Panay Alliance Karapatan condemned police and military forces for arresting two veteran women development workers on Panay Island on April 2. Josephine Parra Porquia, 64, and Ma. Luisa Tagamolila Guillen, 62, were arrested at their residence in Barangay Aganan, Pavia, Iloilo.

The operation was carried out by the overwhelmingly excessive combined forces of the Pavia Municipal Police Station, the Provincial Intelligence Unit of the Iloilo Provincial Police Office, the 62nd Special Action Company of the PNP Special Action Force, the Philippine Army’s 301st IBde, and the Passi City Police Station. The two are detained at the Pavia Municipal Police Station.

Police claimed that Porquia was arrested by virtue of a warrant for rebellion issued by the Regional Trial Court Branch 21 in Mambusao, Capiz on June 28, 2012. Bail was set at ₱40,000 for the case.

While serving the warrant on Porquia, police and military reported having “discovered” materials allegedly for bomb-making, raising additional charges for violating Republic Act 9516, the law on the illegal manufacture, sale, and possession of explosives.

She is also accused of being a high-ranking Panay Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines official. Meanwhile, Guillen was arrested for obstruction of justice after she allegedly tried to stop the police and military from carrying out the operation.

“Together with their families, we denounce the continuing use of the legal system to harass activists and to reduce legitimate development work into acts treated as criminal and illegal,” Panay Alliance Karapatan said. The group added that the arrest was deliberately timed during Holy Week to delay legal proceedings and prolong the victims’ detention.

Porquia is a veteran activist. She championed the rights of Filipino migrants in the 1990s while her husband, Jose Reynaldo “Jory” Porquia, worked abroad. She served as a coordinator for Migrante and continues to advocate for the welfare of the sector.

In April 2020, armed state forces killed her husband Jory, also an activist, while he was serving communities ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic. A few months later, Josephine’s name appeared in the 3rd ID’s “threat assessment” chart.

Guillen is a Gabriela member. She has long been at the forefront of defending women’s rights and welfare on Panay Island. She is also the mother of Atty. Angelo Karlo Guillen, a member of the National Union of People’s Lawyers, who survived a stabbing attempt in March 2021 while serving as counsel for the Tumandok victims of the mass arrests and massacre in December 2020.

“These arrests are not isolated incidents but form part of a broader pattern of arbitrary arrests against human rights and development workers,” Panay Alliance Karapatan asserted. The group said fabricated charges, irregular police operations, and violations of due process are repeatedly used to make arrests and detentions appear legitimate.

According to Karapatan, the national human rights alliance, the persecution of the two women exposes the US-Marcos regime’s continuation of the previous regime’s policy of targeting activists. These crimes of Marcos, they added, are even graver as they are committed while the people suffer amid crisis.

The groups called for the immediate release of Porquia and Guillen and the dismissal of the fabricated charges against them.