Ex-human rights worker arrested in Davao del Sur

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

DAVAO CITY — The former secretary general of the human rights group Karapatan in Southern Mindanao was arrested in Digos City for what the group described were trumped-up charges designed to send a chill and silence human rights defenders in the country.

Jay Apiag was arrested at 5:15 p.m. on Aug. 13 while on his way to Cor Jesu College in Digos City, said Rauf Sissay, secretariat of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) in Southern Mindanao.

Apiag is currently being held at the Buhangin police station here. He left Karapatan in 2021 to pursue law studies.

Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan, said Apiag is facing six trumped-up cases; among them, four for attempted murder in the cities of Davao, Digos, and Malaybalay in Bukidnon and another case for illegal possession of firearms and explosives in another court in Malaybalay.

“Jay Apiag had nothing to do with the crimes he is being accused of. In fact, in his attempted murder case stemming from his supposed participation in an encounter in Paquibato, Davao City on May 20, 2018, he presented proof that he was leading a fact-finding mission in Tagum City on the date,” Palabay said.

“To show how ridiculous these charges are, one of Jay’s co-accused was Karapatan national chair Elisa Tita Lubi, who was almost 76 years old at the time of the alleged encounter, and who also presented proof that she was in Metro Manila at that time.”

“All the cases against Jay have been meant to derail his work as a human rights defender. Jay Apiag was at the forefront of the fight to assert human rights in Southern Mindanao, especially when martial law was declared in the entire island,” she added.

Palabay also said Apiag had been the target of threats and harassments since the Duterte administration. Posters and tarpaulins branding Apiag as a member of the New People’s Army (NPA) have been seen in several places in Mindanao and digital images tagging him as an NPA member were posted on the Facebook page of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.

“Jay Apiag is only the latest in a growing list of Karapatan’s human rights workers arrested, killed, or threatened in the course of their work,” Palabay said.

She cited Alexander Philip Abinguna and Alexandrea Pacalda from Karapatan’s Eastern Visayas and Southern Tagalog chapters who were behind bars; Pia Montalban from Karapatan-Central Luzon, who had been repeatedly red-tagged and threatened; and Karapatan-Negros paralegal Zara Alvarez who was gunned down in Bacolod in August 2020.

“Karapatan throws its support behind Jay Apiag in his struggle to seek justice,” Palabay said. “We will continue to campaign for the release of Jay and all political prisoners on just and humanitarian grounds.”