Human rights alliance Karapatan today called for the immediate release of Caraga peasant leaders Marcela “Silay” Diaz, 59 years old and a stage 4 cancer patient, and Virgilio “Yoyong” Lincuna, 70 years old and a former political prisoner as well as a stroke survivor suffering from partial paralysis. The group’s call came after the death of peasant leader Joseph Canlas of the Alyansa ng mga Magbubukid sa Gitnang Luson due to COVID-19. Canlas, who had hypertension and diabetes, was said to have contracted the virus inside prison.

The Anti-Terrorism Council’s designation of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultants and peace panel members as “terrorists” under the Anti-Terrorism Act is “red-tagging in its most blatant and most dangerous,” human rights alliance Karapatan asserted on Thursday, as the group assailed the designation as “brazenly arbitrary that it violates basic principles of due process — and whose consequences have proven to be deadly.”

Mariing kinondena ng HUSTISYA (Pagkakaisa ng mga Biktima para sa Hustisya) ang kapabayaan at kawalang puso ng administrasyong Duterte matapos masawi ang bilanggong pulitikal at lider-magsasaka na si Joseph Canlas.

Former political detainees under Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) assailed the Duterte administration as  two political detainees died while in prison this week.

There is no justification for the death and rape threats against Ana Patricia Non, the young woman organizer and initiator of community pantries, nor there can be any justification for the persistent and continuing profiling and red-tagging of community pantry organizers in the whole country.