At least 50 state agents wearing civilian clothes on board private SUVs, two police mobile, and motorcycles flagged and cordoned the team�s vehicle at the corner of Visayas Avenue and Forestry Street this morning.

�Agents in plainclothes, without identifying themselves confiscated the driver�s license and, maliciously and falsely accused him of being seen at San Roque last night. For 30 minutes, the operatives held our team at the site, demanded that the teacher-leaders alight the vehicle and to present a permit for the activity,� the group said.

ACT4PH team showed the vehicle�s interior to prove that they only had food and facemasks with them.

�The operatives could not hold the team any longer as no violation can be found,� said Raymond Basilio, secretary general of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT).

�Blocking humanitarian activities of organizations and private groups is a third blow to the suffering people who have been locked down first, then neglected by the government,� Basilio added.

Meanwhile, members of Kilusang Mayo Uno were also harassed on the eve of labor day as they spotted police vehicles outside its headquarters. The group said that local organizations have also reported police and military deployment across urban poor and workers� communities in Metro Manila.

�As the country observes international Labor Day, we urge all Filipinos to condemn the Duterte regime for treating workers like criminals, instead of upholding their rights and improving their welfare,� Elmer Labog, KMU chairperson said in a statement.

A priest, a lawyer, members of the community media and activists were arrested in Iloilo City this morning, May 1.

Progressive groups led by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan)-Panay were holding an indignation caravan to demand justice for slain Bayan Muna Party-list Iloilo City coordinator Jose Reynaldo �Jory� Porquia when they were barred by at least 50 policemen.

Elmer Foro, secretary general of Bayan-Panay, said they negotiated with the police to allow them to lay wreath and light candles where Porquia was killed. When the police denied their plea, they decided to voluntarily disperse.

As they were about to leave the premises of Jaro Plaza, the police blocked them and were told that they were under arrest.

�We condemn in strongest possible terms the high-handed manner by which the Philippine National Police tramples the sovereign people�s rights to assembly, our right to protest, and our right to seek redress of grievances,� said Foro in a statement.

He added that these are people�s inalienable rights enshrined in the 1987 Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Among the arrested are Fr. Marco Sulayao of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI), Diocese of Iloilo and National Union of Peoples� Lawyers-Iloilo Atty. Angelo Karlo Guillen.

Seven of the 42 arrested are journalists covering the protest caravan. They are Panaysayon staff Mc Mae Sulayao, Kervin Bingansinco, Krisma Nina Porquia and Gaybel Rei Gullen; Julrod Prino of Panay Today; Crimson Labinghisa and Bryan Bosque of Dampig Katarungan.

Panaysayon, is a video production group established in 2017. Dampig Katarungan on the other hand is a radio program in Aksyon Radyo Iloilo while established in 2010 and Panay Today is a digital print established in 2015.

Krisma is the daughter of Porquia.

They are currently detained at the Jaro Police Station and were charged with violation of Batas Pambansa 880, disobedience to persons in authority, violation of the Republic Act 11332 or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act, and a local ordinance.

In a statement, the NUPL condemened the series of arrests today.

�The directive and orientation of the police-military leadership is clear: no mercy, no quarters given and no local civilian official can stand in the way (especially if it involves the Left) because we call the shots. That�s San Roque, Norzaragay, barangay Central, Marikina and other,� said NUPL President Edre Olalia.

The police arrest two labor leaders from Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino who staged a protest in a subdivision in Rodriguez, Rizal

Advertisement

The coronavirus lockdown has pushed millions to stay at home, but Filipino workers staged Labor Day protests on Friday, May 1, while maintaining distance from each other.

Several small protests pushed through without any problems, but two members of the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) were arrested by the police Friday for allegedly breaking enhanced quarantine rules.

BMP vice president Lito Rastica and labor leader Renaldo Dulay led a protest with 6 other people in a subdivision in Rodriguez, Rizal. Cops arrested them before noon.

Since it's a holiday, the workers cannot post bail. BMP said that the labor leaders' inquest proceedings will be on Monday, May 3, yet, which means the two will be detained until then.

In other parts of the country, BMP members and communities held noise barrage outside their homes.

Women in Cavite, meanwhile, took to the streets to protest their dire condition. "Kung kulang noon ang ating pagkain, mas kulang pa ang pakain kasulukuyang nangyayari dulot ng COVID19 na ito. (If our food lacked before, now it's even lacking because of this COVID-19)," a woman said in a video. Silent protests, noise barrage

Organized by various labor groups, the workers' main call this year revolves around job security and better social protection.

On early Friday morning, unionists from the Samahan ng Manggagawa sa Philippine Span Asia Carrier Corporation with the Kilusang Mayo Uno-Pier gathered at the Port of Manila.

Advertisement

Those who joined the protest wore red shirts and face masks, while others donned face shields. All of them brought placards, calling for mass testing, a faster disbursement of cash aid, and hazard pay increase.

Fishermen under the fisheries group PAMALAKAYA Pilipinas, meanwhile, called for immediate government aid to agricultural workers.

KMU, BMP, and the Nagkaisa Labor Coalition and its member organizations organized separate virtual rallies as part of their call for "deep systemic change" post-lockdown.

More than two million Filipinos have lost their jobs or under a "No Work, No Pay" scheme in 87,301 establishments nationwide, according to the Department of Labor and Employment.

But those who have received aid so far is just a small fraction of the reported job displacement. Some 600,000 private and informal sector workers have received the P5,000 cash aid from the government, which is just 26% of the affected workers.

A leader of Bayan Muna Party-list was gunned down in Iloilo City this morning, April 30.

Panay Today reported that witnesses heard several gunshots and saw men wearing masks at barangay Sto, Nino, Arevalo District, Iloilo City.

Jory Porquia sustained nine gunshots according to his son, Lean.

�They killed my tatay, mercilessly. Nine gunshots to kill him, nine! He was alone. He was defenseless,� Lean said in his post in social media.

Siegfred D. Deduro, Bayan Muna vice president for Visayas, suspects that perpetrators are state agents. He said Porquia was harassed by members of Iloilo police prior his killing.

Porquia was leading the relief operations and education campaign on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to the poor communities in Iloilo City, which is also placed under enhanced community quarantine.

Deduro said that while Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Tre�as welcomed initiatives in educating and feeding the residents who are under the ECQ, these did not sit well with the police.

�They prevent activists in doing volunteer work in fighting the pandemic, even to the extent of spreading blatant lies that food served by activists is contaminated with COVID-19 virus. Apparently, the Philippine National Police gets instructions from their generals ignoring the policies of local chief executives,� Deduro said in a statement.

Colleagues and friends of Porquia strongly condemned the killing and demanded justice.

Porquia was an activist since martial law. After the Edsa People Power in 1986, Porquia served as officer-in-charge of the National Youth Commission under then President Cory Aquino.

Eventually, Porquia became an overseas Filipino worker, organizing and advocating for Filipino migrants� rights. When he returned to the Philippines, he helped form Migrante chapter in Panay. He was also one of the founders of Bayan Muna in the province.

�Jory is a great loss to the progressive movement for social transformation, but will inspire Bayan Muna members and all activists to persist in advancing �new politics� against the tyrannical rule of the current administration,� said Deduro.

Clarizza Singson of Karapatan Negros who knew Porquia since she was a student described him as jolly and artistic person.

�Kaupod Jory, you will be missed by the masses whom you served and loved!� Singson said in her social media post.

Meanwhile, Lean remembered his father as someone who has always been there when needed.

�How can I go home and grieve? How can we cry for justice when justice is elusive for people who fight for justice? I can only place my rage in words that mean nothing to those who killed you,� Lean said.

On 30 April 2020, the 303rd Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army, based in Murcia, Province of Negros Occidental published a post on its Facebook profile where it falsely links at least five human rights organisations with communist groups, and thus redtagging them and labelling them as affiliated with terrorists.

Together with my family and organization, I vehemently condemn the relentless attacks and red-tagging against me, my children and the Cordillera Peoples Alliance through social media at this time of COVID-19 pandemic. These are undoubtedly perpetrated by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Police (PNP) and their minions. Many of their smear campaign materials are posted in their Facebook pages and individual accounts, and the fake and troll accounts of their minions.

We condemn in the strongest terms possible the latest malicious attack against me and my children last night on Facebook as attached. The disinformation post shows a photo of my children in their indigenous attire during the annual Begnas in Sagada. The Facebook account of my youngest son, who is a minor, was also locked for 5 days. Prior to these, series of red-tagging, political vilification, cursing me dead, and threats to myself, family and CPA were also posted on Facebook. These are direct threats, harassment, intimidation and political vilification especially against my children with a clear intent to harm not only myself but also my family. This is State terrorism.

To the AFP, PNP and their minions, why do you include attacking my children? They have nothing to do with my work and life as an activist. What you are doing is inhumane treatment and evil act. Is this the kind of AFP and PNP that we have in the Philippines? Wala din ba kayong pamilya at mga anak? Paano kung idadamay rin ang mga anak at pamilya ninyo sa trabaho ninyo bilang militar o pulis o mga alipures nila? Sya et na nan kanan tako en INAYAN wenno PANIYEW!

To the AFP, PNP and their minions, why red-tag and attack me? Am I a threat to you? I am just a civilian and activist serving the people. At this time of Covid-19 and socio-economic crisis, why don�t you focus your efforts and resources in helping the people and stop red-tagging and destroying families? You should engage in humane, professional, reasonable and meaningful discussion on issues I raised in social media. You should avoid personal attacks and threats. You should not curse us and attack my children. Stop red-tagging civilians especially at this time of pandemic when people are experiencing great health and economic hardships.

To those who truly believe in Inayan and God, we enjoin you to condemn these acts, call for accountability of the AFP and the PNP, and call for a stop to impunity that is allowing these to happen.

Let me reiterate: I am a civilian, environmental activist, and human rights defender. I am the current chairperson of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) For the Defense of the Ancestral Domain and Self Determination. When I was in college, I was a student activist fighting for student rights and welfare. Upon graduating from college, I volunteered fulltime with the CPA, working for indigenous peoples rights and human rights, social justice and democracy. I�m also an officer of national and international indigenous peoples organizations.

CPA was established in 1984 and its name speaks for what it has been doing for the past decades as a people�s organization. It is an independent alliance of indigenous peoples organizations and sectoral alliances in the Cordillera. It is a legal organization, not an armed organization, and not connected to the New Peoples Army (NPA) or any armed groups.

In the Philippines, State attacks thru red-tagging and political vilification are meant to demonize activists and their progressive organizations in public towards extrajudicial killings, illegal arrests, and enforced disappearance.

Let us call on the Philippine government, AFP and PNP to seriously adhere to human rights and international humanitarian law. Civilians and non-combatants must be protected by parties in the armed conflict: the AFP/PNP and NPA. The Philippine government, the AFP and PNP who are in power and duty-bearers have the primary responsibility to serve and protect civilians. The relentless attacks against civilians like me, my family and CPA by the AFP and PNP violate and contradict their basis of existence.

I believe there are good men and women in the AFP and PNP who take side with the people and perform what is expected of them for the rights and welfare of civilians. They can do more for the country and people to stop the attacks against the people.

Nine contractual workers from the Coca-Cola Femsa Plant in Santa Rosa were brought to Camp Macario Sakay in Los Ba�os, Laguna after finishing a 12-hour shift, where they were accused of being �members of the revolutionary New People�s Army,� April 23.

This would not be the first time Coca-Cola workers would experience harassment during the ongoing lockdown brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Between April 1 and 2, armed police officers visited the houses of Coca-Cola unionists and insisted they �surrender� as members of the NPA.

One worker, who asked for anonymity , stated that he and 10 others were asked by Jury Montellana, chairperson of Liga ng Manggagawa para sa Regular na Hanapbuhay sa Planta ng Coca-Cola (LIGA), to go to Camp Macario Sakay, but only nine of them decided to go.

