Both are being charged with double murder in relation to an alleged ambush by the New People’s Army which resulted in the killing of two soldiers in Ragay, Camarines Sur on May 13, 2018. According to Karapatan-Bicol, both have filed their respective counter-affidavits denying their participation in the alleged ambush in December 2019.
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com
(Updated 10:08 p.m.) MANILA – Two activists were arrested in separate incidents this week in the Bicol region.
On July 7, Jenelyn Nagrampa, Gabriela’s national vice chairperson, was arrested in her house in Nabua, Camarines Sur. Two days later, on July 9, 61-year- old Pastor Dan San Andres of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines and also the spokesperson of Karapatan-Bicol chapter was also arrested in his residence at Sipocot, Camarines Sur.
Both are being charged with double murder in relation to an alleged ambush by the New People’s Army which resulted in the killing of two soldiers in Ragay, Camarines Sur on May 13, 2018. According to Karapatan-Bicol, both have filed their respective counter-affidavits denying their participation in the alleged ambush in December 2019.
According to Karapatan, on the day of the said incident, San Andres was celebrating a mass in his parish at the UCCP Church South Centro in Sipocot, Camarines Sur. Nagrampa, on the other hand, was campaigning for the barangay elections.
Nagrampa is currently a village councilor in barangay San Isidro, Nabua, Camarines Sur. She is currently detained at the Nabua Municipal Police Station.
Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay condemned the arrest of the two leaders saying these “signal darker days ahead in the country with the signing of the Anti-Terrorism Act. ”
Palabay said linking human rights defenders to alleged NPA encounters is “already an old and tired tactic.”
She added that the arrests are “part of President Duterte administration’s continuing crackdown and criminalization of human rights defenders.”
In a statement, Gabriela asserted that the charge against Nagrampa is baseless. “It is a mere machination of the overwrought and malicious imagination of fascist state forces bent on silencing activists and anyone and everyone critical of the government’s anti-women and anti-people policies,” the group said in a statement.
The said groups are calli g for the immediate release of San Andres and Nagrampa. They also demand an end to all forms of attacks against human rights defenders.
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