The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) has denounced the “illegal” arrest of its local members in separate operations in Laguna and Bohol on Friday, June 25.
In a statement, the militant group said Dana Marie Marcellana and partner Christian Relao were arrested by authorities in San Pablo, Laguna. The duo are provincial coordinators of Katipunan ng Samahang Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan (KASAMA TK).
Moreover, the KMP said that Nathaniel Vallente and Carmilo Tabada have been arrested from their homes in Trinidad and Mabini, Bohol on Friday. Vallente is a pastor and a counselor of Nagkahiusang Mag-uuma sa San Jose (NAMASAJO), while Tabada serves as a program coordinator of Central Visayas Farmers Development Center.
“We condemn this most recent affront to legitimate farmer organizations done in compliance with the unconstitutional Anti-Terror Law,” said KMP national chairperson Danilo Ramos.
According to the group, Marcellana and Relao were reportedly charged with kidnapping, murder, illegal possession of firearms, and rebellion. While Vallente and Tabada were reported to be charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives.
The KMP maintained that both the arrests and charges were “hinged on planted evidence,” and demanded for the release of the four arrested farmer leaders as well as the dropping of the “trumped-up charges” filed against them.
Rights group Karapatan has earlier condemned the arrests of the progressives and peasant organizers in Bohol and Laguna.
“The arrests of Carmilo Tabada and Pastor Nathaniel Vallente in Bohol and of Dana Marie Marcellana, and Christian Relao in Laguna today continue the alarming patterns we have raised before the Supreme Court — and these patterns in Gestapoesque raids, which have proven to be deadly especially during the ‘Bloody Sunday’ raids in Southern Tagalog, are now being replicated in Bohol,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said in a statement Friday.
“Clearly, their arrests are part of a systemic and desperate crackdown on dissent under the guise of the Duterte government’s brutal counterinsurgency campaign,” she added.