Inside Camp Macario Sakay, the nine workers were interrogated in batches of three, and each batch was asked different questions. Some common questions were about who their instructors were, what courses they took, and if they �took an oath.�

Labor group Defend Coca-Cola Workers stated LIGA members were attending educational discussions such as a Course on True, Militant, and Nationalist Unionism, Union Administration, Collective Bargaining Agreement tactics, labor laws, and so on.

The nine workers were also promised regularization in exchange for not participating in union activities.

�Turncoat opportunist�

The nine workers also identified Rey Austria Medellin, a labor leader inside the Coca-Cola union, to be collaborating with the Philippine National Police.

A statement by labor group Defend Coca-Cola Workers identified Medellin as a known police asset whose job is to �point out who the leaders are and, alongside the PNP, go to their houses to intimidate at force to surrender as members of the NPA.�

The Revolutionary Council of Trade Unions � Southern Tagalog (RCTU-ST) condemned Medellin, calling him an �example of an opportunist leader who, after benefitting from the union�s struggle, is ready to sell out the union�s and his class� interests in exchange for minuscule rewards from capitalists and fascists.�

According to RCTU-ST, Medellin was a high ranking labor leader, and was in fact a victim of harassment from a certain Tom Garcia due to his involvement in the Coca-Cola union. Medellin was also plagued by financial trouble and struggled to raise his 10 children.

The Coca-Cola union was set to report the harassment faced by Medellin to the United Nations� International Labour Organization, while also preparing how to assist Medellin in his financial instability.

However, RCTU-ST Spokesperson Fortunato Magtanggol said Medellin �exposed himself as collaborating with the capitalists of Coke and the military� as early as February, when he expressed his plan to dismantle the union with the aid of Rene Escuadra, head of Coca-Cola�s security.

Last March 29, Medellin was identified by RCTU-ST as one of the �surrenderees� paraded by the Armed Forces of the Philippines in a �fake ceremony� on 40 NPA members at Camp Vicente Lim, presenting himself under the alias Rebo.

Medellin was also identified to have accompanied the police in harassing Coca-Cola workers in their homes, April 1 and 2.

�Shameful collusion�

Defend Coca-Cola Workers described the incident as a �clear case of harassment and anti-union practice�, calling it �shameful and infuriating� that Coca-Cola would �collude with the AFP and PNP to take advantage of the hunger, fear and struggle faced by many due to the COVID-19 pandemic.�

The group pointed out that both the Philippine Constitution and the Labor Code protect the workers� rights to unionize, engage in union activities, and to strike, citing Article XIII, Section 3 of the 1987 Constitution and Article 211 of the Labor Code.

Defend Coca-Cola Workers also stated that the �capitalists of Coca-Cola clearly want to break the union and take back the victories it has gained by conflating unionism with revolutionary movements and the NPA.�

About 430 Coca-Cola workers went on strike in 2013, which resulted in regularization and other benefits. edellin was one of the workers who were regularized following the three-day strike. Due to continuing concerns over contractualization and union-busting, 140 LIGA members staged a strike five years later in March 2018, which also resulted in a victory for the workers.

Charges will be filed against former lawmaker Ariel Casilao and six other volunteers who were on their way to distribute relief packs in Bulacan province for allegedly violating quarantine rules, the Department of the Interior and Local Government said Monday.

The former Anakpawis party-list representative and six other volunteers of Sagip Kanayunan and Tulong Anakpawis relief operations were flagged down at a checkpoint in Norzagaray town Sunday morning.

They were brought to Norzagaray Municipal Police Station without clear explanation why there were brought there and then brought to Malolos Provincial Police Station �only to be yelled at for giving out �anti-government propaganda materials and accused of being supporters or recruiters of the New People�s Army,� Unyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura said Monday.

Casilao is vice chairperson of UMA.

Local Government Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya claimed the food pass acquired by the volunteers was unauthorized but fishers' group Pamalakaya said the food pass used for the relief efforts was issued by Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources national director Eduardo Gongona.

In a statement on Sunday, SAKA (Sama-samang Artista para sa Kilusang Agraryo) said the relief efforts in Bulacan have been done "in close coordination with Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas-affiliated peasant organizations" since the start of the Luzon lockdown.

"Organizations would directly purchase fresh produce from farmers in San Jose del Monte and Norzagaray for distribution to different communities, and would also bring relief packs to these farmers for needs they cannot grow in the agricultural land they till and struggle for," the group also said. 'Attempted mass gathering'

The DILG spokesperson accused the team of volunteers of attempting to conduct a mass gathering in the guise of distributing relief goods. He also claimed that tarpaulins and �propaganda materials� were found in the jeepney that ferried Casilao and other volunteers.

Malaya said the volunteers will be charged for allegedly violating the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act and Article 151 of the Revised Penal Code, which punishes resistance and disobedience to a person in authority.

Casilao will be also charged for usurpation of authority under Article 177 of the Revised Penal Code.

�Anakpawis will have their day in court. The DILG assures them of due process. Sa korte na sila magpaliwanag,� he said. �Blatant harassment�

Casilao slammed on Monday what he called �blatant harassment and outright red-tagging at a time when aid is urgently needed by the poor.�

�The government should stop criminalizing organizations and individuals who simply want to give much needed relief as they should stop arresting the poor for asking for aid just like what they did with San Roque 21,� he said, referring to the residents of Sitio San Roque who were arrested after demanding food and financial aid during a protest early in April.

Pamalakaya chair Fernando Hicap, former Anakpawis party-list representative, said the incident was a �vile harassment� against humanitarian volunteers who are considered frontliners.

�Contrary to the statement of [Undersecretary] Malaya, we underwent through a proper process in applying for the food pass, so that our delivery of relief packs to the distressed fishing and farming communities will not be hampered,� he also said.

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, for its part, urged Philippine authorities to work with organizations that try to help people cope with the coronavirus pandemic.

While they condemned her warrantless arrest, civic organizations in Cebu and in other parts of the country are calling for the immediate release of Cebuana entrepreneur and film writer Ma. Victoria �Bambi� Beltran.

Movement Against Tyranny � Cebu (MAT � Cebu), Concerned Artists of the Philippines, and DAKILA issued separate statements expressing condemnation of Beltran�s arrest past midnight on Saturday, April 18, 2020.

They also rallied to have the artist released from the custody of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO � 7) citing statements from Beltran�s camp that her arrest was without any legal basis.

Read: Police arrest Cebuana entrepreneur accused of posting false information

Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella accused Beltran, whom he once appointed to the city�s cinema development council, of allegedly peddling false information.

Labella was referring to a Facebook post that Beltran made alleging that over 9,000 residents in Sitio Zapatera in Barangay Luz, Cebu City have already been infected with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

However, Beltran�s legal counsel Vincente Isles and DAKILA, a group of writers where she is a member of, said the post was of satirical nature and was not intended to sow public confusion and panic.

�This statement (which Beltran posted on social media) echoed reports from local news that health officials from DOH Central Visayas considered the whole sitio with a population of 9,000 as infected or presumed contaminated,� DAKILA said.

Both MAT � Cebu and DAKILA also called for local government officials to direct their focus on responding to the pandemic that has infected 165 individuals in Cebu City as of April 19, 2020.

�What we need is an efficient government willing and able to address the medical and socio-economic needs of its constituents, not a leviathan very eager to maintain its posture to the extent of persecuting ordinary citizens,� MAT- Cebu said.

The groups also share the observation that Beltran�s arrest was an attack and a threat to freedom of speech and expression.

�This targeting and arrest is a vicious attack on freedom of expression amidst the continuing failure of the national and local governments to ensure expanded and systematic mass testing and a comprehensive public information drive on the pandemic,� the Concerned Artists of the Philippines stated.

Beltran was arrested in Barangay Kamputhaw, Cebu City at around 12:30 a.m. on Saturday, April 18, 2020.

High profile lawyer Benjamin Militar, who is part of Beltran�s legal counsel, said they found out that police arrested their client without any accompanying warrant and that no legal basis was cited.

Police Brigadier General Albert Ignatius Ferro, PRO � 7 director, said Beltran would be facing charges for the violation of the Anti-Cybercrime Law.

Read more: https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/303890/civic-groups-rally-call-for-bambi-beltrans-release#ixzz6UoFV2me0 Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook

Farmers and human rights groups are condemning the killing of a peasant leader who had been tagged as a member of New People�s Army (NPA) whom the military said was killed in a clash in Miag-ao town, Iloilo province last Saturday (April 18).

The leftist groups were also calling for the release of 11 persons, including minors, who were captured by the military and tagged as rebels.

The farmers group Pamanggas said John Farochilin was one of its council members and chair of the local peasant group Alyansa sang Mangunguma sa Miag-ao.

�We are saddened as we are angry at the cold-blooded murder of a dedicated peasant leader,� Cris Chavez, Pamanggas secretary general said.

Chavez said Farochilin was a key leader in the campaign to address hunger and poverty among farmers of Iloilo and to seek government assistance at the height of the El Ni�o weather phenomenon.

The Army�s 3rd Infantry Division (3ID) said soldiers of the 61st Infantry Battalion overran a rebel camp at the village of Cabalunan in Miag-ao and killed one rebel after a 35-minute gunfight.

The 3ID said in a statement that soldiers arrested seven persons, including a minor, and recovered firearms, improvised explosive devices, medical paraphernalia and rebel documents.

In another statement, the 301st Brigade said soldiers had captured rebels, including five minors.

But the NPA�s Mt. Napulak Command, which operates in southern Panay, denied that a clash occurred between rebels and government soldiers.

In a statement, Ilaya Kanaway, the command�s spokesperson, said no rebel was killed or captured as there was no clash in the first place.

The human rights groups Karapatan said those arrested were civilians and residents of the village of Igpanulong in Sibalom town in Antique province.

Reylan Vergara, citing an account of the mother of one of those arrested, said the men captured by the military were just gathering honey from beehives which they intended to sell when they were chanced upon by the soldiers.

In another statement, the 303rd Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army lauded the bravery of soldiers of the 94th Infantry Battalion during a clash with NPA rebels at a village in Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental province last Sunday (April 19).

Maj. Franco Ver Lopez, civil military officer of the 303rd Infantry Brigade, said 2Lt Ralf Amante Abibico, Cpl Joel Nobleza and Pfc Carl Venice Bustamante sacrificed their lives to protect the people from alleged extortion by NPA.

Four soldiers, who were wounded in the gun battle, were in stable condition, he said. They were Cpl John Cris M. Laus, PFC John Paul M. Geonzon, Cpl Lismer Jade J. Tumayao and Pfc Alexis I.Mepranum.

Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1261738/army-in-iloilo-told-you-killed-a-peasant-leader-not-rebel#ixzz6Uo8k45Dh Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook

A veteran peasant leader was arrested by authorities this afternoon at his residence in Purok 3, branagay Bonbon, Butuan City in Agusan del Norte, according to Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas.

Proceso Torralba, 71, has been charged with kidnapping and serious illegal detention in connection to the December 19, 2018 incident where 16 soldiers and paramilitary members were captured by New People�s Army (NPA) guerrillas.

KMP decried the charges as fabricated, saying that Torralba or Tatay Sisoy to his colleagues has been a peasant leader since 1985. He has been the chaiperson of the local chapter of KMP since 1988.

From 2009 to 2012, Torralba led the campaigns against high loan interest rates, and for the increase of farm workers� wages.

Torralba is now in the custody of the Philippine National Police in Ampayon, Butuan City.

KMP said Torralba has been suffering from a heart ailment, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma, making him vulnerable to coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

An urban poor leader assailed the harassment of police officers against their ongoing community kitchen in Sitio San Roque, an urban poor community in Quezon City today, April 6.

