By JUSTIN UMALI
Bulatlat.com
STA. ROSA, Laguna – A young human rights defender has been reported missing since Sept. 14. Rights group feared that elements of the military abducted her.
According to a press statement by Karapatan-Quezon, Alexa Pacalda was last seen in barangay Magsaysay, General Luna, Quezon while being arrested by still unknown unit of the Philippine Army. As of press time, there is no verified information regarding her whereabouts.
Pacalda was a former managing editor for The Luzonian, the official student publication of Manuel S. Enverga University. She was also a former secretary general of the College Editors Guild of the Philippines Southern Tagalog, and a member of Gabriela-Youth.
Karapatan-Quezon condemned the arrest, calling it a part of the “nationwide crackdown against progressives being launched under the banner of Duterte’s counterinsugergency program Oplan Kapanatagan.”
I hope and pray that the resurgence of the Marcoses due to Pdu30 doesn’t mean the resurrection of Marcos’s criminal system. Already we have Tokhang which violates a basic law of the land: the of citizens without due process.