The students were subjected to abuse and intimidation, with one student choked by an officer in plainclothes while he was trying to explain. One student was also labelled as a “recruiter for the New Peoples’ Army.”
On the same day that Kadamay Secretary General Carlito Badion was killed, members of urban poor groups in Rizal province were summoned by the military to clear their names from the list of alleged communists.
Labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno slammed the “double standard on the implementation of ECQ rules,” pointing out that this was not the first time police “exercised brutality instead of compassion amid the COVID crisis.”
“Filipino migrants are tired of being treated as milking cows by the Philippine government. We will continue to protest the unjust provisions of the law until it is totally scrapped.”
The arrests and the disproportionate show of force were likened to the “shock-and-awe tactics of Oplan Sauron” in Negros Island.
Karapatan Rizal was quick to point out that the incident was only the latest in a series of “harassment and delaying tactics” performed by the 80th IB designed to “deny the family of their latest victim justice and hide their crimes.”
Human rights watchdog Karapatan Quezon assailed his arrest, stating that military “should be doing service to the people and assisting them in the fight against the pandemic” instead of going on an all-out attack against them.
“This is a clear attack on the democratic rights of unionists and workers who are fighting for legitimate rights.”
Labor group Defend Coca-Cola Workers reported cases of harassment against as early as January of this year, when Coca-Cola management brought workers to Fort Sto. Domingo, Santa Rosa, and Camp Vicente Lim, Calamba, for anti-union seminars.
Defend Coca-Cola Workers described the incident as a “clear case of harassment and anti-union practice”, calling it “shameful and infuriating” that Coca-Cola would “collude with the AFP and PNP to take advantage of the hunger, fear and struggle faced by many due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Since the declaration of a unilateral ceasefire by the Duterte administration, the CPP said that at least 219 barangays nationwide have been subject to counter-insurgency operations. They also assert that Duterte’s real goal is to “use the pandemic as an opportunity to try and crush the ‘insurgency’ before the end of his term in office,” pointing out the focus on military operations instead of social services.