Elements of Quezon City Police District station 2 arrived in the community and removed their placards calling for government aid. Among those written in their placards were: #TulongHindiKulong and #SolusyongMedikalHindiMilitar.

�They threatened to stop our community kitchen if we will continue with the protests and placards. Will these police officers feed us?� said Estrelieta Bagasbas, a community leader in Sitio San Roque and one of Kadamay leaders, told Bulatlat in a phone interview.

Dubbed as Kusinang Bayan or community kitchen, the local chapter of Kadamay in Sitio San Roque, along with their supporters, has been providing warm meals to their neighbors. This effort is now on its third day.

In an earlier interview, Bagasbas explained that supporters usually drop off ingredients to their community, which they then distribute to at least 10 community kitchens within Sitio San Roque. These kitchens are manned by other grassroots organizations in the community, allowing them to provide warm meals to at least 1,000 families who lost their sources of income following the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine, one of the government approach to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

Despite the harassment, Bagasbas said the community kitchen continued its operations today, where they served pancit bihon and fried fish. Church groups such as the United Church of Christ in the Philippines and the Task Force on Urban Conscientization of the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines dropped off sacks of rice for the community kitchen today.

Sitio San Roque is among the urban poor communities in Metro Manila. Pocket demolitions, usually in the guise of road expansions, began in 2010. Residents have received relocation offers, but many have rejected as these are usually in far-flung communities where sources of livelihoods are scarce.

�While they besmirch our names, we continue to help our fellow poor. We may not have much, but we have supporters who have been extending assistance,� Bagasbas said, �Nairaraos namin ang pang-araw-araw na tulong.�

The ongoing lockdown in the Philippines due to the novel coronavirus pandemic has failed to defuse a standoff between a local community and OceanaGold Philippines Inc (OGPI) over a controversial gold and copper mine in the province of Nueva Vizcaya.

The situation escalated on April 6 when an estimated 100 personnel from the provincial and municipal police forces dispersed the community�s �people barricade,� composed of 29 community leaders and members of peasant groups.

The barricade was an extralegal measure supported by the provincial government after OGPI�s permit to operate the Didipio mines lapsed on June 20, 2019.

The latest escalation comes after President Rodrigo Duterte�s office authorized in January the entry of 63,000 liters (16,600 gallons) of fuel to the Didipio mining site. After the dispersal, the police detained Rolando Pulido, chair of the Didipio Earth Savers Multi-Purpose Association (DESAMA).

The 27,000-hectare (66,700-acre) Didipio mine straddles the border between the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya and Quirino, some 270 kilometers (170 miles) northeast of Manila. It�s believed to hold 1.41 million ounces of gold and 169,400 tons of copper.

The standoff comes at a time when gold prices, stabilizing at $1,600 per ounce since February this year, are expected to peak amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

On July 1, 2019, local communities in Didipio and Alimit, hosts to the underground mines, set up a blockade to stop the entry of fuel tankers and service vehicles to the mining site. After a series of confrontations in the streets and in the courts, OceanaGold formally suspended its operations on Oct. 15, 2019, while it processes its application for an extension.

The community took over abandoned checkpoints, and with members working on shifts, maintained the blockade until the COVID-19 pandemic placed Metro Manila and the whole island of Luzon under an �enhanced community quarantine� � a lockdown that has suspended all domestic land, sea and air travel from March 15 until April 14.

Prior to the lockdown, residents blocked OGPI�s efforts to send in trucks carrying 630,000 liters (166,400 gallons) of fuel to run generators for its dewatering activities, which includes removing or pumping out groundwater from the mine site.

Governor Carlos Padilla clarified that the president�s letter allowing the delivery of fuel does not authorize the mining giant to continue its mining operations, which stalled for a lack of an extension.

�The provincial government recognizes the authority granted by the Office of the President to OGPI to transport fuel for its dewatering activities,� Padilla wrote in a letter dated March 10 to Eduardo A�o, the secretary of the interior and local government. �We have reservations, however, as to the amount of fuel to be transported to the mine site.�

Padilla said that 630,000 liters is �excessive if the same is to be used only for the dewatering activities,� adding that a tank of fuel, with a capacity of about 20,000 liters (5,300 gallons), can run generators for 50 hours during a power outage, which seldom transpires in the area.

Three tanker trucks, carrying roughly 60,000 liters, were delivered to the site.

Environmental groups have questioned the timing of the move as it comes while the country is under a state of calamity (a state of emergency during which the government has access to extra funds) due to a rising number of coronavirus cases. There were 3,660 confirmed infections in the Philippines and 163 deaths as of April 6.

�The national government violates its own pronouncements and orders � to give way for large-scale mining interests,� said Leon Dulce of the Kalikasan People�s Network for the Environment. �OceanaGold must be held accountable if the pandemic spreads in the villages affected by its operations.�

Free expression groups and advocates are outraged at village officials and public school teachers in Cabiao, Nueva Ecija who forced a campus journalist into issuing a public apology over his criticism of the Rodrigo Duterte government�s handling of the corona virus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.

Arts and media alliance Let�s Organize for Democracy and Integrity (LODI) said the officials and teachers �deserve nothing but our (LODI) contempt and scorn� for being �bad examples to the youth� when they forced University of the East Dawn editor in chief Joshua Molo into issuing a public apology over his online criticisms of the president and the government.

�In their attempt to silence Joshua, they abused their positions of influence in the community and merely helped cover up the negligent and inept who Joshua wished to expose,� LODI said in a statement.

Molo caught the ire of Barangay San Fernando Sur officials and his former high school teachers when he questioned the Duterte administration�s �inaction� in posts on his Facebook wall. The post has since been taken down.

Molo�s posts piqued three of his former teachers at Cabiao National High School who professed their unquestioning support of the president.

LODI identified Molo�s former teachers as Jun Ainne Francisco, Rochelle Galang, Wilma Manalo, Mel Garcia, Delmar Miranda, Jonifel Ventura, and Rogelio Dela Cruz. The barangay officials are unidentified.

That Molo was eventually �forced� to issue a public apology and take down his posts have earned the ire of free expression and rights groups and advocates.

Violation to free expression

In an alert, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said Redwire, an independent publication run by students of UE-Manila first broke the news and quoted friends who were in contact with the campus journalist as saying that the barangay officials threatened to file a libel case against Molo and have him picked up by police if he refused to apologize.

�A video posted on the UE Dawn editor�s social media account Sunday afternoon, April 5, showed him (Molo) making the �apology,� taking his cue from persons outside the frame of the image to begin reading the message he had prepared on his phone, a possible indication he was under duress at the time,� the NUJP said.

Before removing the video, the campus journalist posted a comment saying a former teacher had asked him to take it down, the group added.

LODI said the Molo�s criticisms of the government�s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic are �non-crimes� and that he was right in pointing out the slow delivery of relief items for the citizens placed under quarantine.

Molo�s student publication, the UE Dawn, also condemned �in the strongest possible terms� actions against its editor, adding �preventing someone from expressing his or her opinion on matters such as grievances against the government is an act of oppression.�

Alumni of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines (CEGP), the national alliance of student publications that count the UE Dawn as its member, expressed full support to Molo and condemned �the cowardly acts of harassment against him.�

�The coronavirus pandemic is no excuse to deny anyone, including students, the right to air grievances against government and to hold government accountable for its ineptitude and neglect. The limits on physical movement render free public debate online all the more important. Students have every right to participate in the debate,� the CEGP alumni said.

In a statement, the group asked Molo�s teachers to reconsider their plans to file charges against the campus journalist.

�[They should]�allow Joshua to freely speak his mind, and to instead to help him ventilate the valid complaints he is raising regarding the Duterte administration�s response to the pandemic. Teachers should be the last ones to discourage critical and independent thinking among students. Neither should they encourage blind, unthinking obedience to authority,� the CEGP alumni said.

Human rights group Karapatan for its part said, �We are alarmed on this incident as it is a case of curtailment of the right to free expression. Karapatan would like to remind authorities that the right to free speech is protected by the Philippine Constitution and international human rights instruments. Anyone who wishes to express dismay over government�s actions should never be threatened and penalized.�

Philippines Graphic editor in chief Joel Pablo Salud also publicly criticized Molo�s former teachers, asking �What sort of teachers would take the constitutionally-assured exercise of free speech against this university student editor? These are former teachers in high school; the young man is now in college,� he said.

�Is this the kind of system these teachers are propagating�coercion, intimidation, harassment of those who will exercise their right to free speech? To make matters more disturbing, these teachers were allegedly his former Campus Journalism instructors in high school,� Salud added.

Journalist Inday Espina-Varona said the barangay officials were wrong in coercing submission from Molo on issues way beyond the specific complaint.

�Threatening Molo with arrest on grounds of anti-government sentiment is a violation of his constitutional right to free expression,� Espina-Varona said,

�Acting like a dictator�

In the same statement, the CEGP also condemned Cebu governor Gwendolyn Garcia�s threat against Today�s Carolinian (TC), student publication of the University of San Carlos in Cebu, that published an editorial critical of the local executive.

�She [Garcia] is not exempt from the requirement of accountability of public officers, and she has no legal authority to limit what can or cannot be said, or what can be asked or commented on,� the article reads.

The editorial entitled �A governor is not above the Constitution� was a criticism of Garcia�s announcement to form a unit to track down people with critical online posts.

Garcia responded with an �invitation� to TC editor in chief Berns Mitra to �beam some light into your clearly uninformed mind that has hastily jumped to an erroneous conclusion.�

The former officers of the CEGP however said Garcia should simply answer the questions and concerns raised by Cebu campus journalists.

�The pandemic is not a license for Garcia to act like a little dictator. She remains a public servant required by law to be accountable at all times to the people,� they said.

President Rodrigo Duterte has slammed human rights lawyer Jose Manuel �Chel� Diokno and members of the opposition for supposedly resorting to �black propaganda� as the government grapples with solutions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic in the country.

In his public address on Friday night, Duterte said Diokno and his colleagues in the opposition were pouncing on the Covid-19 crisis to gain political advantage for the 2022 elections.

�Itong si Chel Diokno sinabi pa niya sige ako mag-depensa sa inyo. Alam mo Chel Diokno, kayong opposition dilaw, huwag niyo pilitin ang pagkatao niyo sa gobyerno (This Chel Diokno, he even stated to defend these people. You know what, Chel Diokno, you in the yellow opposition, do not insist in putting yourselves in government),� Duterte said.

�Kayo nag-sige tagatakbo ng black propaganda kasi malapit na eleksyon, sabihin ko ngayon sa mga taong Pilipino, kung iyan ang ipalit niyo sa sunod na eleksyon, torpe talaga ang Pilipino (All of you who are pursuing black propaganda because election is coming, I will tell the Filipino people now, if you are going to choose them to replace the people in government in the coming elections, then Filipinos are really sheepish),� he added.

Duterte even ridiculed Diokno�s appearance, saying that the former opposition senatorial candidate was buck-toothed and talks like a janitor.

He also said Diokno was among �lousy lawyers� who are allegedly encouraging people to defy the law.

�Kung magsalita ka para kang, wag lang mainsulto kayong mga janitor�ito si Diokno magsalita parang janitor (If you talk you are like, I hope janitors would not get insulted�Diokno is talking like a janitor),� Duterte said.

�Alam mo kung bakit hindi ka nanalo? Kasi kalaki ng ngipin mo. Magsalita kalahati ng panga mo lumalabas (You know why you didn�t win in the last elections? Because you have big teeth. The way you talk, half of your jaw is showing),� he added.

Diokno, chair of the Free Legal Assistance Group, on Thursday, revealed that the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has summoned social media users who expressed sentiments on the government�s response to the pandemic.

