Woman in confrontation with Duterte safe, hiding

NAGA CITY, Cebu — The woman who told President Rodrigo Duterte to his face that he must stop quarry operations here is in safe hands.

A source said Sheila Eballe was being cared for by a group after Eballe started to fear for her safety following her encounter with the President during the latter’s visit to this city to condole with relatives of those who died in a landslide being blamed on quarrying.

The source is a member of the group now sheltering Eballe and asked that she or her group be not identified in this report.

The source, quoting Eballe, said she now feared for her safety after unidentified persons started looking for her.

“I fear for my safety now, they are looking for me,” the source quoted Eballe as saying.

Suspicions

According to the source, Eballe started being suspicious after security officials from quarrying firm Apo Land and Quarry Corp. (ALQC) looked for her.

“Have I committed any wrongdoing?” the source quoted Eballe as saying. “I only expressed what is true,” she said, according to the source.

ALQC, through Chito Maniago, said the firm did not send anyone to look or go after Eballe.

Maniago said it was unfair to link the company to Eballe’s decision to hide for fear for her safety.

He said when Eballe demanded that the President stop quarrying, “we listened to it as it is a very sincere” statement.

ALQC, he added, has no track record of going after critics.

Lost contact

Arnel Aliganga, Eballe’s cousin, said he last saw Eballe when he helped her get her clothes from her house in the village of Tinaan on Saturday noon, shortly after she spoke against quarrying in the President’s presence.

Tinaan is the village here worst hit by the landslide.

Aliganga said he lost contact with Eballe after he helped her pick up her clothes from her house.

Eballe’s common-law husband, Dorotheo Abay, had already been informed that Eballe was missing, Aliganga said.

Aliganga said that Abay had recently flown to Canada with their children aged 18 and 21 after they were petitioned by Abay’s parents.

No sign of Eballe

He said Abay cried hard after learning Eballe had gone into hiding. He said the two had plans to marry so Abay could bring Eballe to Canada, too.

Unidentified men also came searching for Eballe in the village of Pangdan, according to Aliganga.

Chief Insp. Roderick Gonzales, chief of the Naga City police, however, said there was no missing person report for Eballe.

Her relatives have not reported her missing but police were checking.

At Enan Chiong Activity Center, which had been turned into an evacuation site for landslide survivors and where Eballe stayed, social workers have not seen Eballe since Friday evening.

A logbook keeping track of evacuees did not show Eballe’s name since Saturday.