Women’s group Gabriela staged a demonstration outside the gates of Camp Aguinaldo, the headquarters of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, to condemn the military’s alleged involvement in recent cases of extrajudicial arrest and detention.
“We are taking this fight to Camp Aguinaldo to brand the Armed Forces of the Philippines for what they are: the #1 violator of human rights, the #1 violator of women’s rights in the Philippines,” said Joms Salvador, Gabriela’s secretary general.
They said they will also “take this fight” to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to “challenge him to surface Loi, Ador, Cha, and Elgene.
Labor organizer Ador Juat, Elizabeth ‘Loi’ Magbanua, Elgene Mungcal, and Ma. Elena ‘Che’ Cortez Pampoza, have been reported abducted by armed men on July 3.
Salvador said the activists were “working tirelessly” to advance the rights of women, workers, the LGBTQIA+ community, and their fellow Filipinos.
In a statement, Gabriela said the cases are “not isolated from each other,” and allegedly followed a “chilling pattern” where activists “are now being arrested extrajudicially and held captive for extended periods by the military.”
The women’s group said they are “prepared” to raise their issue in Marcos Jr.’s upcoming first State of the Nation Address on July 25..
“We remind President Marcos that he has the choice to end the culture of political repression, or like his dictator father, viciously lead and embolden the outpour of human rights violations by the state,” said the group.