He said NBI�s actions would bring a chilling effect since his client, who was summoned to explain, did not post misinformation but �fair commentary on matters of public interest.�

On his official social media accounts, Diokno has also called for mass testing for the novel coronavirus and cautioned the public on the use of the P275-billion government budget to fight the crisis.

In a radio interview on Saturday, Diokno said �now is not the time to go after anybody� as the country was still in the middle of the public health crisis.

�Sanay naman tayo sa ganyan na mga salita ng Pangulo, pero sana �di mawala ang pokus niya doon sa mga problema ng bayan, yung mga pangangailangan ng ating kapatid (I�m used to the disparaging remarks made by the President, but hopefully he won�t lose focus on the country�s problem, the needs of our countrymen),� Diokno said in an interview with dzMM radio.

�Now is not the time to go after anybody, but rather we all work together to address this problem,� he added.

Twenty-one protesters demanding food and other assistance were arrested Wednesday in Quezon City for staging a rally without government permit, police said.

The Quezon City Police District in a statement said the protesters, who are residents of Sitio San Roque, were arrested at a portion of EDSA in Barangay Bagong Pag-asa around 11 a.m.

A video posted by DZRH on Twitter shows the violent dispersal of protesters conducted by the QCPD. One of them can be seen being dragged by authorities, while being berated for participating in the protest.

Among those arrested was a 47-year-old woman who led the group Samahan Ng Magkakapitbahay ng Barangay San Roque.

They were apparently part of dozens of protesters shown on videos that circulated on social media. Some of them held placards saying they have not gotten any help from the local government amid the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine to curb the spread of COVID-19.

The local government of Quezon City denied these claims, saying there has been "continuous distribution of food packs throughout the city, both from the local government and the barangays to ensure that affected families are looked after during this crisis period."

"Nevertheless, the mayor has instructed city personnel to review the list to make sure nobody has been inadvertently left out," it added.

The city government said the residents crowded the area after being given false information that a TV crew was distributing relief goods there. The group Kadamay instigated individuals to hold the rally and claim they were not given aid, claimed Quezon City Task Force Action Officer Rannie Ludovica in a CNN Philippines News Night interview.

"Upon further questioning however, some residents acknowledged that they did receive food packs," the Quezon City government stressed.

As of March 31, the local government of Quezon City said it has distributed more than 952,000 food packs since the imposition of the quarantine, which has restricted people's movement. Quezon City has 151 confirmed cases of the coronavirus. Of this number, 27 have died while 11 have recovered.

Meanwhile, Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte called on authorities to release the arrested protesters "in the interim for humanitarian reasons," and issue them a warning instead. PNP reiterates: No mass gatherings

Police earlier said charges will be filed against the protesters for violations of the Republic Act 11469 or the Bayanihan To Heal As One Act, which was recently passed to address the COVID-19 crisis; and the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act. They will also be charged for resistance and disobedience to authorities.

�Bago po sila hinuli, unang-una pinakiusapan natin sila para magsibalikan sa kanilang tahanan, subalit nagmatigas sila kaya wala tayo magawa kundi i-implement natin ang batas," said QCPD Director Police Brigadier General Ronnie Montejo.

[Translation: Before they were arrested, authorities first requested them to return to their homes, but they refused to do so, and there's nothing we can do but implement the law.]

Ludovica also said protesters are "targeting other barangays" in Quezon City, including Payatas, Batasan, Holy Spirit and Commonwealth.

"After po nito, 'yun na po ang isusunod nila para lalabas talaga na 'yung mga tao ay di na makapaghintay at gutom na," Ludovica said.

[Translation: After this, they also intend to stage protests in those areas to make it appear like the people are already starving and can no longer wait.]

Philippine National Police Chief General Archie Gamboa warned of "firm and decisive police action" against those who will organize and join "illegal mass actions" amid the state of national health emergency due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Under Luzon-wide quarantine, people are ordered to stay home, except those offering basic services, mass transportation is suspended and all mass gatherings are prohibited. Groups call for protesters' release

Cause-oriented groups Bayan Muna and Gabriela condemned the "violent dispersal" of the protesters and demanded their immediate release.

"We further call for immediate action on the people's request for food and financial assistance," Bayan Muna Rep. Ferdinand Gaite said in a statement. "We demand the immediate release of the P8,000 cash assistance to the poor, the implementation of the P1,000 hike in SSS pension, and other social amelioration measures that were mandated by Republic Act 11469."

Gabriela Women's Party in a separate statement said, "using excessive force and detention will not quell the empty stomachs of Filipinos who up to this day remain denied of the promised P200-billion cash aid for the poor."

Nationwide, COVID-19 cases have risen to 2,311, with 96 deaths and 50 recoveries.

A woman peasant leader was killed on March 31 in San Miguel, Surigao del Sur.

Nora Apique, 66, who was shot by unidentified assailants at 7:00 p.m. yesterday. She was reportedly on her way home when gunmen fired at her in barangay Patong, according to Amihan National Federation of Peasant Women.

Apique was a leader of Kahugpungan sa mga Mag-uuma sa Surigao del Sur. She was also a member of Barangay Agrarian Reform Committee (BARC), and became the chairperson of the Municipal ARC.

She was also a member of the Provincial ARC since 2016. She joined in the 20017 caravan to Manila demanding free irrigation services for farmers.

Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP)-Caraga chapter said Apique was constantly red-tagged allegedly by members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and paramilitary groups.

In a statement, Zenaida Soriano, chairperson of Amihan, said, �Apique�s killing show that military operations continue despite the crisis the country is facing and the �preventive community quarantine� being implemented in the province.�

Bayan Muna Rep. Eufemia Cullamat also condemned the killing of Apique. She said while the country is facing the crisis brought about the pandemic, members of the military in the provinces continue to commit abuses and rights violations.

Cullamat�s family harassed

Cullamat also cited the harassment against her family in Lianga, Surigao del Sur, by the members of the military.

She said after the arrest of her sister, Gloria Campos Tumalon, on March 19, soldiers went to her children and asked about her personal information.

�For what will they use the information about me? Why not ask me personally�, she said.

She said trolls also circulate fake news about her, labeling her as a member of the New People�s Army.

�Authorities have been warning the public about spreading fake news, but they are the ones who are leading it. They should be the one who should be punished,� she added.

She called on the government especially the Philippine National Police and the AFP to stop the attacks on national minorities, respect indigenous people�s right to self-determination.

A 25-year-old activist and artistic director of a community theater group was shot to death by unidentified assailants in Cortes town on Tuesday morning.

Marlon Maldos, a choreographer and trainer of �Bol-anong Artista nga may Diwang Dagohoy� (Bansiwag), became the youngest victim of extrajudicial killing in Bohol.

The police investigation showed that Maldos was in between two persons on board a motorcycle in Barangay Dela Paz in Cortes, 10 kilometers from this city, when the perpetrators, on board another motorcycle, arrived and fired at the victim.

Witnesses told the police that Maldos appeared to be the target since when he and his companions fell to the ground, the gunmen approached and finished him off.

Maldos suffered five bullet wounds on the body.

Police recovered four empty shells of .45-caliber and three spent shells of 9-mm caliber at the crime scene.

Investigators have yet to identify the perpetrators as well as the motive behind the killing.

Farmers and progressive groups, including the Hugpong sa Mag-uumang Bol-anon (Humabol), condemned the murder of Maldos.

In a statement, Humabol said agents of state forces were behind the killing of Maldos.

At a time when the country is under a health emergency and all efforts should be directed towards controlling the spread of COVID-19, fascist agents of this fascist government are on a rampage, harassing, and killing farmers, land rights activists, and cultural workers, the statement said.

Humabol said Maldos and his family had been the subject of constant red-tagging, vilification, and harassment.

He has been unfairly and baselessly linked to the revolutionary underground movement even if he was plainly out in the open, participating in rallies calling for genuine land reform, and organizing theater arts workshops,� it said.

�We demand swift justice for Marlon. We demand to end impunity. We demand that these senseless killings be solved and perpetrators be brought to face the court of law, and punished accordingly, it added.

Police arrested Manobo leader Gloria Tomalon in barangay Diatagon, Lianga, Surigao del Sur, on charges of kidnapping and serious illegal detention, March 19.

Tomalon is a prominent leader in the indigenous Manobo’s struggle as founder of the organization KATRIBUMMU and a council member of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC). Tomalon is also the sister of Bayan Muna Representative Eufemia Cullamat.

“The PNP [Philippine National Police] and AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] chose to illegally arrest my sister as the country grapples against the horror of this COVID-19 pandemic. [They] should stop the attacks against national minorities and respect our right to self-determination instead,” said Cullamat in a statement.

According to Cullamat, Tomalon was visited by elements of the Lianga police at her home on March 19, 11:20 a.m. She was then forced to go to the police station where a warrant of arrest was served to her.

Bayan Muna asserted that the charges of kidnapping and serious illegal detention were “trumped-up” and were “filed en masse against some 400 individuals, including leaders and members of Lumad organizations and civilians in Sibagat, Agusan del Sur, 2018.” Tomalon has been the target of an intense red-tagging campaign. The state-owned Philippine News Agency labeled Tomalon as leader of the New People’s Army (NPA), linking her to an attack by the NPA guerrillas in sitio Emerald, barangay Diatagon and an alleged failed ambush on February 19.

A statement by Maj. Gen. Antonio Parlade, Jr., spokesperson of the National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), also described Tomalon as the chair of an organization that “promotes communist principles.”

Cullamat belied NTF-ELCAC’s claims. “This is part and parcel of the PNP and AFP campaign to link IP leaders who are opposing the mining and other environmentally destructive activities to armed groups in a bid to illegitimize their struggle and eventually suppress their voice,” she said.

Tomalon, in her capacity as chair of KATRIBUMMU, was vocal in opposing attempts by five mining companies to operate in the Andap Valley complex. The five companies were the Romualdez-owned Benguet Corp., Abacus Coal Exploration and Development Corp., the Chinese-owned Great Wall Mining and Power Corp., ASK Mining and Exploration Corp., and Coal Black Mining Corp.

Tomalon’s brother, Pablito Campos, was also arrested in February 2018 and was branded as an “NPA spokesperson.” Her other brother, Dionel Campos, was the chairperson of Malahutayong Pakigbisog Alansa sa Sumusunod (Mapasu) and was killed by members of the paramilitary group Magahat-Bagani in September 2015.

Other Bayan Muna representatives also condemned the arrest. House Deputy Minority Leader Carlos Isagani Zarate said the arrest was brought about by Executive Order 70 and the NTF-ELCAC, which has been used to “attack and harass even the legal progressive organizations, their members, and leaders.”

“The Gloria Tomalon case is no exception as it obviously bears the mark of the typical PNP-AFP false campaign to align the leaders of legal organizations to the communist insurgents to create an excuse to attack, harass, and even kill them,” Zarate said.

Rep. Ferdinand Gaite also condemned the arrest in the middle of a crisis. “The government is asking for united effort to combat the spread of COVID-19,” he said, “but clearly, what is still in full swing is not war against the pandemic, but the government’s war against democratic dissent, against people’s political participation, against the indigenous people’s assertion of their rights.”

Tomalon is currently in custody of the Lianga police. Her sisters have already sought the help of both the NAPC and the Commission on Human Rights.

A leader of a farmer’s group in Pantukan, Compostela Valley was shot dead in his house at 6:30 p.m. on March 20.

Agudo Quillio, 52, chairperson of Hugpong sa mga Mag-uuma sa Pantukan (Humapan), was in his house preparing dinner for his family when three armed men forcibly entered their door. The men headed straight to Quillo, and shot him multiple times in the chest instantly killing him, the Karapatan Southern MIndanao Region wrote in their report.

Quillio led the peasant group Humapan in campaigning to stop the mining exploration activities of the American-owned St. Augustine Mines Ltd. in his town. Kingking in Pantukan is one of the prime mining areas that began to be actively promoted to foreign investors under the Arroyo presidency.

