Group asks military: Surface missing Bukidnon activist

Bukidnon map. INQUIRER FILES

DAVAO CITY — Friends and family of labor organizer William Lariosa are calling on the military to surface him after he was taken from Barangay Butong, Bukidnon town on Wednesday during a military operation.

Romelito Pablo, chairperson of the Kilusang Mayo Uno in Southern Mindanao, said Lariosa, a labor organizer in the area where large sugar and pineapple plantations operate, was taken by soldiers of the 48th IB of the Philippine Army during a military operation in Purok 8, Barangay Butong, reportedly triggered by a recent encounter with the communist New People’s Army (NPA) near the area.

“Around 9 a.m. to 12 noon of that day, people in the area were hamletted. When they learned that he was a labor organizer, the soldiers took him. As of this moment, the family is still trying to trace William’s whereabouts because the Maramag police said he was not turned over to them,” Pablo told the Inquirer in a chat message.

Pablo said they were still trying to find more details to track down the missing activist even as they asked the 48th IB to surface him.

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When sought by the Inquirer for comment, Major Mark Anthony Tito, spokesperson of the Division Public Affairs Office (DPAO) of the 10th Infantry (Agila) Division (10th ID), confirmed that there was an encounter with the NPA around 8:45 a.m. of the same day in the area, where one NPA member was killed, three were captured and one surrendered.

But Tito denied they had any knowledge of the missing KMU organizer. He also denied there was hamletting in the area. “We don’t have any information about that but there was a legitimate operation in the area participated by the Quezon municipal police station,”  Tito said, as he named those who were captured as alias Sofia or Mada, alias Kael and alias Joshua or Jason.

Killed during the encounter was an alias Rica or Tomboy while a certain alias Del surrendered to the authorities around 3 p.m. on the same day.

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According to Pablo, Lariosa, 63, who hailed from Davao de Oro, had been a KMU organizer in Southern Mindanao since 1996. “He has been receiving threats from the military, who often visited him in his house to convince him to ‘surrender,’” Pablo said.

Since 2021, Lariosa has been assigned to help organize pineapple, sugarcane, and banana plantation workers in Bukidnon, so when the soldiers last visited his house in October last year, only his wife and child were there.

Pablo said that Barangay Butong, where Lariosa has been staying, is a sugarcane plantation community.

“For years, he and his family have received threats and harassment from state forces that prompted him to seek sanctuary in the area,” said a separate KMU statement. The group said that as of May 1, the international labor day, draws near, attacks against labor organizers and trade unions had intensified and even Barangay Butong, where Lariosa was taken, saw heavy presence of the military.