By MARCO SEBASTIAN TUERES 
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Remembering her daughter, tears welled in Nanay Enda’s eyes as she recounted the events of the infamous Bloody Sunday Massacre where nine activists were murdered by state forces, including her daughter Anna Mariz “Chai” Lemita-Evangelista and son-in-law Ariel Evangelista.

“I will carry on Betchay’s legacy by continuing the fight she started,” she vowed, her voice shaking with both sorrow and resolve.

Chai grew up immersed in the struggle. She was raised in a political environment, with their home serving as a constant venue for meetings and consultations. Her parents, Armando ‘Ka Mandy’ and Rosenda or Enda, are community leaders of Ugnayan ng mga Mamamayan Laban sa Pangwawasak sa Kalupaan ng Hacienda Looc, a local peasant and environmentalist organization.

Chai witnessed firsthand how Ka Mandy and ‘Nay Enda stood up for fisherfolk and farmers, challenging powerful figures like capitalist Henry Sy, landlord-politicians Roxas and Enrile, and state forces determined to displace them from their homes and means of livelihood.

“In raising her, we didn’t expect her to become an activist. She told us she didn’t want to face the same sacrifices we had endured,” Nanay Enda recalled. As the child of a fisherfolk leader and activist, she felt pressured by expectations to one day become a leader herself. Determined to change her family’s circumstances, she focused on her studies. She graduated an iskolar ng bayan from Cavite State University-Imus Campus with a degree in Bachelor of Science in Operational Management.

Despite her initial resentment, she found purpose in activism. During her time in the university, she became a founding member of Anakbayan Cavite, while serving as provincial coordinator for Kabataan Partylist. She helped establish the formation of various chapters within Cavite that resisted demolitions and displacement of communities in coastal and urban poor areas, particularly in Hacienda Looc. She then became a leader of UMALPAS KA together with her husband, Ariel Evangelista.

Shoot first, warrant later

On March 7, 2021, police and military forces conducted raids on the homes of activists and community members, leaving nine people dead and seven others arrested.

“There were more than 50 police officers and soldiers from the Philippine Airforce in the area, they blocked the road entering our resort.” Nanay Enda recounted. “We were blocked from entering our homes, by the time we got there it was already too late.”

Nanay Enda’s grandson, who was ten years old at the time, was a witness to the incident. He saw his parents tied up and made to stand against the wall. Ten gunshots echoed around the neighborhood.

Notably, the search warrant for Chai and Ariel arrived an hour later after they were summarily executed.

Chai and Ariel were no stranger to red-tagging, a precedent before the raid that resulted in their deaths.

Two days prior to the raids, then President Rodrigo Duterte instructed the police and military to “finish off” all communist rebels encountered in armed clashes, urging them to “disregard human rights” in the process.

Among the dead are progressive leader Emmanuel Asuncion; housing rights advocates Mark Bacasno and Melvin Dasigao; Dumagat farmers Puroy and Randy Dela Cruz; and Edward and Abner Esto.

Meanwhile, four individuals were arrested: human rights worker Nimfa Lanzanas, and labor leaders Esteban Mendoza, Elizabeth Camoral, and Eugene Eugenio. The events of Bloody Sunday also led to the death of union president Dandy Miguel, and the arrests of activist Lino Baez and Willy Capareno in Quezon province and Maritess David in Makati.

The operation stemmed from COPLAN ASVAL, an operation designed for counter-insurgency.

The architects of Bloody Sunday, such as then-Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Debold Sinas, then PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Region 4A head Lito Patay, and then-Armed Forces of the Philippines Southern Luzon Command head Antonio Parlade, Jr. claimed that the victims ‘fought back’, justifying the massacre.

Deflect, delay, and deny justice

Justice has been elusive for the kin of Bloody Sunday. The Department of Justice under the Administrative Order 35 Task Force dismissed the cases because they could not find a ‘political motivation’ in the killings, and that they operated within the presumption of regularity.

“They have never allowed us any peace. Since 2014, our family has been a constant target of harassment by state forces.”

In 2014, Armando “Ka Mandy” Lemita, his wife Rosenda, his brother Anatalio, and his daughter Alaiza Lemita—then the regional vice chairperson of Anakbayan-Southern Tagalog—were arrested for opposing development projects in Batangas’ renowned Hamilo Coast, spearheaded by Henry Sy-owned Manila Southcoast Development Corporation (MSDC), as well as reclamation projects along the Cavite coasts by Ken Ang-owned Cyberbay Corporation. The police even attempted to arrest Armando’s 13-year-old son for trying to defend his father.

Over the years, Chai’s younger sister, Alaiza, has been at the receiving end of trumped-up cases. Four months after the massacre, she was served a subpoena for charges of ‘multiple attempted murder,’ a case that had already been resolved in 2017, along with a complaint for alleged violations of the Anti-Terrorism Act. Both cases were subsequently dismissed. This year, she received another trumped-up charge for ‘terror’ financing, along with Igorot store owner Marcylyn Pilala, for allegedly supplying groceries and food to the revolutionary armed group, New People’s Army (NPA).

Hope in international courts

Justice often remains elusive, especially when the perpetrators are state forces. Legal domestic remedies have been exhausted to no avail, with the cops involved in Betchay and Ariel’s death being acquitted due to the government’s lack of commitment to try those actually responsible for their murder. After the murder cases filed by Rosenda’s family were dismissed twice in Philippine courts, she lost faith in the country’s justice system and sought assistance from the United Nations.

Following the International Criminal Court’s push for the prosecution of former president Rodrigo Duterte for charges of crimes against humanity in relation to the thousands killed over “war on drugs” and political killings, families of victims of the Bloody Sunday Massacre hope for justice.

Under the guidance of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, they filed cases of political killings under Duterte’s administration before the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC).

“We wholeheartedly filed a case against the police who mercilessly killed my children and fellow organizers,” said ‘nay Enda. “But it has been over a year and DOJ Secretary Boying Remulla has done nothing to help us achieve justice. But we hope that the United Nations can give us what the government could not,” she said during a press conference.

Rosenda has been very active in the struggle the past few years since Chai and Ariel’s death, attending and speaking in protests and forums. “There is no normal to go back to with everything that’s happened. It is only right that we continue in Betchay’s direction.” Rosenda said. (RTS, RVO)