Quillo had also participated in the campaign of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries to recover their lands from the control of banana plantations in Davao del Norte.

HUMAPAN is a municipal peasant organization in Pantukan town and under the provincial peasant organization, Hugpong sa mga Mag-uuma sa Walog Compostela (HUMAWAC), an affiliate organization of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas- Southern Mindanao Region.

The human rights group Karapatan suspects the assailants are under the 46th Infantry Battalion. They lambasted the military for its vicious attacks on anti-mining advocates.

Two years before, in January 27, 2016, another anti-mining leader, Teresita Navacilla, was shot in Kingking, Pantukan. She died in the hospital three days later. Like with Quillo, the attack was reportedly perpetrated by soldiers from the 46th Infantry Battalion which has been assigned to secure the King-king mining project.

Before the fatal shootings, the same infantry battalion have reportedly assaulted and arrested members of the Mansaka tribe and other residents opposed to the mining project.

Human rights alliance Karapatan condemns in strongest terms the trumped-up charges against couple Reynaldo and Carmelita Camacho, who were arrested by the elements of the 47th Infantry Battalion (IB) without a warrant nor any legal basis in their home at Brgy. Tolang, Getafe, Bohol last February 8, 2020.

Reynaldo, according to their neighbors, is an upright citizen of Brgy. Tolang and even ran for councilor in the recent elections. He is currently a volunteer for the local peace and order group Bantay Bayan as well as a catechist of the Sto. Niño in Gestafe.

According to Eulalia Camacho Pacanza, elements of the 47th IB barged into their home after raiding three houses and one sari-sari store, and took their belongings including cellphones, a laptop, and PHP 18,000 worth of cash before “inviting” Reynaldo without declaring an arrest and boarding him in a white van. His wife Carmelita volunteered to accompany him to assure his safety. The couple are now being tagged and paraded by the military as arrested top leaders of the New People’s Army (NPA) with guns and bombs allegedly confiscated from the couple.

“State terrorism, after all, is a lucrative business. It’s no wonder that the military is now rabidly manufacturing lies from photoshopping rebel surrenderees, planting guns and bombs in raids of offices of progressive organizations, to proliferating fake news of catching big fish of the NPA by staging arrests of innocent individuals through trumped-up charges as part of their modus operandi to collect thousands of pesos worth of bounty in their fascist counterinsurgency operations under Executive Order No. 70,” Karapatan Deputy Secretary General Roneo Clamor said.

He further averred that the couple’s arrest was done by the virtue of a recycled and already dismissed case: “The case now being lodged against the Camacho couple was previously employed in the arrests of Roy Erecre in Davao in May 2014 and Fr. Rustico Tan in Oslob, Cebu in November 2017. Both the charges against Erecre and Fr. Tan were eventually dismissed, and we urge that this malicious allegations against them be immediately junked for the very simple reason that it is nothing but an already proven lie.”

“Karapatan joins the family of Reynaldo and Carmelita Camacho in demanding justice for their illegal arrest and in the dropping of the trumped-up charges and allegations against them. We also urge the Commission on Human Rights to investigate and hold accountable the deceptive military and their attacks on people’s rights,” the Karapatan official ended.

The Quezon City city prosecutor has found “reasonable grounds” for the filing of perjury charges against 10 human rights defenders.

City Prosecutor Vimar Barcellano overturned Quezon City Senior Assistant City Prosecutor Nilo Peñaflor resolution in November 2019 dismissing the original complaint against 11 rights defenders. Barcellano granted the appeal of the complainant, National Security Hermogenes Esperon Jr.

Among the accused are Karapatan officers Elisa Tita Lubi, Cristina Palabay, Edita Burgos, Gabriela Krista Dalena, Roneo Clamor, Jose Mari Callueng and Wilfredo Ruazol. Also charged were Gabriela officers Joan May Salvador and Gertrudes Libang and Emma Cupin, national coordinator of Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP).

In an interview with Bulatlat, Burgos maintained the case is pure harassment. “The case is being used to retaliate versus Karapatan officers who were only seeking protection from the court,” she said.

Esperon filed the charges following the filing of writ of amparo and writ of habeas data with the Supreme Court by Karapatan, Gabriela and RMP. Esperon was named respondent in Karapatan’s plea for protection against harassment and threats from state security forces. The Court of Appeals eventually denied Karapatan’s petition.

“Don’t we have the right to seek protection for ourselves?” Burgos asked. “And perjury? We are God-fearing. We are not liars. They are the ones who lie.”

The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) also maintained that the case is a form of political persecution.

Ephraim Cortez, NUPL secretary general, noted the “extraordinary speed” by which the city prosecutor acted on Esperon’s motion for reconsideration. Cortez told Bulatlat ordinary motions usually take three months to one year.

“It’s been railroaded,” Cortez said, noting that the national task force to end the local communist armed conflict (NTF-ELCAC) chaired by Esperon, boasted as legal victory the filing of perjury against Catholic nun Elen Belardo.

Cortez also noted that the revival of the charges coincide with the 43rd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. Karapatan and other organizations filed complaints against the Duterte administration’s human rights abuses before the UN body.

The accused, except Palabay and Cupin who are outside Manila, posted bail this morning.

“But now more than ever, the RMP will live out its commitment to be servant-leaders with the poor farmers, fisherfolk, agricultural workers, and Indigenous Peoples so that all may truly experience God’s compassion and mercy in the here and now.”

Amid the continuing crackdown on progressives, the Philippine government’s Anti-Money Laundering Council has issued a freeze order on the bank accounts of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, “depriving rural poor of the help and services they deserve, and that the government refuses to provide,” the church group said.

This, the RMP said, is the latest attack against them that “greatly encumbers our mission to collectively witness and act as Christ’s disciples with the rural poor, for them to enjoy the fruits of their labor, to live a life of justice and peace towards fullness of life promised to all God’s children.”

The 50-year-old institution is a national organization of religious men and women, priests, and lay who provide assistance to communities of peasants, fisherfolk, indigenous peoples, and agricultural workers.

The RMP said the accounts were created and maintained for completed and on-going projects of RMP, as well as for its internal operations. It added that the donations and funding they have received are used “to help the marginalized and oppressed.”

Compared to the government’s track record, the RMP said it has provided much-needed services to rural communities for the past 50 years.

Series of attacks

This is not the first time that RMP has been subjected to harassment.

Last year, military spokesman Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr. went on a vilification-spree against RMP and several progressive organizations. RMP was among those who sought the protection of the Supreme Court as red-tagging often results to graver rights abuses such as extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, and illegal arrests.

The Court of Appeals, however, tasked by the High Court to hear their amparo petition, denied the legal remedy that human rights defenders were seeking.

A perjury case filed by Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. against RMP’s former Chairperson Sr. Elen Belardo instead remains pending before a Quezon City court.

Apart from Belardo, other key RMP leaders and members are also facing trumped-up charges. These include Sr. Emma Cupin and lay worker Angie Ipong who are facing arson, kidnapping, and robbery, and frustrated murder, respectively. Just this morning, another RMP lay worker Mariell Domanquill was arrested along with four others in simultaneous raids in Tacloban City.

The tribals schools that the RMP has helped set up were also forcibly closed, with their two volunteer teachers Melissa Comiso and Nori Torregosa still in jail for trumped up charges.

“Our organization has been vilified and maligned — thru cowardly and baseless anonymous black propaganda materials, and thru equally cowardly and baseless official pronouncements of the government,” the RMP said.

Vague reasons

On Dec. 26, 2019, however, the anti-money laundering body issued Resolution TF-18, ordering for a 20-day freeze for three RMP accounts under the Bank of Philippine Islands, one of the country’s biggest banks.

RMP said the bank was also ordered to submit other bank accounts.

A petition to extend the freeze order up to six months was also filed before the Court of Appeals, despite what the RMP described as “very vague reasoning” that RMP is related to terror financing, which they strongly denied.

“We have our mission and community partners to confirm this,” they said.

On Jan. 9 and 13, the church group received notices from their bank, confirming that their accounts have been suspended, including two for the National Office and nine for Northern Mindanao.

Continue with advocacy

The attack against RMP, the church group said, is proof that living out one’s faith as a Christian and establishing the Church of the Poor, “will put your liberty and life at risk.”

“But now more than ever, the RMP will live out its commitment to be servant-leaders with the poor farmers, fisherfolk, agricultural workers, and Indigenous Peoples so that all may truly experience God’s compassion and mercy in the here and now,” the group said.

Instead of pouring their efforts on RMP, the group called on the government’s anti-money laundering body to instead go after those who are truly involved in crimes of laundering money through corruption and other crimes against the poor.

Human rights group Karapatan condemns the arrest of its National Council member in Western Mindanao, Engr. Jennefer Aguhob, yesterday, February 5, 2020.

Aguhob was reportedly arrested based on a warrant for charges of murder issued on July 26, 2019 by Judge Victoriano Lacaya, Jr. of Regional Trial Court Branch 9 in Dipolog City, Zamboanga del Norte. She is currently detained at the Oroquieta City Police Station.

"The arrest of human rights worker Engr. Jennefer Aguhob based on charges she wasn’t aware of, based on incidents that she had no knowledge of, and based on an alleged crime that she had no participation in, depicts the kind of judicial harassment faced by human rights defenders and critics of this administration. By exercising human rights work, Aguhob and many human rights advocates are persecuted," said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay.

Aguhob, a resident of Oroquieta City in Misamis Occidental and a recent law graduate, is currently Karapatan’s National Council member from Region 13. She participated in the organization’s council meeting in October 2019. Aside from conducting human rights work in the region, she was currently preparing to take the bar exams this year.

"Prior to her arrest, Aguhob had no knowledge that there was such a complaint filed against her and others. She was deprived of her right to due process, when she was arrested based on the said complaint,” Palabay stated.

Aguhob experienced several threats and harassment in the past two years. She was terminated from the Oroquieta City engineer’s office, after her military officials talked with her superiors.

Karapatan said the filing of trumped up charges against activists is a policy and practice by administrations in an attempt to stifle dissent. “The Duterte administration is more viciously implementing this with Executive Order No. 70 and martial law, declared or otherwise, in Mindanao,” she added.

The human rights group demanded for the release of Aguhob, as it pressed for the rescinding of EO70 and the enactment of measures for the protection of human rights defenders. “Release human rights worker Engr. Jennefer Aguhob!,” Palabay concluded.

Activist groups as well as the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) demanded the immediate release of a journalist and four human rights advocates who were arrested for alleged illegal possession of firearms and explosives in two simultaneous raids in Tacloban City early Friday morning.

Arrested in the raids conducted by the police and the Army were Marielle Domequil, a staff member of the Rural Missionaries Philippines-Eastern Visayas; Mira Legion, a staff member of Bayan Muna; Alexander Abinguna, secretary general of Katungod-Sinirangan Bisayas; Marissa Cabaljao of People’s Surge and Frenchiemae Cumpio, journalist and executive director of independent news outfit Eastern Vista. Advertisement

Cumpio and Domequil were arrested at an office in Barangay Calapaniwan where police said they found firearms and ammunition.

Legion, Cabaljao and Abinguna were arrested at an office in Barangay Fatima where police also allegedly found several firearms, live ammunition and fragmentation grenades

Cabaljao was sleeping with her 1-year-old baby when the arresting team arrived, according to the human rights watchdog Karapatan. As of press time on Friday, the infant was with the mother and the four other detainees at the municipal police station in Palo town.Search warrants

The arresting officers were led by Police Lt. Col. Marvin Pedere of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police. According to the 8th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army based in Catbalogan City, Samar, the raids were conducted based on search warrants issued on Feb. 3 by Executive Judge Eligio Petilla of the Tacloban Regional Trial Court Branch 44. NUJP and Karapatan condemned the arrests, claiming the evidence against the activists were planted.

