Abducted labor organizers Elizabeth ‘Loi’ Magbanua and Alipio ‘Ador’ Juat, campaigned for the release of the ten-thousand peso aid for workers and the urban poor. They have also been under surveillance due to their involvement in establishing a community network to fight threats of demolition in the Parola Compound in Tondo, Manila.
“That State resources and machinery are being shamelessly weaponized by the NTF-ELCAC to facilitate human rights violations and attacks on the opposition should be a cause of indignation.” – Karapatan
Court said her arrest was ‘offensive’ and ‘repugnant’ to due process.
To carry that weight is to carry on the struggles our comrades left behind. It is to continue the shared struggle that binds us despite our grief and loss, because what we carry is more than our individual wants but the hopes of the Filipino masses – the same hopes that so many of us have paid the ultimate price in order to make it a reality.
Karapatan is calling for the immediate dismissal of all “death warrants” issued last March as well as the release of Lino Baez and his co-accused Anakpawis party-list Batangas Coordinator Wilfredo Capareño.
“There is a clear and systemic pattern of vilifying human rights defenders as ‘terrorists’ or ‘subversives’ that has started even before the Duterte regime.”
“Rights are not won through silence, through fence sitting and inaction. Rights are won and claimed through difficult, arduous, beautiful, creative and vibrant struggle.”
Edre Olalia, president of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), said the new resolution is not a magic wand that can erase the human rights violations and the accountability that those concerned will face.
“Some of these communications to the UN were thought to be private, exposing the degree of surveillance and cracks in digital security that activists and journalists face,” the report revealed.
Just days before and after the murder of Alvarez, several members of Karapatan are receiving death threats, warning that they are next if they do not stop human rights work.
“We are saddened and appalled by the ongoing violence and threats against human rights defenders in the Philippines, including the killing of two human rights defenders over the past two weeks.” — UN spokesperson