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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