KARAPATAN condemned the arrests of three development workers in Negros, warning that such arrests lay down the Marcos Jr. government’s continuing policy of filing trumped-up charges of financing terrorism and terror law charges in 2025.
Federico Salvilla, Perla Jaleco and Dharyll Albañez, former and current staff workers of Paghidaet sa Kauswagan Development Group Inc. (PDG), were arrested on January 2, 2025. Salvilla and Jaleco were arrested separately while Albañez, upon learning of the arrests, voluntarily presented himself to authorities and posted bail.
Albañez and Salvilla are facing two (2) counts of alleged violation of Section 8 of Republic Act No. 10168, or the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012. Pavillar, meanwhile, is facing three (3) counts of the same charge.
Charges of violating RA 10168 were filed against five development workers by the Department of Justice (DOJ) at the Regional Trial Court Iloilo Branch 31 in December 2024, the court designated to hear terrorism-related cases in Western Visayas.
“We support the call to demand the dismissal of charges against the three development workers. The arrests of Salvilla, Jaleco and Albañez bode ill for many other development workers in the country who provide services and assistance to marginalized communities. This follows the rise of terrorist financing and terror law charges filed against activists and development workers last year, many of which have been subsequently dismissed,” said Cristina Palabay, KARAPATAN secretary general.
PDG is a well-known development NGO based in Kabankalan, Negros Occidental focusing on promoting sustainable agricultural programs. It advocates for agrarian reform, sustainable agriculture and the rights of small farmers and fisherfolk.
PDG is not new to such attacks and red-tagging, as its officers and members have faced different forms of threats, harassment, surveillance, trumped-up charges and worse, killings. Its executive director, Atty. Benjamin Ramos Jr., was killed in 2018. His widow, Clarissa Ramos, who also served as executive director of PDG, and Felipe Gelle Jr.. PDG staff in addition to heading the Human Rights Alliance of Negros, are also facing terrorist financing charges.
“PDG deserves commendation, not condemnation,” said Palabay. “Despite harassment and surveillance, they continue with their relief, education and development work in the communities, among others,” she added. “The brazen and blatant accusations of terrorist financing against PDG and its members are an attack on the people who work with them and rely on them for the most urgent and necessary aid in Negros, whch is battered by typhoons and the Mt. Kanlaon eruption.”
Palabay reiterated that all these stem down from the continued existence of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), the government body that maliciously red-tags and vilifies progressive organizations and individuals and later churns out trumped-up charges against them, or instigates graver human rights violations like extrajudicial killing and enforced disappearance.
“We demand the abolition of the NTF-ELCAC now more than ever,” averred Palabay. “It is a waste of people’s money, a dangerous agency that holds a loaded gun against activists, development workers and rights advocates. As long as the Marcos Jr. government keeps this agency, we see continually deteriorating human rights under this government,” she said. “Marcos Jr.’s so-called concern for human rights will be exposed as a lie and a grand deception,” concluded Palabay.