Police, military conduct ‘tokhang-style’ crackdown of activists in Calabarzon

By Jelo Ritzhie Mantaring

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In the early morning of March 7, Sunday, police and soldiers in the Calabarzon region have started their “raids” and arrests in their crackdown of members of progressive organizations serving search warrants, some incidents resulting in killings.

In an update of the Inquirer on 11 a.m., the Philippine National Police (PNP) reported nine were arrested, six escaped, and six were killed after resisting arrest in their operations in Cavite, Laguna, Batangas and Rizal.

Inquirer also said the PNP and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group had search warrants for 18 people, which most of them were members of activist groups in Southern Tagalog.

According to Karapatan Timog Katagalugan on Facebook, two labor leaders and one human resource worker were illegally arrested in Laguna.

Steve Mendoza, executive vice president of OLALIA-KMU, was arrested in their house in Mamatid, Cabuyao around 3:15 a.m. Elizabeth “Mags” Camoral, Bayan-Laguna spokesperson and previous union president in F-Tech, was nabbed in the headquarters of Defend Yulo Farmers in San Isidro, Cabuyao around 4 a.m. Nimfa Lanzanas, a paralegal aide to political prisoners and staff of Karapatan, was taken in front of her young grandchildren.

Teodoro Casiño, former House member for Bayan Muna, pointed out on Twitter that the search warrants issued in a Manila court for Mendoza and Camoral were “copy-pasted,” noting also that it had the same item (one piece of hand grenade) to be searched. First Vice Executive Judge Jose Lorenzo dela Rosa signed the warrants.

Also, Karapatan said two members of the organization San Isidro Kasiglahan, Kapatiran at Damayan para sa Kabuhayan, Katarungan at Kapayaan (SIKKAD K-3) were allegedly killed by policemen in Kasiglahan Village, Montalban in Rizal. They were Michael Dasigao, who was killed in their house, and a certain “Makmak.”

Aside from this, Karapatan reported that two peasant leaders identified as Tatay Moises and Dodong “Bagsik” were raided in their houses wherein firearms were allegedly “planted.” Anakbayan-Southern Tagalog added in their Facebook infographic that there were two military trucks used to “harass” in Montalban.

In Dasmariñas, Cavite, police “raided” the Workers’ Assistance Center where Bayan-Cavite coordinator Manny Asuncion who was reportedly killed. PAMANTIK-KMU, a Southern Tagalog labor center of workers, posted pictures of the crime scene where pools of blood could be seen, along with a trail that looked like the lifeless body was pulled along the floor.

While in Nasugbu, Batangas, partners Chai Lemita-Evangelista and Ariel Evangelista, staff of a farmers’ organization called Ugnayan ng Mamamayan Laban sa Pagwawasak ng Kalikasan at Kalupaan (UMALPAS KA), along with their child Raymart Evangelista were arrested by police around 4 a.m. PAMANTIK-KMU confirmed by 1 p.m. that the couple were dead and their bodies were found in a funeral parlor, while their 10-year-old child had escaped.

Lino Baez, Bayan-Batangas coordinator in Santo Tomas City was raided by the police as well. According to Karapatan, no family member was taken but the police “planted” firearms and explosives.

Calabarzon Police Chief Brig. Gen. Felipe Natividad said the operations complied with the President’s Executive Order No. 70, as quoted by Rappler’s phone interview with the chief.

The order was to institutionalize a whole-of-nation approach to end the communist insurgency in the country, a goal of Duterte’s administration by the end of his term.

Last Friday, the President had a meeting with the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) in Cagayan de Oro City. This is where he ordered the police and military to “finish off” communist rebels.

“If there’s an encounter and you see them armed, kill, kill them, don’t mind human rights, I will be the one to go to prison, I don’t have qualms,” Duterte said as quoted by Inquirer.