TWO members of a fact-finding mission in Negros province were killed and another wounded while on their way to investigate and validate complaints of human rights violation in the area.
“We condemn in the strongest terms this recent attack on human rights workers. Even as human rights workers conducting fact-finding missions in Batangas, Negros, Mindanao and elsewhere are being subjected to attacks by state forces, we will never relent in struggling alongside with the Filipino people in contending against this murderous Duterte regime,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said.
Unidentified men believed to be part of the private army of a mayor shot and killed Elisa Badayos, coordinator of Karapatan-Negros Oriental, and Eleuterio Moises, a barangay watchman and member of the peasants' group Mantapi Ebwan Farmers Association Inc.
Carmen Matarlo, 23, a member of Kabataan Party-list in Cebu, was also reportedly wounded.
The 30-member team was in the area to respond to reports of human rights violations.
“The attack on human rights defenders are becoming more rampant, more brutal, more fearless. The perpetrators know they will be dealt with impunity, as human rights have lost force and meaning especially under this regime. Fact-finding missions are a mechanism for human rights organizations to confirm reports of abuses, and this incident has only proven how fascism works to outrightly kill those who dare to question,” Palabay said.
“The space for human rights defenders is fast shrinking as the Duterte regime is finding more and more ways to cripple defenders on the ground who voice out the real situation experienced by marginalized communities victimized by militarization, landgrabbing, and other forms of repression and oppression.”
She cited the Negros Oriental Provincial Ordinance No. 5 of2008, or “An Ordinance Regulating Outreach Activities Through Medical and Fact-Finding Missions in the Countryside of Negros Oriental and for Other Purposes,” wherein non-government organizations and other cause-based organizations have been prohibited to conduct any humanitarian mission in Negros Oriental without seeking permission from the governor, municipal government and municipal police.
The team arrived in San Ramon, Bayawan, but was “blocked and harassed by elements of the mayor’s private goons,” Karapatan said in a statement.