Karapatan condemned state forces for arresting 61-year-old Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Opereytor Nationwide (Piston) member Felixberto Consad at his home in Sogod, Southern Leyte on August 14. Consad faces a murder charge, and police brought him to the Sogod Police Station.

Consad was a Piston chapter member in Butuan City, where he has long resided and was an activist. He joined the group in 2013 and was forced to leave the city and transfer to Leyte in 2018 after state forces intensified its harassment and surveillance, according to Karapatan.

He is the husband of Rosanilla Consad, also known as Teacher Lai, a teacher-leader and Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) national council member. State forces arrested her in Butuan City in March 2021 for an attempted homicide case in her alleged involvement in a New People’s Army ambush. The case was dismissed a few months later for lack of evidence.

“We condemn the arrest of Felix Consad, years after he was compelled to leave his hometown because of escalating harassment and red-tagging against him and his wife,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said. Palabay believes that the murder case against Consad is fabricated, similar to the charges his wife faced.

Palabay said the case may have been orchestrated by the National Task Force-Elcac, the police, and the military to retaliate against their family after the dismissal of the charges filed against his wife in 2021. In connection with this, Palabay called on the courts to dismiss the case and save Consad from what is clearly another case of the NTF-Elcac’s harassment and dirty tactic.