Church and human rights workers in the southern Philippines who have been tagged by authorities as having links with the underground communist movement appealed to the public this week for protection.
“If the government cannot protect human rights defenders, we have no one to turn to but the people who can attest to the sincerity of our ministry,” said Father Raymond Montero Ambray of the Diocese of Tandag, one of those tagged.
The priest said the lives of human rights defenders are “in peril because the government perceives them as an enemy.”
Posters with names and photographs of 17 individuals, including Father Ambray, a nun, two bishops, and teachers of alternative learning centers for indigenous peoples have been displayed in various public places in the provinces of Surigao and Agusan in the southern Philippines.
“At first we just ignored it because [authorities] have been vilifying human rights workers, including priests, online,” said Father Ambray. “But when they printed it and displayed it in public, it is time to be alarmed,” he said.
The priest said the banners were posted in bus terminals and markets in villages in the province since November 19.
In May, the priest also decried what he described as “red-tagging” after his photograph circulated online with his name and a description that says “deliverer of evil.”
A group called Movement Against Terrorism was reportedly behind the posters.
Bishop Modesto Villasanta of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, one of those “tagged,” said they were targeted because of their “ministry for the poor.”
“One thing in common with the people whose faces and names are on those posters is that we are all working and defending indigenous people’s rights,” said the Protestant bishop.
Also included in the list are teachers of alternative schools for indigenous peoples in the hinterlands of Lianga town in Surigao province.
In the past, the military tagged the schools as “communist training grounds.”
Bishop Villasanta said he fears for the lives of the human rights defenders because those who had been red-tagged in the past “ended up dead.”
In August, Church worker Zara Alvarez was gunned down in Bacolod City in the central Philippines months after a poster with her photograph and name was displayed in public.
Sammy Dollano, a member of the town council of Lianga whose name appeared on the poster, said the people behind the campaign are “putting us in danger.”
He said that with the “vague and problematic” anti-terrorism law in effect, “authorities can easily use this poster to justify whatever action, illegal or legal, against us.”
The Church and human rights workers whose names appeared on the posters have are vocal critics of the military’s presence in indigenous people’ communities in Mindanao.
