Cebu police probing abduction of farmer’s group officer

CEBU CITY, Philippines  – Police are looking into the abduction on Saturday, June 13, of an officer of a farmer’s group in Barangay Kampingganon in Bantayan town, on Bantayan Island.

Elena Tijamo, a sustainable agriculture program coordinator of the Farmers Development Center (Fardec), was forcibly taken from her home by four armed men accompanied by two women around 9 p.m.

We are looking for witnesses to help shed light on the matter,” said Police Colonel Roderick Mariano, director of the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO).

Mariano said it was the barangay captain of Kampingganon who reported to the Bantayan Police Station about the abduction of Tijamo.

Tijamo was forcibly taken by six persons who wore face masks and black clothes.

“Tijamo’s family did not recognize the identities of the suspects,” Mariano said.

In a statement, Karapatan Alliance Philippines expressed fears about what might have happened to Tijamo.

During a House panel briefing last November 5, 2019, the group said Fardec was listed by the Department of National Defense as a “communist terrorist front organization” along with 18 other humanitarian, indigenous, and religious organizations.

“Tijamo’s sister tried to prevent them from taking Tijamo, but as of writing, the place where they took her is still unknown,” Karapatan Alliance Philippines said.

/MUF