CPP/Ang Bayan: State forces arrest 8 red-tagging victims

Propaganda article from the English language edition of Ang Bayan posted to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Website (Nov 7, 2020): State forces arrest 8 red-tagging victims

Eight activists and members of organizations maliciously linked by National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict to the revolutionary armed movement were successively arrested by state forces during the last week of October.

Joint elements of the Special Action Force and 503rd IBde arrested woman leader Beatrice Belen at her house in Barangay Uma, Lubuagan, Kalinga, at around 4 a.m. on October 25. Belen is an Igorot and a member of the Advisory Council of the local chapter of Innabuyog in Kalinga. Innabuyog is a member-organization of Gabriela.

Operatives ransacked Belen’s house and planted it with guns and explosives to justify the arrest. She is currently detained at the the Tabuk City Jail. The Cordillera Human Rights Alliance reported that Belen was initially detained in a prison cell together with male detainees. She was accused of participating in a raid by Red fighters against a CAFGU detachment in the same barangay in 2018.

On the same day, five members of Pawis, a member-organization of Masipag which participates in the bungkalan (collective land cultivation) campaign of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), were arrested by the police in Barangay San Juan, Binalbagan, Negros Occidental. They are among the 56 Pawis members who were ordered to be arrested by Bacolod RTC Branch 54 Judge Eduardo Sayson for cultivating a portion of the 1000-hectare property being claimed by landlords from the Yusay family. Four of those who were served warrants have long been dead. According to Pawis, the legal harassment only aims to suppress their campaign for genuine land distribution.

Two days earlier at around 4 a.m., joint elements of the military and police arrested farmer Danilo Tabuno at his house in Barangay Sula, San Jose, Tarlac. Tabuno is a member of the Alyansa ng Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luzon, the regional chapter of KMP in Central Luzon. The operatives ransacked his house and planted there firearms, ammunition and fake extortion letters which were used as evidence to justify the arrest. Tabuno was temporarily released after posting a bail of ₱100,000.

On October 29, student activist Irix Romere was reportedly brought to two military camps by his relatives who have links with state forces. She was forcibly brought to Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City for interrogation, and afterwards, to a military base in Clark, Pampanga. This harassment clearly aims to intimidate her and her fellow student activists. Romero is a member of the local chapter of the Student Christian Movement of the Philippines in Bulacan State University.

[Ang Bayan is the official news organ of the Communist Party of the Philippines and is issued by the CPP Central Committee. It provides news about the work of the Party as well as its analysis of and views on current issues. Ang Bayan comes out fortnightly and is published in Pilipino, Bisaya, Ilokano, Waray, Hiligaynon and English.]

https://cpp.ph/2020/11/07/state-forces-arrest-8-red-tagging-victims/