For two days, Vince Cinches of the environment watchdog 350.org was harassed by suspected state security forces in the Visayas.
On July 29, 2011, Vince travelled alone by bus to Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental province from Cebu province on board the Ceres Liner bus, where he was tailed by at least four suspected military intelligence agents for the whole length of the trip.
For two days, Vince Cinches of the environment watchdog 350.org was harassed by suspected state security forces in the Visayas.
On July 29, 2011, Vince travelled alone by bus to Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental province from Cebu province on board the Ceres Liner bus, where he was tailed by at least four suspected military intelligence agents for the whole length of the trip.
One of the two suspected agents was heavy-built and wore shorts. Both had short military haircut. The other who was in blue denims and white polo, of moderate built, about 5’55” in height and wore dark sunglasses, sat beside Vince and asked about the direction of the bus. He would later be grilling Vince on the latter’s purpose in going to Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, where, he warned Vince, there are “many NPAs and communists in the city already.” The men even said that they have assigned plain clothed military personnel to guard the place where Vince would be staying.
One of the military agents who styled himself as a medical doctor, even warned Vince that he might be disappeared.
Two companions of the suspected military agents also wore denim pants and sat at the front part of the bus.
Vince reported that from Friday evening until Saturday morning, intelligence agents in Dumaguete City harassed him, telling him that there were “communist-terrorists” around that might infiltrate the meeting of his organization. Another team of suspected military agents kept Vince under surveillance outside the house of his host in the city. They tailed him around the city to try to dissuade him from continuing the dialogues in the communities for his group’s project.
At 8:30 am, Vince’s brother received a text message that Vince had a cardiac arrest in a hotel and was admitted at the provincial hospital. The message was sent from the mobile number 09051150981. The same message was sent to his friends later that day. Vince believes that the spreading of rumors via text message could be a prelude to his abduction and disappearance.
Late in the afternoon that Saturday, on his way to another friend’s house, another intelligence agent called his attention and asked where he was going.
Vince strongly suspects the men to be military agents because of their conduct which fall into the pattern of harassment of activists in Dumaguete and Cebu. While he works with 350.org, he maintains coordinative activities with the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Central Visayas or BAYAN-Central Visayas, where he was a former staff.
Vince had been subjected to military harassment before as a student activist at the University of San Carlos, Cebu City, and later as public information officer of BAYAN-Central Visayas. BAYAN is a multisectoral alliance of progressive organizations, whose leaders and members had become victims of harassment, extrajudicial killings, illegal arrest and detention and other human rights violations by the state. His present group – 350.org – is an international organization campaigning to address the causes of climate change. The group is currently preparing various communities and stakeholders around the world for a September event called “Moving Planet,” that is why Vince travelled to Negros to consult with the communities and members of his organization.