‘Amid COVID19 Emergency, Killings, Arrests Of Activists Continue’

March 22, 2020 Metro BLISTT

BAGUIO CITY (March 21, 2020) — Killings and arrest continue even with the nationwide COVID19 emergency, human rights group Karapatan howled Saturday citing the murder of cultural worker Marlon Maldos in Cortes, Bohol and the alleged killing in cold-blood NDF peace consultant and former political prisoner Julius Giron and his two companions, including a medical doctor in Baguio City, as well as the arrest of Manobo leader Gloria Tumalon on supposed trumped-up charges.

Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan said there is no stopping of human rights violations. “Brutal and wanton killings and illegal arrests of activists continue with impunity, proving that the Duterte administration’s so-called malasakit (concern) for the people is nothing more than a farce.”

She added, “the militarist interests of this regime and its State policy of murder is still the top priority without addressing the people’s urgent needs and legitimate demands amid this public health crisis.”

Palabay specifically cited the March 13, 2020 cold-blood assassination of Julius Giron, 70, his wife who is a medical doctor, and their supposed aide while being reportedly served warrants of arrest for various crimes.

Giron, reportedly a top leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines and New Peoples Army, his wife who was also tagged by the military as also a CPPNPA official and their aide reportedly stood up a fight ensuing into a brief battle killing them.

But Palabay claimed, “all initial reports point to the impossibility of the elderly Giron and his companions to resist arrest. His arrest is a clear liquidation attempt, a violation of the rights of hors de combat and civilians under International Humanitarian Law, and a brutal massacre that bares the true face of this regime’s murderous militarism.”

While Marlon Maldos, a 25-year-old leader of the cultural group Bol-anong Artista nga may Diwang Dagohoy, which accordingly mobilizes young artists in cultural work and performances on the plight of poor peasants was allegedly abducted by four suspected soldiers from the 47th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army in Tagbilaran City where he was last seen morning of March 17, 2020.

His dead body, sustaining five gunshot wounds, was found two kilometers away, along the national highway in Brgy. Dela Paz in Cortes town, Bohol, later on that day, Karapatan documentations revealed. Marlon’s murder, Palabay squirmed, “comes weeks after the murder of his father Marcelo, who was found dead on February 29, 2020 in Brgy. Cambigsi, Bilar where an encounter between the New People’s Army (NPA) and the 47th IB ensued, with the military falsely claiming that Marcelo was among the NPA combatants they clashed with.

Soldiers reportedly continued to harass the Maldos family during Marcelo’s wake and pressured Marlon to supposedly ‘clear’ his name.

Only on March 19, Manobo leader Gloria Tumalon, sister of Bayan Muna partylist lawmaker Eufemia Cullamat, was reportedly arrested at her residence in Brgy. Diatagon, Lianga, Surigao del Sur by joint Lianga Municipal Police Station and Philippine Army soldiers. She was served an arrest warrant issued by the Bayugan City Regional Trial Court for alleged trumped-up kidnapping and serious illegal detention charges.

Tumalon is among the 468 individuals accused of the trumped-up charges, 79 of whom are known civilians and are mostly composed of human rights defenders, church workers, peasant organizers, unionists, and indigenous rights activists in the area, Karapatan said. Her arrest reportedly came after the arrest of human right worker Teresita Naul, Karapatan Regional Council member for Northern Mindanao on March 15, 2020.

Tumalon, a former municipal councilor and indigenous peoples’ representative to the National AntiPoverty Commission in 2015, has led indigenous communities in defending their ancestral lands and the environment against militarization and plunder of mining companies in the Andap Valley Complex.

Palabay said, “The continuing red-tagging, arrests of activists on trumped-up charges, and murders amid the President’s unilateral ceasefire declaration and supposed directive for police and military personnel to focus their efforts against the COVID-19 pandemic shows the Duterte regime’s insincerity in its declaration.”

The National Democratic Front earlier said it sees yet “no clear basis for (it) to reciprocate” the unilateral ceasefire declaration.

Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairman and NDF chief political consultant Jose Maria Sison last Thursday morning said, sure “there is communication going on between the GRP and NDFP negotiating panels. But there is yet no agreement for reciprocal unilateral ceasefires in connection with certain considerations, requirements and modalities.”

He insists, “There has to be catch-up on these matters, if still possible.”

The ceasefire declaration by the GRP or the Duterte regime is premature, if not insincere and false, Sison retorted as he shrugged off, “(they) are not assured and satisfied that the reciprocal unilateral ceasefires are based on national unity against Covid-19, the appropriate solution of the pandemic as a medical problem and protection of the most vulnerable sectors of the population, including workers, health workers, those with any serious ailments and the political prisoners.”

Sison said, “unless it receives sufficient assurances from the GRP, the NDFP will be inclined to think that the GRP unilateral ceasefire declaration is not sincere and is not intended to invite reciprocation by the NDFP but is meant to be a mere psywar trick.”

Artemio A. Dumlao/ABN