Relief NGO office ransacked; workers gagged, bound
Iloilo City
June 19, 2014
Armed men ransacked
the office of relief NGO, bound its employees, and shied away with its
properties like computers and a camera, representatives from Gabriela Women’s
Party, Bayan Muna Party-list, Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) and Panay Karapatan Human
Rights Alliance told reporters here this morning.
The five relief workers of the
Panay Center for Disaster Response (PCDR),
all women, were beating the deadline to complete their report to their foreign partners which sent
funds to rehabilitate communities in northern Panay Island devastated by
super-typhoon November 8, 2014, said Reyland Vergara of Panay Karapatan.
PCDR since November last year
has been carrying out relief operations, helping communities rebuild their
lives in Yolanda-hit towns in Panay. Their assistance includes distribution of
housing and carpentry tools, food and medicines, providing school supplies and
toys for kids among others. Lately, they ventured into training victima on
organic farming and stress management.
Their donors include Caritas,
a relief agency run by Catholic bishops which has chapters in Europe, North
America and Australia.
“We condemn the attack and we
point squarely at government as our main suspect,” said Lucy Francisco of Gabriela
Women’s Party. “This act of terrorism is intended to sow fear among relief
workers and the calamity victims themselves.”
The PCDR office, a two storey
house at Balantang, Jaro, Iloilo City also serves as residence for its staff
members who were rushing overtime to complete their performance report to be
mailed to their foreign partners.
One of them, sleeping at the
ground floor, was awaken by the entry of a man who trained a handgun on her
head. The armed man, “burly and of military build”, immediately gagged her
mouth and wrapped the rest of her face with a duct tape, and bound her wrists
with the same packing material. It was about past 1 am.
The first entrant was followed
by three others who rushed to the second floor where four other women workers
were sleeping. They did the same to them: bound their wrists and wrapped their
faces with duct tape.
“The motive is not robbery but
to ransack documents and other materials to be used to malign the PCDR before
their foreign partners,” noted Hope Hervilla, third nominee of Bayan Muna.
“This is not mere coincidence but part of an ongoing and organized campaign by
government to harass those who truly advocate the interests and welfare of the
people.”
PCDR has been a target of
“black propaganda” by the military and police, added Elmer Forro of the
Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU). He cited an incident in Estancia, Iloilo where
soldiers in truckloads swoop down on a community just to tell them that the
group (PCDR) which just delivered relief goods there were “NPAs” referring to
the rebel New People’s Army.
“We condemn the attack just as
we condemned previous incidents. This will not be the last assault this
government will be launching against PCDR and other organizations which truly
serve the interests of the people,” Hervilla declared.
PNP investigators concluded it
was "robbery" and an "inside job", meaning, in cahoots with
one or more of PCDR's female workers,
Lost items:
The suspects, three having
barged into the house and another one outside serving as lookout, left in less
than 30 minutes. Vergara recalled that the five women were “shaking and crying
when we arrived and all of them wanted to go home.”
When they inventoried the
properties of the office and their personal effects, they documented the
following missing items:
• Two laptop computers
• A DSLR Cannon camera
• Seven cellphones
• One USB flash drive
• 0ne AHD memory stick
• P15,000 cash
• Thick wad of pictures documenting the relief operations
of PCDR throughout Panay
The lost items above are yet
on top of logbooks, ledgers, books and other documents that went missing.
“Even the book for training
farmers on “sustainable agriculture” was also taken away,” rued Vergara.
The suspects though missed one
cell phone tucked under a pillow. Its owner used it to contact friends.
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