Karapatan noted that the search warrants were shown to the activists only after they were arrested. Long before Friday’s raids, the group said, it received reports of threats and incidents of harassment directed against the activists and their organizations. ‘Rights of defenders’

“Today’s arrests and raids should enrage [those] who stand for civil liberties and human rights, social justice and lasting peace in the country,” the group said in a statement. “We are calling on all advocates and communities to defend the rights of defenders against these attacks by the Duterte administration.”

NUJP assailed Cumpio’s arrest as part of the government crackdown on critical voices in the mainstream and alternative media.

“Since last year, the government has no longer bothered to hide the fact that the critical media have been included in their list of ‘enemies of the state,’’ the media group said. “Let us thwart this government’s attempts to muzzle freedom of the press and of expression, without which democracy cannot survive. Let us send out the message that we are free not because anyone allows us to be but because we insist on being free.” Cumpio had suspected state agents of following her and placing her under surveillance since September last year, according to the two groups. ‘Renewed crackdown’

At the House of Representatives, Bayan Muna Representatives Carlos Isagani Zarate and Eufemia Cullamat condemned the raids and called for the immediate release of the five detainees.

Zarate, the House deputy minority leader, said the raids were “part of the renewed crackdown on progressive groups in the country” and “followed the same pattern of mass arrests, then the filing of trumped-up charges based on planted evidence of illegal possession of firearms and explosives.”

It has been days since Jay-ar Mercado was killed by suspected elements of the Philippine Army’s 4th Infantry Battalion but Mercado’s family is still unable to have any peace.

Mercado was an indigenous people’s organizer and member of Bigkis at Lakas ng mga Katutubo sa Timog Katagalugan (BALATIK). He was conducting mass work with the indigenous community in Bulalacao, Oriental Mindoro when he was murdered by suspected state agents on Jan. 31.

On February 1, Mercado’s family began their search for the slain organizer. When they arrived at a local funeral home in Mansalay, Oriental Mindoro, they were informed that the military had already claimed and buried the body the day before.

The family then proceeded to Bulalacao Municipal Police Station, where four soldiers, allegedly from the 4th Infantry Battalion, accosted them. The soldiers questioned the family’s credentials and insinuated that they were not Mercado’s actual family.

An update from Karapatan Southern Tagalog stated that Mercado’s family has managed to talk with Bulalacao Mayor Ernilo Villas, who said that a court order is needed to exhume Mercado’s remains. According to Villas, the order came from Governor Humerlito Dolor.

The Municipal Health Office also claimed that the remains can only be exhumed after three to five years.

Karapatan-ST demands justice. “We are disappointed and angry at the military, who not only took Jay-ar’s life, but also blatantly violates the rights of the family by performing delaying tactics and depriving them of the right to claim their relative’s remains,” Kyle Salgado, Karapatan ST spokesperson, said in a statement.

Mercado’s death is the latest in a long line of attacks by state forces on the indigenous peoples and advocates going as far back as Oplan Habol Tamaraw under Jovito Palparan. Mindoro’s indigenous Mangyan population currently faces threats of development aggression from private corporations and state forces.

Last year saw increased militarization in Mindoro, as well as crackdowns on peasant organizers and rights advocates. The military has declared Karapatan Southern Tagalog persona non grata in Mindoro. “The death of Jay-ar Mercado is an addition to countless human rights violations perpetuated by the tyrannical rule of the Duterte regime,” Salgado said. “It is a reflection of how this reactionary government twists the mind of the people into thinking that our country is at peace.”The Philippines is the most dangerous country for environmental activists according to nonprofit organization Global Witness. In 2018, 164 activists were killed, including attacks on activists fighting against mining, hydropower, and agribusiness projects.

Policy research group Ibon Foundation on Thursday, January 30, condemned the "persistent raid-baiting" of the Duterte administration instead of addressing the issues raised by progressive groups.

"The public deserves the truth and to be informed about the issues that matter to them the most," the group said. "Instead, the government is red-baiting critical voices to silence opposition and to hide the real situation of the country."

The statement comes after an episode of One News' The Chiefs where Ibon research head Rosario Guzman and Communications Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy discussed the numbers cited by the Duterte Legacy campaign. (READ: Making sense of the ‘Duterte Legacy’ infographic)

Ibon presented its own fact-checking of the data. Badoy, however, accused the group of being part of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).

According to the group, Badoy's action is "symptomatic of the administration’s wholesale attacks on independent groups," in line with the government's counterinsurgency campaign.

"Usec Badoy’s behavior is being done to hide the worsening economic situation, prevent the radical reforms needed to develop the country, and promote its self-serving agenda," Ibon said.

"Under the pretext of ending the armed Communist rebellion, the Duterte administration cast its net wide and is attacking every group that is critical of its anti-people economic policies and authoritarianism," it added.

The Duterte government has been widely criticized for its treatment of human rights defenders and activists in the Philippines. According to rights group Karapatan, at least 2,370 human rights defenders have been charged by the government from 2016 to 2019, the biggest number in more than a decade. (READ: Duterte's war on dissent)

Ibon, a policy group focused on socioeconomic issues founded in 1978, was previously tagged by the Philippine government as among groups whose funding was allegedly being used by the CPP. It has previously experienced cyberattacks against its website.

The group vows to push forward with its work amid greater attacks by the government.

"As with activists and other groups, we are undeterred and will continue to support the efforts of the people’s movement to reclaim the economy from the elites that have taken it over," it said. "We will also be taking measures to show that we do not condone the people’s money being used for a self-serving political agenda."

A field reporter of Radyo ni Juan based in Tagum City, Davao del Norte was harassed by police in Carmen town as he covered a protest by banana workers Jan. 21, according to an alert released by the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP).

Radyo ni Juan reporter Glenn Jester Hitgano was covering the strike of workers of banana company Philippine Dream Farm Development when policemen cut short his interview and took took him to the police station, where he was held for an hour. The policemen also attempted to confiscate his phone and ordered him to erase his interview, but the reporter asserted his rights as a journalist.

“They subjected me to psywar and harassed me, saying I was not allowed to carry out interviews,” Hitgano said.

National alternative media group Altermidya denounced the intimidation and arrest of Hitgano.

“Altermidya condemns this attack on our colleague, who was clearly being coerced into silence by state forces who were uncomfortable with the truth. The arrest and intimidation of journalists like Hitgano is a blatant violation of media’s task of exposing the truth to the public,” the group said in a statement.

Altermidya said members of the Carmen police should be held accountable.

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on Monday, January 20, condemned the "brutal" killing of a local peasant leader in Northern Samar.

In a statement, the CHR said 35-year-old Jennifer Tonag is just one of the many victims who have "faced reprisals due to exposing state-perpetrated human rights violations and demanding for justice and accountability."

"The CHR calls for justice for the death of Tonag and all the human rights defenders in the country and around the world who sacrificed their lives to create a better future for everyone, especially for the marginalized, vulnerable, and disadvantaged segments of our society," CHR spokesperson Jacqueline de Guia said.

Unidentified men killed Tonag, organizer of the Northern Samar Small Farmers Association (NSSFA), while she was on her way home from a seminar sponsored by the Department of the Interior and Local Government last Friday, January 17.

She sustained two gunshot wounds, one on her hand and chest, and was declared dead on arrival at the Northern Samar Provincial Hospital.

Tonag leads the NSSFA, a group helping farmers defend their land rights and other issues, in Lope de Vega, Northern Samar.

The CHR's regional office has already dispatched a quick response team to conduct an independent probe into Tonag's killing, De Guia said.

Call for repeal of EO

The CHR "amplified the clamor" for the government to repeal Executive Order No. 70 which created a national task force that sought to address causes of armed conflict with communists at the local level.

Human rights groups have said that EO No. 70 only led to massive red-tagging as well as threats and harassment under the guise of a counterinsurgency program.

"The commission reiterates its call to the government that it must desist from all forms of violence and harassment against human rights defenders," De Guia said.

"These attacks are in the context of increasing number of reported extrajudicial killings in rural areas alongside the intensified counterinsurgency program of the government," she added.

More than 100 human rights defenders have been killed since July 2016, data from rights group Karapatan showed. Many of the killings were in provinces that have long had conflicts related to land, with victims mostly coming from the farming sector. The killings exist alongside other incidents of legal harassment against activists by the Duterte administration."We strongly urge our legislators to prioritize the enactment and full implementation of a Human Rights Defenders Protection Bill that will give legal recognition and protection of the rights of defenders in the conduct of their work," De Guia said.

The secretary-general of human rights group Karapatan received threats of death and rape, among others, during the annual celebration of International Human Rights Day on Tuesday, she said.

Cristina Palabay said she received a phone call and a series of texts from an unknown number. Related Stories How activists respond to being tagged as rebels

“I received a phone call from this number (a call which I took because I thought the caller might be a distressed victim or a journalist), presumably yet another caller from the military intelligence or paid hitman from the government threatening to kill me,” Palabay’s Facebook post on Tuesday read.

“He was asking where I live and said all the worst possible things that he/they will do to me.”

The caller subsequently sent texts containing praises of President Rodrigo Duterte and threats of rape against the Karapatan official. Screen captures of the said texts were included in Palabay’s post.

“Karapatan strongly condemns this verbal assault and series of threats against our secretary-general. Such use of words meant to demean Cristina on the basis of her identity as a woman is precisely indicative of the fascist character and toxic masculinity perpetrated and replicated by President Duterte and his supporters,” the rights group said in a Wednesday release.

Moreover, Karapatan said that aside from attacks targeting female leaders, the incident holds grave implications on the state of human rights in the Philippines considering it happened during a holiday meant to celebrate the observation of human rights.

“This latest attack confirms that as we commemorate human rights day, the Philippines has regressed to an all-time low with regard to its protection and respect for women's and people's rights,” the group said.

Despite the attack taking place through the official mobile number used by Palabay in media lists and press releases distributed during protests, including to police, Karapatan said that it will not be deterred.

Independent think tank Ibon Foundation expressed alarm over a notice of “ocular inspection” from the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) in the wake of successive raids of offices of progressive organizations.

In a statement, Ibon Foundation said it received a call from a certain Col. Joaquin Alba of NCRPO at around 4 p.m. informing them that a warrant of arrest will be served on someone supposedly within the office building.

Ibon Foundation told Alba that the person indicated in the warrant does not hold office there but the latter insisted that they will still go to conduct “an ocular inspection.” The research group received information that a police team from Criminal Investigation and Detection Group was preparing to go to Ibon to ‘pick up’ someone (“may kukunin na tao”).

“This is alarming and we believe that it is part of the Duterte government’s worsening crackdown on activists upholding human rights and hence critical of its retrogressive policies and authoritarian governance,” the group said in a statement.

Ibon noted that the incident comes on the heels of a week of consecutive military and police operations against various activists and activist groups in Manila and Negros. “This included using spurious search warrants to raid homes and offices, planting guns and grenades, and arresting activists on bogus charges,” the group said.

Some 60 activists have been illegally arrested and detained in the past week.

Ibon is among many activist organizations and cause-oriented groups that have been red-tagged by the Duterte administration.

“The Duterte administration is attacking IBON because our research, education and advocacy work exposes Philippine economic realities that the government wants to conceal,” the group said.

The group also blamed the so-called task force to end local communist armed conflict for the ongoing crackdown against NGOs and progressive organizations.

As of press time, police forces have not showed up at the premises of Ibon Foundation building at Timog Avenue in Quezon City.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) also alerted members of the Philippine media as Altermidya network holds office at the second floor of the building.

In a statement, Altermidya warned the Philippine National Police to stay away from its office. “Make no mistake about it, any breach into our office premises will be construed as a grave violation of press freedom and will be met with widespread condemnation and legal action,” Altermidya said.

