KARAPATAN denounced what it called the “recent wave of repression,” citing the Good Friday arrest of elderly Panay activists Josephine Porquia and Ma. Luisa Guillen; the arrests of health workers Dr. Ana Marie Rilloraza and Marc Mendiola with five others in Tarlac City; the arrest of cultural worker Charlize Garzon in Mindoro; the mass arrests of residents of urban poor communities under the so-called “safe cities” initiative of the Department of Interior and Local Government; and the spate of demolitions in Metro Manila and other urban centers.
“The incidents are not unrelated and form part of a broader pattern of state repression targeting the poor as well as activists and organizers working with marginalized and grassroots communities,” said KARAPATAN deputy secretary general Atty. Maria Sol Taule.
“In particular,” said Taule, “the demolitions have been particularly devastating to communities that are already reeling from surges in the prices of services and prime commodities due to the crisis engendered by US and Israeli aggression against Iran. The demolitions, conducted without adequate provisions for relocation, come on top of police saturation drives that criminalize poverty in the guise of ‘safer cities,’ ‘public order’ and ‘development.’”
Taule added that it is unconscionable for any government to weaponize its coercive apparatus against its people who are already mired in crisis. “This government has always resorted to repression to suppress protests,” she said, “and people have been protesting more intensely because of the Marcos Jr. government’s insufferably slow and tangential response to the crisis.”
“It has not done much to control the prices of other goods and services. It is dragging its feet on the clamor for higher wages. Yet when people become indignant and wage protests, he responds by imposing unreasonable restrictions on the populace. Is this Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s way of diverting the people’s attention from the crisis and showing that he still retains some measure of control?” asked Taule.
“In any case,” she continued, “the crisis is too grave for these acts of repression to succeed in veering the people’s attention away from their plight. KARAPATAN stands with the people in condemning this wave of repression and vowing to oppose it with more militant protests.”
