Isabela peasant leader abducted

SAN MANUEL, Philippines—Unidentified men  seized a local peasant leader and fled with him on a silver van on Friday, according to his 21-year-old son whom the abductors left behind.

Romulo Dela Cruz, a leader of the militant Agbiag-Danggayan Dagiti Mannalon iti Isabela, was on board a motorcycle with his son in Nueva Era village when men who claimed to be agents of the National Bureau of Investigation flagged them down as they passed the local office of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, according to Dela Cruz’s family.

“He was manhandled and then dragged into a silver gray van by armed men …. He has yet to surface. This is a case of enforced disappearance,” said Randy Felix Malayao, a leader of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan in Cagayan Valley.

The human rights group Karapatan-Cagayan Valley said Dela Cruz had taken part in a crusade against alleged land grabbers in Roxas town, which is adjacent to San Manuel town.

Dela Cruz’s family has gone to the police while relatives and friends have started drafting a petition for habeas corpus and writ of amparo, which they plan to submit to the Regional Trial Court here.

Anton Cruz, a Cagayan Valley official of the Commission on Human Rights, said his agency was looking into the abduction.

Human rights groups have decried the continuing violation of human rights under the Aquino administration, which ran on a platform of good governance in 2010 when it promised to be the opposite of the Arroyo administration that President Aquino is currently continuing to blame for many of the country’s social and economic ills. Villamor Visaya Jr., Inquirer Northern Luzon