Military and police arrested National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant Ramon Patriarca, along with activists CJ Matarlo and John Michael Tecson in Barangay Suay, Himamaylan City, Negros Occidental last March 18.

The arrested progressives are facing nonbailable charges of possession of firearms and explosives, which is similar to the nature of cases filed against community doctor Ma. Natividad Castro last February 2022, and the 57 activists who were nabbed in 2019 during the simultaneous raids in Negros Occidental.

The three were meeting for a research work on the land redistribution of the Cojuangco estates and the state of their agricultural workers, according to Kabataan Party-list Cebu. Their research would contribute to the crafting of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reform (CASER), one of the agendas in the peace talks.

NDFP-Negros condemned the arrest of Patriarca, saying that the incident was a violation of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantee (JASIG). The agreement, which was signed by the Philippine government and the NDFP in 1995, protects consultants and staff participating in the peace process from arrest and surveillance.

“Contrary to the dimwitted interpretation of the Duterte regime, the JASIG is still in effect despite the suspension of formal peace talks,” said NDFP-Negros Spokesperon Bayani Obrero. “It can only be rescinded by a bilateral process clearly stipulated in the agreement itself and not by mere whim and unilateral decision of a deranged president,” Obrero said.

Section 2.1 of JASIG states that all immunities granted by the agreement “shall remain in full force and effect even after the termination” of the pact. The Duterte administration formally terminated JASIG last February 7, 2017.

Peace consultants such as Patriarca have been targeted by the state after President Rodrigo Duterte signed Executive Order 70 last December 2018, which led to the institutionalization of red-tagging through the establishment of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.

Since then, several NDFP peace consultants such as Randy Malayao, Julius Giron, Randy Echanis, Eugenia Magpantay, Agaton Topacio, and Rustico Tan have been killed.

Negros continues to be the hotbed of attacks against progressives especially after Duterte signed Memorandum Order 32 last November 22, 2018, which commands the Department of Interior and Local Government and the Department of National Defense to deploy additional military troops in the island. This move has esentially placed Negros under a de facto Martial Law, Kabataan Party-list Cebu said.

Matarlo has been repeatedly red-tagged since she had served as the coordinator of Kabataan Party-list Cebu and a convenor of the human rights group Kabataan Para sa Karapatan-Negros Oriental. She previously survived an assasination attempt in 2017, which resulted to the death of human rights defender Elisa Badayos and farmer Eleuterio Moises in Bayawan, Negros Oriental.

And in 2019, Tecson’s father, a leader of the local chapter of fisherfolk group Pamalakaya, was shot dead inside his home in Guihulngan, Negros Oriental. A day before his father was murdered, soldiers visited their home and said that his father was helping militants escape authorities though their motorboat. 

Kabataan Party-list Cebu pointed out that the latest spate of arrests in Negros coincides with the intensifying red-tagging attacks against progressive groups during the election season. Last week, Bayan Muna coordinator Larry Villegas was injured after unidentified assailants shot him after breaking into his home in General Santos City, while 12 Anakpawis volunteers were arrested in Cavite by the police.

The NDFP Negros, meanwhile, called on the Duterte administration to immediately release the detained progressives and junk the baseless charges filed against them. Obrero also urged human rights organizations to conduct an independent investigation into the incident as state agents may likely torture and assualt the progressives to compel confession.

“The barrage of cases against Patriarca are obviously trumped-up, and it must have come from the warrant mill of the PNP-AFP,” Obrero said. “The planted weapons and other fabricated evidence are now the hallmark of so-called joint law enforcement operations.” ●