Rights group KARAPATAN condemned the arrest of PISTON member Felixberto Consad based on trumped up charges against the transport sector activist.
On August 14, Consad, 61, was at the balcony of their house in Sogod, Southern Leyte, taking care of his grandchild, when a man in plainclothes entered their yard, followed by a uniformed policeman and two other persons in plainclothes.
A relative took the child and went inside the house. Other members of the household were also inside, when they realized that the elderly Consad was being served an arrest warrant on charges of murder. He was then brought to the Sogod Police Station.
“We condemn the arrest of Felix Consad, many years after he was forced to leave his hometown after suffering from intensified harassment and red-tagging, he and his wife,” said Cristina Palabay, KARAPATAN secretary general.
Palabay believes the ridiculous charges against Felix are fabricated, meant to ultimately silence and vilify him as a member of the transport group.
Consad has belonged to the Butuan chapter of PISTON since 2013. He, however, transferred to Leyte in 2018 due to intensified harassment and surveillance. In Leyte, he started his livelihood of pugon (stove) making. The surveillance, however, did not stop even after his transfer.
“Consad was forcibly displaced, due to the continued harassment and surveillance against him. He was clearly one of the targets of the military and police at the creation of the monstrous NTF-ELCAC,” said Palabay.
The group also believes that the NTF-ELCAC, the PNP and the military, want to save face after the malicious and ridiculous charges against Felix’s wife, a special education teacher and unionist of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers in Caraga, were dismissed years ago.
In March 2021, Rosanilla Consad, known by many as Teacher Lai, national council member of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers, was arrested in Butuan City by a combined team of police and military personnel. She was accused of attempted homicide after the police and military accused her of participating in an ambush by the New People’s Army.
She was released barely a couple of months after the case was dismissed due to lack of evidence. The courts said that Teacher Lai proved that on the day of the supposed ambush, she was busy at home doing laundry with her son, as well as in exchanging messages with her co-teachers and supervisor at Department of Education, where she worked as assistant principal of San Vicente National High School in Butuan City.
“The NTF-ELCAC even held a press conference after Teacher Lai was arrested, only to be the ones to be revealed as one making up stories to pin down activists and red-tagged persons. Now, as if they’re not yet done with their stupidity and they decide to go on with political persecution of the Consad couple, they went on arresting Felix, already a senior citizen,” Palabay said.
KARAPATAN called on the courts to “save Consad from another clear case of harassment and dirty handiwork of the NTF-ELCAC,” and drop the charges against him.
“All the more that the brainless, vicious NTF-ELCAC should be abolished for only continuing to exist to sow terror and malicious vilification against persons and activists. They are spoils of the previous regime that is being continued by the Marcos Jr. regime, with millions of funds peddled into the pockets of those who run this cheap show, at the expense of people’s rights to liberty and safety,” said Palabay. #