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[av_heading heading=’Center hits ‘harassment’ of Bayan-Negros leader’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”][/av_heading]
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Sunday, February 12, 2017
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BACOLOD City – The Children’s Rehabilitation Center (CRC) expressed alarm over the series of threats, harassment and intimidation experienced by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) Negros secretary general Christian Tuayon and his family.
On Feb. 3, a certain Police Officer 3 Peña went to the school of Tuayon’s eight-year-old son and badgered him with questions about his family and other personal information, according to CRC.
Peña introduced himself as the child’s uncle and also went to the workplace of Tuayon’s wife Roan, asking the same questions, added CRC.
Roan was a former staff of CRC Outreach program in Negros Occidental.
CRC expressed concern over this in the context of the Duterte administration’s termination of the peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Department of National Defense’s declaration of an all-out war against the New People’s Army.
“We believe that state-instigated human rights violations will definitely intensify and will cost the lives of civilians, including children. As seen in history, counterinsurgency campaigns of previous governments all ended in a bloody war against civilians, killing children and adults, rendering children orphans and displacing indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands,” according to CRC.
On the same day that t he Tuayons were allegedly harassed, CRC said a 42-year old leader of indigenous group Tribal Indigenous Oppressed Group Association (TINDOGA), Renato Angalao, was assassinated while on his way home after buying school supplies in the town center of Quezon in Bukidnon. He was aboard his motorcycle with wife and child, when another motorcycle with three unidentified men wearing masks drove to their side and shot him twice in the head and chest.
“The termination of the negotiation and all-out war pronouncement of the government paved the way to more brutal military combat operations in the countryside – endangering the lives, safety and welfare of children, their families and communities,” according to CRC.
The termination of the peace negotiations invalidates the initial gains of the previous three rounds of the formal talks which resulted to a discussion of the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms (CASER) to address the roots of the armed conflict, it lamented.
“We strongly appeal to President Duterte to reconsider his stand and instead hold on to his promise of trailing the road to a just and lasting peace for the best interest of the Filipino people, especially children,” a statement from CRC read./PN
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