Groups slam terrorist tag on Cordi leaders

NATIONAL Union of Journalists Baguio Benguet and the Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KATRIBU) slammed the terrorist tagging of Cordilleran leaders Sherwin De Vera and Beverly Longid.

Kathleen Okubo, chairperson of the NUJP Baguio Benguet Chapter denounced the continuing attack against de Vera, an editorial staff member of the Northern Dispatch Weekly.

“This is a clear effort of the present administration to silence its ctitics and to

sow fear among the people. If the administration can include known rights defenders who even work for the UN, journalists and lawyers in its terrorist list, how much more for common folks? This is reminiscent of the Marcos regime when journalists critical to the government were among the first to be silenced. The Duterte administration, like its predecessors failed to learn from history that draconian measures will only result to more human rights violations.”

Last December, De Vera, also a known environmental advocate was unlawfully arrested and illegally detained for baseless rebellion charges. He was released on bail in January.

Prior to his arrest he was tailed by unidentified men in July. In the same month, unidentified men believed to be military agents questioned people he visited at the University of Northern Philippines in Vigan City about his whereabouts.

Longid, a BontokKankanaey activist from Cordillera, and the International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL) Global Coordinator, and Katribu International Solidarity Officer.

Other leaders include; Windel Bolinget, a Bontok-Kankanaey, Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) Chairperson, and Katribu National Convener; Joanna Cariño, an Ibaloi elder and activist, SANDUGO cochairperson; Joan Carling, a Kankanaey, former CPA Chairperson, and former Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) SecretaryGeneral and Jose Molintas, an Ibaloi lawyer public servant, former national vicepresident of the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), and former member of the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP).

While Vicky TauliCorpuz, a Kankanaey, and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was also included in the list.

Katribu in a statement said “The charges are not only false and fabricated. They are baseless and malicious with intent to vilify, harass and intimidate the people struggling for their democratic rights and the indigenous communities defending their ancestral lands and asserting their right to self-determination. It is meant to cripple the people’s mass movement in the country and criminalize the legitimate struggles of the people by proscribing them as terrorist acts.”

Katribu said “These fabricated charges against human rights defenders fighting against all forms of discrimination demonstrate the tyranny towards dictatorship of the US-Duterte regime."