A union leader and community organizer was killed on Monday, November 4, in front of his wife in Cabuyao, Laguna.

Reynaldo Malaborbor, 61, was repeatedly shot in the head by an unidentified man while walking with his wife near their residence at 9:30 pm in Barangay Banay-banay.

Police said the gunman managed to flee the scene of the crime by foot.

Malaborbor was a longtime activist involved in several labor organizations. He served as coordinator of Makabayan Southern Tagalog during the 2019 elections.

He was among the 3 farmers arrested and accused by the military in 2010 of illegal possession of firearms and explosives. The case was dismissed in 2015.

Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan-Kilusang Mayo Uno (PAMANTIK- KMU) condemned the killing.

“The grizly details of the last moments of Rey Malaborbor goes to show that the de facto martial rule continues to claim victims in the form of its task forces to supposedly end the armed conflict,” the group said.

Malaborbor’s death comes amid what human rights groups call a “massive crackdown” of progressive organizations and dissent under President Rodrigo Duterte.

At least 60 people have been arrested during raids of offices and residences since October 31 in Manila and Bacolod.

MANILA, Philippines – Gabriela Women's Party – which won a seat in the 18th Congress – was red-tagged by both the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Department of National Defense (DND) in a hearing held inside the Batasang Pambansa.

Facing members of the House committee on national defense and security on Tuesday, November 5, AFP Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence Major General Reuben Basiao presented a list of 18 organizations that are alleged communist fronts.

Third on the list was Gabriela, which is currently represented in the House by Arlene Brosas after the party-list group secured more than 446,000 votes during the May 2019 elections.

The congresswoman, however, was not present during Basiao's presentation. When she arrived at the conference hall, she requested to see the list once again.

"Mismo dito sa Kongreso ay tina-tag kami as a communist terrorist group? Ano ba 'yan? Ano bang nangyayari? Bakit ganyan?" asked the second-termer congresswoman.

(We're being tagged as a communist terrorist group even here in Congress? What gives? What's happening? Why are you doing this?)

Brosas lashed out against the AFP and the DND, asking if Gabriela's inclusion in the list is a "prelude" to martial law.

"Familiar naman po kayo sa mga ginagawa namin. Binoto po kami ng taumbayan. Binoto po kami. May mandato po kami. Bakit nakalagay ang pangalan ng Gabriela Women's Party in particular? Ano pong ibig sabihin nito? Prelude ba ito sa martial law na ang mga legal entities at legal organizations in particular ay tina-target ngayon ng AFP?" asked Brosas.

(You're familiar with what we do here. We were voted by the people. We were elected. We have a mandate. Why put the name of Gabriela Women's Party in particular? What does this mean? Is this a prelude to martial law, with legal entities and legal organizations in particular now being targeted by the AFP?)

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana then said that based on documents recovered by the military across the country, Gabriela is a "legal front" for the Communist Party of the Philippines.

But the DND chief said they are "not red-tagging" Gabriela.

"There is no prelude to martial law. We are not red-tagging Gabriela. We are just saying that they are [a] front of the communist movement. We based this conclusion from documents that we captured from our operations all over the country," said Lorenzana.

"Palaging lumalabas 'yung Gabriela tsaka 'yung iba pang mga fronts nila. So what can you conclude there? I'm not saying you are communist. I'm saying that you are fronting, kayo 'yung legal front nila," he added.

(Gabriela's name keeps on popping up along with other fronts. So what can you conclude there? I'm not saying you are a communist. I'm saying that you are fronting, that you are their legal front.)

In a statement released after the hearing, Brosas once again slammed the AFP and the DND for their "attempt to criminalize dissent." (LISTEN: [PODCAST] Dapat bang gawing ilegal ang pagiging komunista?)

"Hindi kami armadong grupo at hindi armado ang mga miyembro namin. Sa ilalim ng kasalukuyang Konstitusyon at mga batas, hindi krimen ang mag-organisa at hindi krimen ang maging aktibista. Gabriela Women's Party strongly condemns this clear attempt to criminalize dissent and weaponize the law," said Brosas.

(We are not an armed group and our members are not armed either. Under the current Constitution and our laws, it is not a crime to organize and become activists. Gabriela Women's Party strongly condemns this clear attempt to criminalize dissent and weaponize the law.)

Gabriela's clash with the AFP and the DND came on the same day the Manila police arrested 3 members of progressive groups during a raid in Tondo past midnight.

On October 31, law enforcers in Bacolod City also arrested 56 persons affiliated with progressive and human rights groups during raids on their offices.

Authorities arrested 56 persons they alleged were communist rebels and “rescued” six minors supposedly undergoing “training and “indoctrination” during simultaneous raids on the offices of three activist groups and a private residence in Bacolod City early Friday evening, October 31.

Several firearms and grenades were also reported recovered during the raids on the offices of the Bayan Muna party-list and Gabriela in Barangay Bata, the National Federation of Sugar Workers at Libertad, and the home of Bayan Muna’s Romulo Bito-on and his wife Mermalyn, who were both arrested.

All three organizations have long been openly accused of being “legal fronts” of the communist movement.

Bito-on, on the other hand, has been previously arrested and charged for being an alleged communist.

But human rights group and some of those apprehended denied the accusations they were rebels and said the weapons had been “planted.”

Video taken of the search at the nearby office of Gabriela showed a police officer inspecting a revolver and ammunition taken from a backpack at a corner of the yard.

Local media quoted Captain Cenon Pancito, spokesman of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, as saying 49 persons, including the minors, were taken into custody from the Bayan Muna compound.

Among those arrested there were known activist leaders John Milton Lozande and Danny Tabura of the NFSW, Proceso Quiatchon of the human rights group Karapatan, Nilo Rosales of the Kilusang Mayo Uno, and Aldrin de Cerna of the Kilusang Mayo Uno.

Lozande said the raiders held them for around an hour and then he was called to a house in the compound and showed “an obviously planted” gun supposedly found in his bag.

Nine other persons were arrested at the Gabriela office and two more from the NFSW.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said among those arrested at the Gabriela office was Anne Krueger of the newly established alternative media outfit Paghimutad, which has been covering social issues, including extrajudicial killings and other human rights abuses.

They were all taken to the Negros Occidental Provincial Police Office.

Interestingly, the raids were covered by search warrants issued by Executive Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert of Branch 89 of the Regional Trial Court in Quezon City.

Karapatan, in a statement, called this suspicious and said this was reminiscent of the Oplan Sauron 2 operations in Negros Oriental in March, which were covered by search warrants issued in Cebu City.

Bayan Muna Representative Carlos Isagani Zarate also condemned the “dastardly Gestapo-like raid … simultaneously conducted by state forces against the offices of Bayan Muna, Gabriela and NFSW in Bacolod, Negros Occidental.”

He noted that the raids were conducted “at night before a long weekend so as to ensure that the courts are closed tomorrow so that the planted pieces evidence and subsequent trumped-up charges filed cannot immediately be challenged.”

Karapatan called the raids part of a “full-blown crackdown on activists and red-tagged legal organizations,” noting that earlier in the day, police arrested Cora Agovida, the Metro Manila chairperson of Gabriela, and her husband Mickael Tan Bartolome of the urban poor group Kadamay, and claimed a .45 caliber pistol and two grenades were seized from their home.

However, Pancito told media the raids, which he described as “part of cutting the source of manpower to Red areas,” or territory were the rebels operate, would prove to be a “big blow to the Red fighters of the New People’s Army” and would “trigger the downfall” of the insurgency on Negros.

Different groups assailed the recent arrests of a peasant leader and two Lumad volunteer teachers on Oct. 10 in Mindanao region.

The police arrested 68-year-old Virgilio “Ka Yoyong” Lincuna in Butuan City for alleged attempted murder which happened in Lianga, Surigao del Sur. Lincuna is the chairperson of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP)-Caraga and Unyon sa mga Mag-uuma sa Agusan del Norte (UMAN). He is also a member of the KMP National Council.

On the same day, Melissa Comiso, head of the Literacy and Numeracy Program of Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP)-Northern Mindanao, and another teacher were also arrested by police operatives in barangay Limaha, Butuan City. Both are detained at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group office in Butuan City.

Karapatan denounced their arrest and called for their immediate release. The group said the arrests of Lincuna and Comisa are part of the government’s crackdown against organizers, activists, and progressive leaders in Mindanao.

“These attacks have been aggravated and justified by State policies, foremost of which is the continuing martial law in Mindanao, intensified operations under the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict and Oplan Kapanatagan,” Karapatan said in a statement.

‘Lincuna, veteran of the progressive farmers’ movement’

The KMP-Caraga region said Lincuna is a veteran of the progressive farmers’ movement in the region. He is a farmer organizer since the 1980s and has led campaigns against plantations and mining operations as well as providing paralegal services to farmers victimized by human rights violations.

Caraga is a resource rich region and has been a constant target of investors for expansion of plantations such as palm and mining operations. The area has been militarized since peasants continue to resist the occupation of their land for business interests.

Danilo Ramos, KMP chairperson, said Lincuna led several peasant struggles in the region and gained victories such as increase in wages of farmworkers, an increase in palay and copra prices, lowering of land rent and interest rates.

Ramos said agrarian reform beneficiaries in Agusan Plantation Inc., Filipinas Palm Plantations Inc. in Agusan del Sur and Tubay Agricultural Center in Agusan del Norte are asserting their right and defending their position in almost 10,000 hectares of agricultural lands that are now under the control of plantation companies.

Clearly, Ramos said, this recent attack against Lincuna “is an attack on those who fight against land grabbing.”

Meanwhile, RMP said Comiso has been a long-time member of RMP and has managed a number of schools in the northern Mindanao.

“She has tirelessly sought to bring education to Lumad communities and work with her fellow Lumad and other advocates to achieve this goal,” RMP said in a statement.

According to RMP, Cosimo has been tagged as supporter of the New People’s Army (NPA) because of her service to the Lumad children. She has also been receiving death threats through SMS and Messenger and was put under surveillance by alleged State forces, which prompted her to seek sanctuary.

“We call for the immediate release of Lincuna and the two Lumad teachers. In light of the closure of Lumad schools on the basis of unverified and malicious military reports, such are indicative of incessant violations against indigenous and peasant communities,” Karapatan said.

A leader of women’s group Gabriela and her husband were arrested by elements of the Manila Police District and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group early this morning, Oct. 31.

According to a statement released by Gabriela, at around 5:00 a.m. today, ten policemen forcibly entered the house of Cora Agovida, spokesperson of Gabriela-Metro Manila and her husband Michael Tan Bartolome in Manila. The couple was instructed to drop to the floor while their two children, aged two and ten years old, and their companion were asked to go outside. A few minutes later, police claimed they recovered a.45 caliber pistol and two grenades from the residence of the couple.

The couple has been brought to the Manila Police District and charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

The search warrant against the couple was issued by Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 89, the same court that issued the search warrant for the simultaneous raids of offices of people’s organizations in Bacolod City, Oct. 31.

Their children had been under the custody of the Manila Rehabilitation Action Center last night. The couple has requested the Children’s Rehabilitation Center to look after their children. As of press time, the transfer of custody is being processed.

Gabriela condemned the arrest and called for the immediate release of Agovida and Bartolome.

An activist doctor and professor received death threats a few hours after joining a protest demanding a bigger budget for the Philippine General Hospital (PGH).

Dr. Gene Nisperos, president of the All UP Academic Employees Union-Manila Chapter (AUPAEU-Manila), received a text message Monday night, October 21, saying he and his family would be killed soon.

“I know where your condominium is. We will get your family one by one…You are dead by…including your children and wife,” the message read.

The message was sent by an unidentified person through mobile phone number +639567955995.

