Kin’s search for activist ends in Comval funeral home

DAVAO CITY — A search by relatives of an activist helping local farmers and “lumad” (indigenous peoples) ended in a funeral parlor in Compostela Valley province on Sunday, two days after she was reported missing, the rights group Karapatan said.

The body of Jeannie Rose Porras, 39, a member of the militant Compostela Farmers Association (CFA), was found by relatives at a funeral home in Nabunturan town, according to Jay Apiag, Karapatan Southern Mindanao secretary general.

It was not clear how Porras died or if she had wounds.

Porras’ group has been opposing the entry of a mining firm that has applied for an exploration permit covering some 12,000 hectares of lumad areas in the province.

Apiag, quoting Porras’ son, said the victim failed to return home in Compostela town after meeting a still unidentified person on Thursday.

“On Dec. 15, Jeannie’s son decided to report the incident to police. He also informed fellow CFA members [about her disappearance], asking their help to look for his mother,” he said.

Apiag said Karapatan and CFA were trying to gather details regarding Porras’ disappearance and death.

He said the victim was also a farmers’ organizer in Compostela.

Her organization, Apiag said, “had long been the target of killings, illegal arrests and harassment due to [its] antimilitarization, antimining and agrarian reform campaigns.”

On Nov. 29, CFA member Rodrigo Timoteo was shot dead by unidentified gunmen outside his house in Sitio Mambusao in Ngan village, Compostela, while he was preparing to join a protest rally on Bonifacio Day.

Late last year, unidentified suspects gunned down Jimmy Saypan, former CFA leader, as he was driving his motorcycle on his way to Compostela.

Saypan’s death in October 2016 started the string of killings in Compostela Valley, Karapatan said.

In March this year, couple Ramon and Leonila Pesadilla, who were farmers, were killed in Barangay Osmeña, Compostela, as their 5-year-old grandchild watched in horror.

The Pesadilla couple, according to Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), had donated a parcel of their land to a local lumad school.

In linking the military to the killings in Compostela Valley, KMP cited other incidents, including the Dec. 5 disappearance of Jean Bustamante, 17, a lumad member of CFA.

Bustamante, who was accused of being a New People’s Army rebel, was later found held in a camp of the Army’s 66th Infantry Battalion in Mambusao town in Compostela Valley. —FRINSTON LIM