MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / Apr. 18, 2014) – A Filipino youth group called Anakbayan has condemned what it claimed was the unlawful arrest by the police and military of one of its leaders in the town of Nasugbu in Batangas province just outside Manila.
It demanded the immediate release of Alaiza Mari Lemita and her relatives, who are known peasant leaders in Hacienda Looc. Lemita is Anakbayan vice chairperson in Southern Tagalog region.
The group said soldiers and policemen arrested Lemita and her father Armando and other relatives. Armando’s group founded the Ugnayan ng mga Mamamayan Laban sa Pangwawasak ng Kalupaan ng Hacienda Looc (UMALPASKA) to advocate genuine land reform and oppose the alleged land grabbing in Hacienda Looc which is is being developed into resorts.
Diego Torres, Anakbayan regional chairman, said the incident ticks another record in the government’s bloody history in failing to uphold the rights of the people, particularly those of the youth and peasants.
“The intensifying repression and suppression of dissent only agitates the youth, peasants and all of the people to tear off the facade of good governance, and pushes them to call for a change of the country’s leadership in the short run, and the of the overthrowing of the rotten system in the long run,” Torres said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
20