The fascist state on a rampage
In the Cordillera. Ten armed men who identified themselves as Criminal Investigation Service agents abducted Lorna Rivera Baba on March 17 in front of the Philippine Independent Church (PIC) in Pidigan, Abra. Baba, a lay worker, was taken at gunpoint as she was boarding a car. The armed men also trained their guns at Baba's companions, PIC parish priests Fr. Noel Dacuycuy and Padi Emelyn Gasco and the latter's driver and brother Julius Cesar Gasco, who was also kicked in the head. The abductors failed to present an arrest warrant and merely claimed that Baba was involved in a carnapping case.
Earlier, on February 7, still unidentified men ransacked the office of Dinteg (Cordillera Indigenous People s Law Center). Dinteg is handling cases filed by national minorities against mining companies operating in their areas. Seized from the office were documents and papers, computer disks, cassette tapes and other valuable items. That same day, suspected military men broke into the house of Bishop Juan Marigza, a human rights advocate.
In the light of these incidents, the Promotion of Church People's Response (PCPR) denounced the regime's intensifying harassment of church people. The PCPR also firmly opposed militarization in the Cordillera and the construction of the San Roque Dam which has already displaced 60,000 Ibalois.
Meanwhile, the Innabuyog-Metro Baguio exposed cases of sexual harassment and abuse of women by Philippine Army soldiers stationed in Kalinga. The cases involved soldiers from the 21st and 48th Infantry Battalions in Balbalan, Lubuagan, Pasil and Pinukpuk towns and the 501st Infantry Brigade in Barangay Calanan, Tabuk.
In Bulacan. Melencio Ca�ete, 80, leader of the Sandigang Samahan ng mga Magsasaka sa Tungkong Mangga, and Wilfredo Inocillas were arrested on February 16 in San Jose del Monte town on charges of involvement in the killing of a guard employed by Gregorio 'Greggy' Araneta, a son-in-law of the late dictator Marcos. Araneta is seeking foreign partners for his plan to convert the land tilled by the farmers into commercial complexes. To pursue this plan, Araneta's guards destroyed the farmers' crops and set fire to their houses. Ca�ete's organization condemned these actions.
In Batangas. Security guards shot dead Terry Sevilla and Roger Allah, both farmers, in Hacienda Looc, Nasugbu on March 6. The victims were among the peasants opposed to Fil-Estate Development and Realty Corp. and Manila Southcoast Development Corp.'s plan to convert the 8,650-hectare estate into the Harbortown Golf Course and Marinas.
In Oriental Mindoro. Seven civilians were massacred on April 6 by two drunken soldiers of the 49th IB in Barangay San Isidro, Victoria. Because of the people's intense anger over the killings and other human rights violations perpetrated by the 49th IB, the regime was forced to pull out the abusive unit from Mindoro.
In Albay. Eight urban poor residents were injured when police forces and a paid demolition team violently demolished their homes in Barangay Kapantawan, Legazpi City on March 16. It was the second demolition try, as the first attempt was thwarted by the residents who put up a barricade.
In Leyte. Three youths and two children alleged to be Red fighters were sprayed with bullets by troopers from the 82nd Reconnaissance Company in Sitio Bugho, San Isidro, Caligharan, Leyte on April 4. Seriously wounded in the incident were Jennifer, 2; Jean Ann, 4; Joseph, 17; Nico, 20; and Joey, 25. The soldiers further harassed the victims when troopers menacingly hung around the hospital where they were brought for treatment.
On March 12, 43rd IB troopers closed in on a house in Bontoc, Southern Leyte and peppered it with gunfire. Killed were Aniceto dela Cruz, a Red fighter; his wife Angela; their 13-year-old daughter Sarah; and two other women.
Edfu, the dela Cruz couple's 12- year-old son, was wounded in the attack. As a testament to the regime's lack of concern for his rights as a child, the soldiers arrested Edfu and charged him with illegal possession of firearms. The military also forcibly turned him over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development despite his grandmother's request for custody over the child so he could be with his other siblings and relatives. As the fascist government has been doing to other child prisoners, Edfu is being used for counterrevolutionary propaganda.
In Mindanao. More than 100,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in the provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur due to the all-out war being launched by brigades of AFP and police forces against the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) despite a ceasefire agreement between the two parties.
In other parts of Mindanao, the reactionary armed forces are also besieging the population in their pursuit of counterrevolution.
In the first week of March, 63 peasants, including lumads, three pregnant women, 14 children and six infants were forced out of their homes by the 403rd Infantry Brigade in Sitio Kalut, Barangay Sta. Filomena, Quezon, Bukidnon. The peasants were obliged to leave behind their corn and vegetable crops ready for harvest as well as their farm animals. Later, the 403rd Infantry Brigade claimed that they had successfully overrun an NPA camp.
At least seven of those who evacuated were forcibly taken by the soldiers to their detachment, made to sign blank sheets of paper, photographed and ordered to report to the detachment every month. The AFP thereafter issued a report branding the farmers as rebel returnees.
On February 17, forty troopers from the 30th Special Forces of the Philippine Army swooped down on Sitio Limot, a lumad community in Barangay Tigbawan, Baganga, Davao Oriental. The troopers accused the residents of being NPA guerrillas. Earlier, 26 Baganga residents had also been accused by fascist soldiers of being Red fighters. Fifteen of them, including two children aged 10 and 12, were held at gunpoint, ordered to strip and forcibly circumcised.
On February 7, two Red fighters were beheaded and their bodies burned by a CAFGU element right in the presence of Talaandig tribal folk in Katalawan, Kabanglasan, Bukidnon. The killings were part of a military campaign to deter lumads from helping or joining the revolutionary movement.
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