PAGADIAN CITY (Mindanao Examiner / May 4, 2012) – Philippine security forces arrested a health worker accused by the army as communist rebel in the southern province of Zamboanga del Norte, the human rights group Barug Katungod Mindanao said Friday.
It said soldiers and policemen arrested Helen Igloria and is now being held on murder charges, among others. The group also released a photograph of Igloria while being escorted by policemen to a prowl car.
Igloria, an administrative officer of the Community-Based Health Services and a founding member of the women’s group called Gabriela in Zamboanga del Norte, was arrested on April 25.
The group branded the charges as “fabricated” and accused the military and police of harassing Igloria, who is active in human rights advocacy in the province. It said the woman is being held in Tangub City in Misamis Occidental province.
“Igloria’s arrest shows that health workers are still targets of the state security that considers this sector as threats, similar to the case of the Morong 43 detained for more than a year,” Barug Katungod Mindanao said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.
Morong 43 refers to a group of 43 health workers arrested by the army in February 2010 in the town of Morong in Rizal province after accusing them as NPA rebels.
President Benigno Aquino ordered the release of the health workers after communist rebel leaders who were negotiating for peace demanded their release.
“This (arrest of Igloria) also shows the continuing vilification and harassment of human rights defenders in the Zamboanga Region in Mindanao in the past six years,” Barug Katungod Mindanao said.
It cited the 2006 murder of a pastor of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines by motorcycle gunmen in Calamba town in Misamis Occidental, and the killing of an organizer of a church peasant group in Oroquieta City.
“Legal offensives are part of the Armed Forces’ ploy to neutralize human rights defenders. These legal maneuvers include the arbitrary insertion of names in lieu of John or Jane Does in existing criminal charges,” Barug Katungod Mindanao said.
The 1st Infantry Division did not issue any statement about the allegations and its spokesman Captain Albert Caber also ignored repeated telephone calls. (Mindanao Examiner)
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