As part of its continuing lobbying efforts to guarantee the safety of activists in the city, the Tongtongan ti Umili-Cordillera Peoples Alliance participated in a meeting with city councilors and officials from various government agencies, Jan. 8, to discuss the cases of alleged political vilification in the city and its implications.
The meeting, originally set during initial talks back in Dec. 19, 2019, was supposed to be an audience with Mayor Benjamin Magalong regarding his pronouncements on the safety of activists in the city. It became, however, an expanded audience with representatives from the Philippine Army’s 503rd Infantry Brigade, Police Regional Office-Cordillera, University of the Philippines Baguio, and the regional offices of the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Commission on Human Rights.
“We did not expect the very same forces red-baiting us to be in a meeting about it,” said TTU-CPA Chair Geraldine Cacho. She added though that they still welcome the opportunity to get their points across the institutions that are spearheading the campaign against progressive organizations.
She said the meeting is a step forward in efforts to confront the issue of political vilification and the dangers of the President Rodrigo Duterte’s Executive Order 70 to democracy as it targets the healthy and legitimate exercise of dissent by activist groups.
Cacho is part of a panel of activists present during the meeting which included Baguio Outstanding Women Leader for Human Rights Jeannette Ribaya-Cawiding, and Gwangju Prize for Human Rights laureate Joanna Cariño.
“This engagement enabled us to raise the dangerous implications to human rights of the smear campaign by state forces such as the Philippine Army and the Philippine National Police,” she said, adding that state-perpetrated vilification is inimical to people’s safety and security, rights to organize, and free expression.
Among the cases presented during the meeting were the information and education campaigns being conducted by the PNP and the military in schools, including nine recent cases documented by Kabataan Partylist Cordillera in Saint Louis University and Benguet State University.
“Our organizations are attacked and redtagged in these IECs for being progressive and critical against the administration,” said Cacho, saying that this does not only happen in schools, but also in barangays and communities through assemblies mandated by the DILG.
TTU, meanwhile, welcomed the presence of councilors Arthur Allad-iw, Vladimir Cayabas, and Levy Lloyd Orcales in the meeting who were keen on proposing measures to curb political vilification against progressive groups.
“The clarifications made by Councilor Allad-iw on international conventions on human rights and humanitarian law sends a clear message that the conduct of malicious IECs by state forces is wrong,” Cacho said. – Press release
April 20, 2024
