IP group in Mis Or decries harassment
A lumad group decries an alleged harassment of a Lumad evacuee from Sitio Camansi, Banglay, Lagonglong, Misamis Oriental who received threatening messages from someone claiming to be an intelligence operative of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
According to Kalumbay Regional Lumad Organization, Leila (not her real name) received several messages from mobile number 09050336110, used by someone introducing as “Paul”. In the messages, Paul claimed to know all of Leila’s activities, indirectly claiming that Leila is under surveillance.
Feigning concern that Leila is “too young,” Paul allegedly urged Leila to talk to him in secret, and told her that her name is on the list sent to the Department of National Defense and will be issued a warrant of arrest, Kalumbay said.
Leila is a member of the Higaonon Lumad organization Tagtabulon, a member organization of Kalumbay. The evacuees left their community in May this year due to intensified militarization in their ancestral land. A military detachment had been established without Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of their community.
“The ongoing threats against the Lumad evacuees by elements of the State Forces, along with the inaction of the provincial government, clearly indicates the culture of impunity and danger brought by Martial Law against the people of Mindanao, foremost against the Indigenous Peoples who have suffered for so long from social exclusion and government neglect,” Kalumbay said.
Meanwhile, two personnel of Karapatan Northern Mindanao along with three other members of peoples’ organizations are also allegedly being harassed by unidentified men on Wednesday night.
The leftist human rights group said, they noticed five men waiting about in a motorcycle parking space outside Karapatan’s office.
The group then waited for a jeepney when they noticed one of the men “who had dark skin and had an army haircut was following them”.
As the Karapatan staff boarded the jeepney, the suspicious men continue to follow them and that the motorbike the men were riding on would stop everytime the jeepney would.
The personnel were followed until they reached the bus terminal. It was only there when the personnel were able to blend with crowd of people and ride away without being followed by the two men.
“We condemn the state’s desperate acts. This occurrence reeks of the state’s desperation to quell human rights workers who continuously fight to protect and promote peoples’ rights. Outside the city, surveillance, threats, and harassment are even worse especially because of Martial Law in Mindanao. In the countryside, members of progressive organizations who are often linked to the CPP-NPA are either forced to surrender or admit that they are members of said groups,” Karapatan said.
The rights group is calling on to stop the harassment of human rights workers, and vowed that they will not be silenced despite the intensified surveillance.