Amid the successive campaigns against the transport modernization program and the local government’s public land and housing programs, key leaders have reportedly been harassed and surveilled by agents of the National Taskforce to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (Ntf-Elcac) and are red-tagged and linked to the Community Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army, a press release from Human Rights Advocates Negros (HRAN) said.
Urban poor group Kadamay’s secretary general Berlita Ante and board member Nori Saldavie have reportedly been profiled and surveilled, allegedly by state agents, on August 11. The Kadamay members have reported that alleged intelligence officers sow intrigue and spread lies against both of them. The state agents also reportedly red-tag both community organizers, showing pictures of them as “communist terrorists.”
Kadamay is currently active in campaigning against the possible displacement of more than 4,060 households in 10 barangays in Bacolod City, due to an agreement between the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Bacolod City LGU.
Labor organizer of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) Negros Noli Rosales has also been reportedly tailed and surveilled by alleged state agents. Rosales is at the forefront of mobilizing small jeepney drivers and represented them in Senate hearings on the issue of the transport modernization program.
The groups believe that these attacks are directly linked to their advocacies and are clearly a means to silence and threaten them.*