Nisperos blamed the climate of violence created by the Rodrigo Duterte government against those who seek substantial reforms and genuine change in Philippine society for the latest threats against him and his wife, also a doctor.

“In these times, those who do good and stand for what is right are persecuted. It [this administration] is sowing fear because it rules by fear. This must be opposed in whatever form and whenever it occurs,” Nisperos told Kodao.

As he was being interviewed by Kodao, Nisperos received another threat from the same number Tuesday morning.

A graduate of UP College of Medicine’s prestigious Intarmed program, Nisperos and wife, Dr. Julie Caguiat, served as community doctors in Mindanao before returning to Manila to advocate for community-based health programs in the national level.

Nisperos is an assistant professor who teaches Community Medicine in UP Manila.

Duterte government as suspects

The AUPAEU-Manila condemned the most recent death threats against Nisperos and family.

The union said the threat comes at a time when the AUPAEU-Manila is calling on all faculty, administrative staff, and researchers of the university to unite against the impending budget cut for the University of the Philippines, particularly on the UP Manila and Philippine General Hospital (PGH), and to campaign for the regularization of contractual workers, among others.

The union said the threats are attempts to sow fear among teachers and unionists who assert for their rights and to fight for a higher state subsidy for social services such as education and health.

“[O]ur Union will not tremble in the face of vicious repressive measures and increasingly fascist attacks by this administration,” AUPAEU-Manila said.

A human rights lawyer based in Roxas City survived an ambush attack late morning today, Sept. 23, after attending a hearing.

Lawyer Criselda Heredia posted on her Facebook account that her car was strafed while traversing Timpas, Panitan town in Capiz, just a stone’s throw away from a military camp Antonio Belo.

Nine bullets were recovered from the car, she told Bulatlat.

Heredia was accompanied by her daughter and a client.

In a message sent to Bulatlat.com, Heredia said the target of the assailant could either be her or her client.

In a statement, lawyers group National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers chapter in Panay held state security forces accountable.

Heredia, according to NUPL, has been “red-tagged in posters and has been personally threatened by a military agent who visited her office and warned her to slow down on her human rights advocacy.”

Apart from being a lawyer, Heredia is also a cultural worker who used to perform musical presentations and has mounted painting exhibits in both Iloilo and Roxas City.

NUPL-Panay said the attack came in the wake of the call of international organizations to President Duterte to protect lawyers in the Philippines.

Under Duterte, 47 lawyers, including judges and prosecutors, have been killed.

On September 19, an ongoing surveillance and a threat of a raid by the CIDG (Criminal Investigation and Detection Group) of the Philippine National Police into the joint office of the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) and the Center for Environmental Concerns – Philippines (CEC-Phils) was reported by a reliable source to the two organizations.

This came after the two organizations participated in a number of important work on environmental defenders. Kalikasan delivered a testimony on the state of human rights and environment in the Philippines during the National Inquiry on Human Rights Defenders organized by the Commission of Human Rights (CHR) held last week, and CEC raised the issue of environment defenders during the ASEAN People’s Forum 2019 held in Bangkok, Thailand.

This is clear harassment and an obvious effort to silence civil society groups like CEC and Kalikasan.

CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — Unscrupulous individuals are apparently trying to make money following an attack on a lawyer in this city on Monday.

At least three Cebu-based human rights lawyers received a call from a man claiming to be a leader of a gun-for-hire group from Davao City, who demanded P100,000 from them in exchange for sparing their lives. The caller said the lawyers’ names were on his group’s hit list.

But lawyers Magdalena Lepiten, Ian Manticajon and Kim Grace Mendoza suspected that the calls might have been a scheme to extort money from them.

The calls were received in separate times on Tuesday, a day after two men on board a motorcycle attacked lawyer Inocencio de la Cerna while he was leaving the Cebu City Hall of Justice.

De la Cerna survived the attack, but had cuts from glass shards after the suspects fired at his Toyota Land Cruiser.

Same number

Lepiten said she received a call at 9:39 a.m. Tuesday from a certain Bobby who claimed to be from Davao.

She said she did not entertain the caller and instead turned off her phone. Moments later, she said received a text message from the same number—0997-1779161.

The message read: “Ma swerte lang c dela cerna. ekaw ug dli ka makig coperate mamatay ka. 100K kapalit sa imung kinabuhe (Dela Cerna was fortunate to have survived. If you won’t cooperate, you will die. P100K in exchange for your life).”

Lepiten said she posted her conversation on her Facebook account to know if other lawyers received the same call. It turned out she was not the only one.

Mendoza posted on her Facebook account a recording of her conversation with the caller who used the same mobile phone number.

Probe

The man told Mendoza that she was next in the list after De la Cerna but he would spare her life if she had P100,000.

Mendoza, however, told the man to “just kill me” as she didn’t have the money. Irritated, the man called her “crazy (pagkabuang gyud nimo)” before dropping the call.

Manticajon, who missed a call from the same number four times on Tuesday, urged the police and the National Bureau of Investigation to arrest the people behind the threats.

“Although it’s a scam, it still somehow instilled fear among us. It’s not alarming but rather annoying … The government must do something to make every citizen safe and feel safe,” he said.

Col. Gemma Vinluan, city police chief, said she created a team to investigate the matter.

“Although the motive here might be extortion, these lawyers should not take the threats likely. No matter what you call it, it’s still a threat,” she said.

On September 14, 2019, Karapatan received information from its regional chapter in Southern Tagalog that Alexandrea Pacalda, a human rights worker affiliated with the organization, was abducted by six operatives of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in General Luna, South Quezon. She was initially brought to the 85th Infantry Battalion headquarters, and then later to the General Luna police station. At the police station, Alexandrea was forced to sign a certification indicating that she voluntarily surrendered. Thereafter, she was taken to the 201st AFP Brigade camp in Calauan, Quezon.

During the past days, Karapatan got in touch with Alexandrea’s family. Karapatan legal counsel Atty. Maria Sol Taule was also able to talk to the victim herself. Amid all the false reports circulating online, Karapatan would like to clarify a few matters:

Alexandrea Pacalda, 23, was a human rights worker of Karapatan. She is currently affiliated with Pinag-isang Lakas ng Magsasaka sa Quezon (PIGLAS-Quezon), a local peasant organization in the region. She was abducted by elements of the military and she continues to be under military custody. She was arrested without a warrant and continues to be under detention for five days now.

As of this writing, there have been no charges filed against Pacalda, unless they start planting evidence or put her name under Jane Does or ludicrous aliases in outstanding warrants of arrest. She is being held without charges for more than 36 hours now. Particularly, 118 hours have already passed. This already qualifies as arbitrary detention and the military should be held accountable. Alexandrea should be immediately released to her family.

Alexandrea Pacalda signed the affidavit of voluntary surrender while under duress. In a signed statement to her lawyer, the victim said that she was subjected to mental torture, and was merely forced to sign the affidavit. She added that she was not allowed to sleep and was starved for 24-30 hours.

Alexandrea’s family was likewise forced to affix their signature. While there was no physical coercion, Karapatan asserts that the coercive circumstance wherein the family was subjected to invalidates the giddy claims of the PNP and the AFP that she “voluntarily surrendered.” The military threatened the family with a criminal case to be charged against Alexandrea if they don’t agree to sign the affidavit. This signed document, though far from voluntary, is making the rounds in social media.

Alexandrea’s father broke down after meeting with Karapatan’s legal counsel. He said he signed the affidavit and convinced her daughter to do so, as they were held in a hostile environment. They were fearful of what the military can do to Alexandrea, given that she remains under military custody.

The father of Alexandrea was presented to the media. He initially stated that his daughter was a good person, but was forced to change his account because the military merely wanted the father to talk about the so-called “surrender” of Alexandrea. The family was also invited to join the parade of parents who claim their children are missing, despite being defied and opposed by the children themselves. The Pacalda family refused, and is currently in coordination with the Commission on Human Rights and Karapatan for her release.

Alexandrea was taken to the notary public on September 17, 2019. She was not provided a copy of the said affidavit. She was subjected to custodial investigation, yet an affidavit was drafted without the presence of a counsel of her own choice. The said affidavit, which has likewise been circulated online, was signed without the presence of her lawyer, and was done so while the victim was under pressure. All statements taken from any victim without the presence of his/her counsel of choice should be deemed inadmissible.

After Alexandrea was taken to the notary public and while in conversation with Atty. Taule and her family, she signed a short statement recounting how she was forced to sign the affidavit, as well as her mental and emotional disposition while under military custody. This statement supersedes previous claims by the military and the police about her alleged surrender.

Until now, the military refuses to release Alexa Pacalda. She is currently under the custody of the 201st Brigade in Calauag, Quezon.

On September 19, Capt. Benedict Alfonso Cagain, a civil military officer of the Army’s 201st Brigade, released a statement saying that Alexandrea is not being detained, and that she is free to return home to her family. As of press time however, Alexandrea’s family, accompanied by CHR, is asking continuously demanding for her release. The military refuses to heed the family and the CHR’s request, despite the lack of a case against Alexandrea.

An expert in forensic medicine and an anti-mining advocate, Doctor Benito E. Molino received a death threat via private message to his Facebook account which was posted by a certain Dexter Movilla, also known as Mark Minimo, on October 15, 2014 at 10:35 a.m. The message was (in Tagalog dialect), "Mxado kng ma papel mga tao nwlan ng trabho dhl sau tndaan m isang bala k lng mag ingat ingat k bka isang araw patay kna." (You're a meddler. People lose their jobs because of you. Keep in mind that one bullet can kill you. Beware, one day you're dead.) Another message was sent on October 12, 2014 at 8:08 p.m. It said, (also in Tagalog), "Wla pla mrami ng wlng trabaho nyan dhl sa pilit ny0ng ipahnto ang mining Alm nyo b dhl sa gnwa nyo mraming gl8 sa in u d mta2hmik buhay nyo sa gnwa nyo lahat ng mining pna hnto nyo." (People lose their jobs because you coerced the mining company to stop. Do you know, because of what you did, many are angry with you, you will not have peace because of what you did, you stopped all mining operations.) Dr. Molino, fondly called as "Doc Ben", 57, is at the center of the struggle against mining operations in Sta. Cruz. Currently, he has been at the receiving end of criticisms from supporters of mining companies in the province. Mine workers have blamed Doc Ben for the suspension of mining activities that cost them their jobs. Doc Ben is the chairperson of the Concerned Citizens of Sta. Cruz, Zambales (CCOS). CCOS is of the active anti-mining groups in the province that has been strongly campaigning for the cancellation of mining operations due to the vast amount of destruction in the environment that would eventually affect the health and livelihood of the people. According to Doc Ben, nickel laterite (soil layer rich in nickel compound) has clogged the natural flow of water from rivers, creeks, fishponds, shorelines and farmlands. Apparently, more than 300 hectares of farmlands have already been destroyed which has caused farmers of Sta. Cruz and Candelaria millions worth of income. On July 15, the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) regional office in Central Luzon suspended the operations of four mining companies that extract nickel laterite in the province, citing their "unsystematic mining or stripping method." Doc Ben claimed that the suspension order was only an initial victory for Sta. Cruz residents who, they say, have been struggling to revive their sources of livelihood, which are mostly farming and fishing. Recently, mine workers appealed to the provincial officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to lift the suspension order against four mining companies in Sta. Cruz, Zambales such as the Diversified Metals Corporation, Benguet Corporation Nickel Mines Inc., Eramen Minerals Inc., and LNL Archipelago Minerals Inc. Aside from his activities in the anti-mining movement, Doc Ben is currently working with the Medical Action Group (MAG), in partnership with the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP) for the protection of human rights defenders in the country. Doc Ben is a lecturer and an expert in medical investigation and documentation of torture cases. He is also involved in the investigation and documentation of alleged cases of enforced disappearances, particularly in exhumations.