July
9, 2014
Stop the
Harassment of Progressive Leaders! End Aquino’s Oplan Bayanihan Now!
The Bagong Alyansang
Makabayan-Southern Mindanao Region decries the increasing harassment and
surveillance of prominent members and spokesperson of their allied
organizations. Two succeeding incidents
involving progressive leaders and suspected security forces indicates to us
that the militarization of Mindanao under Aquino’s Oplan Bayanhian has
intensified, spilling over from the countryside and into urban centers.
On Sunday, University of the
Philippines-Mindanao professors Myfel Paluga and Andrea Ragragio reported being
followed by suspicious men while on their way back to Davao City from General
Santos City from a research reconnaissance.
Motorcycle riders tailed their vehicle while they were on the road,
while men in plainclothes monitored them at their stops, they said.
On Tuesday, a similar incident
happened to Gabriela spokesperson May Ann Sapar yesterday morning on her way to
their group’s office. She had spotted a
suspicious man loitering outside her home early yesterday; the same man got
into the same jeepney she rode away from her house. The man then sat beside her, with a short
firearm visibly tucked in his trousers.
Paluga and Ragragio were active during
the Defend Talaingod, Save Pantaron campaign on behalf of the Talaingod Manobos
who evacuated here to Davao City last April.
Ragragio is also the spokesperson of Pagbabago! Southern Mindanao Region
and Abolish Pork Movement. Sapar, as
Gabriela spokesperson, has been involved in numerous issues about the plight of
the urban poor, peasant and worker women in the region.
They are all visible and vocal leaders
of people’s campaigns, and their advocacies have often brought them at odds
with the State’s security forces. We
believe that government agents are the only people who would have the means and
the motives to harass these progressive personalities. BAYAN-SMR condemns in the strongest possible
terms the continuing policy of not distinguishing between members of legitimate
people’s organizations and those deemed as enemies of the state. This policy has resulted in countless human
rights violations through the terms of Estrada, Arroyo, and now, Aquino. We demand the immediate cessation of all
forms of intimidation directed towards our members, and no less than the end of
Aquino’s Oplan Bayanihan all over the country.
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