"Hands off progressive government employees and church workers!" Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay called on the BS Aquino government echoing the sentiments of Church faith-based and human rights organizations here and abroad. “The BS Aquino government could better spend its remaining months in power doing something productive and beneficial for the poor majority of our people instead of harassing activists and its own workers in the bureaucracy.”
"Hands off progressive government employees and church workers!" Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay called on the BS Aquino government echoing the sentiments of Church faith-based and human rights organizations here and abroad. “The BS Aquino government could better spend its remaining months in power doing something productive and beneficial for the poor majority of our people instead of harassing activists and its own workers in the bureaucracy.”
Since April 27, more than 20 members of Confederation of Unity of Recognition and Advancement for Government Employees (COURAGE) were subjected to harassments, intimidation and surveillance by government intelligence agents.
The last documented incident was the harassment of the Toquero couple on June 28 at their residence in Silang, Cavite. Raquel Toquero is a national staff member of COURAGE; while Mervin is Officer-in-Charge of the Program Unit on Faith, Witness and Service (FWS) of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP).
Two men appeared at the door of the Toquero residence while the family was having breakfast at 8:00 a.m. The men identified themselves as soldiers looking for Raquel, “Alam na namin ang mga pinaggagawa niya. Gusto namin siya maka-usap para matulungan”( We already know what she’s been doing. We want to talk to her to help her).
The men did not show any identification papers and mission order when Mervin requested for them. Instead, the men peeped through the window and called out to Raquel, who was inside the house, to say they know her activities and offered to help her. They handed her a paper with the name, Delia with a telephone number 09261430628.
"We are convinced that the harassment perpetrated against Mervin and Raquel Toquero and their family, is a part of your government’s national security policy that legitimizes the use of threats, harassment and intimidation to quell dissent and protests against government policies. There is an ongoing campaign of harassment targeting union activists, in particular the officers, staff and organizers of COURAGE," Bern Jagunos said in a statement of the International Coalition on Human Rights in the Philippines-Canada committee.
"The incident left the family agitated and threatened as it happened inside their family compound where Mervin’s father, Bishop Solito K. Toquero, retired bishop of the United Methodist Church and former vice chairperson of the NCCP also resides. They feel unsafe, following the intrusion by these agents on their residence. They have reason to be afraid as the climate of impunity in the Philippines is such that human rights defenders are killed by state agents even inside their houses," said the NCCP statement signed by Most Rev. Ephraim S. Fajutagana, Obispo Maximo of Iglesia Filipina Independiente and Chairperson of NCCP, and Rev. Rex R.B. Reyes, Jr. NCCP General Secretary.
The United Church of Canada, Canada-Philippines Solidarity for Human Rights, and Hongkong-based organizations Asian Human Rights Commission and Kowloon Union Church sent letters to Pres. Benigno Aquino III to stop the attacks against the government employees and church workers.
"The BS Aquino government and the Armed Forces of the Philippines have reached the peak of its own paranoia. They are now targeting their own workers," Palabay said. "BS Aquino’s fate is sealed. He will spend it in jail," Palabay concluded. ###