‘CHALLENGING YEAR FOR RIGHTS ADVOCATES’
CEBU CITY— A slain human rights activist was buried in Cebu on Sunday as around 7,300 people joined protest actions on Panay Island and Negros Occidental to mark International Human Rights Day.
Relatives, friends and colleagues of Elisa “Nene” Badayos buried her in the afternoon at Calamba Cemetery after a Mass at Guadalupe Church.
Badayos was laid to rest a day after a 24-year-old member of the cultural protest group Sulong Kultura was shot dead in Davao City and his younger brother went missing.
John Apiag, secretary general of the rights group Karapatan, said on Sunday that Bernardo Clarion’s body was found late on Saturday near a house at the hinterland village of Callawa in Davao’s Buhangin district.
Apiag said Bernardo and his younger brother, Benjie, went to visit a friend in Buhangin on Friday. Benjie remained missing as of Sunday, Apiag said.
Demanding justice
The funeral march for Badayos became a protest action as mourners carried streamers and placards and wore shirts calling for justice for her and Elioterio Moises.
Gunmen shot Badayos and Moises dead and wounded a youth activist on Nov. 28 in Bayawan City in Negros Oriental.
Badayos was Negros Oriental coordinator of Karapatan while Moises was a member of the farmers group Mantapi Ebwan Farmers Association (Mefa).
The victims were among the members of a fact-finding mission investigating alleged cases of human rights violations in Negros Oriental when they were attacked.
Moises was buried in Bayawan City on Dec. 3, according to Amid Juntilla, Mefa vice chair.
Protest against tyranny
Badayos was buried on Sunday as militant groups in the Visayas marked International Human Rights Day with rallies to decry the attacks on human rights activists in the country.
In Iloilo City, about 2,500 protesters led by Movement Against Tyranny and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan joined a program in front of the provincial capitol before marching along the city’s main streets.
They burned an effigy of a two-headed figure with a rifle depicting the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and President Duterte.
In Roxas City in Capiz, about 1,000 protesters led by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) staged a rally at Roxas City Plaza Bandstand.
About the same number of protesters marched from the provincial capitol to Crossing Banga in the capital town of Kalibo in Aklan.
In Negros Occidental, at least 3,000 members of Bayan held a rally at the public plaza to denounce what they called a “tyrannical rule” of President Duterte.
In Baguio City, activists marked International Human Rights Day by protesting the Duterte administration’s alleged plan to target legitimate left-leaning organizations following the collapse of peace talks between the government and communist rebels.
Members of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance marched on Session Road bearing placards and streamers denouncing “fascism” and “tyranny.”