"Sad to say you are members of the NPA"* We've heard a lot of 'red-tagging' and all sorts of political vilifications from the social media, news on television, and in the newspapers but usually we shrug it off, thinking of it as something we just know of. But experiencing it first hand is a whole lot different. The feeling of uncertainty, fear, and shock crept up to us slowly and bore a hole within our system, leaving a scar that might never leave. You would try to summon bits of memories from articles you've read, did they cry? Did they retaliate violently? Had they cussed between their teeth like we did? As the mallet hit the platform, with it something popped. We were disillusioned as to how development work was done, how development workers were treated, and more importantly, how smoothly progress reach marginalized people.
It felt like it was our trial. And under their gaze, we were to be judged if we are to continue or not. But the truth is, it was a trial for the community. A trial that decides if progress was to reach them. The quick decision based on unfounded accusations that we and the Center for Development Programs in the Cordillera were members of the NPA hindered what was supposedly genuine development for the community. The decision came to us as an epiphany that there will always be those who are narrow-minded, if not anti-development.
The Sanguniang Bayan of Daguioman tagged us as members of the NPA. They tagged the development projects of CPDC as unneccessary. They left the community wanting of the services they badly need.
As if not enough, the police forces pursued harrassing us as one interviewed us one by one. And one by one went our self-assurance. We were abandoned by the council, telling us that they won't be responsible to anything that may happen to us, leaving us to the mercy and whims of the police and other hostile forces. We were humiliated, threatened, put under de facto detention, and harrassed all night by a certain SPO1 Miña. We were robbed of our rights that day, out of options. The next day, we were followed by the same policeman on our way out. We were numbed by then. Maybe this is how they discourage those wanting change, progress for their community.
What transpired, we discovered, was not something development workers in the Cordillera experience sporadically. The Ligiw family of Abra was brutally massacred, and William Bugatti, another human rights advocate killed this year only. CPDC and others continously experience harrassment from goverment forces, resulting in them joining an alliance to protect their rights and defend their legality. Yes, not something out of the blue, these things happen on a policy level - Oplan Bayanihan. The government lumps up development workers, cause activists, and unarmed civilians with the NPA, endangering their lives and reducing their legitimate causes to nil.
They did not kill us that day. They never laid a finger to us. But we were bruised, lascerated, and scarred. But wounds nevertheless are reminders more than atrocities, reminders of the harsh realities we live in, and subsequently, its change you live for.
*this was the final statement of a Sangguniang Bayan member of Daguioman Abra#