Another red-tagged rights worker killed in Negros Occidental

MANILA, Philippines — A city councilor and rights worker, earlier named as a communist in a poster, was gunned down on Monday afternoon, Karapatan said.

In a statement, the rights group slammed the killing of Bernardino “Toto” Patigas, the group’s 48th member who was slain, while he was on his way home after campaigning.

Patigas, fondly called as “Tay Toto,” is a human rights worker of the North Negros Alliance of Human Rights Alliance. He is seeking a reelection as a Sangguniang Panglungsod member in Escalante City, Negros Occidental.

Karapatan said that Patigas was driving his motorcycle, plying the highway heading to Brgy. Washington, Escalante City when he was shot in the leg and forehead.

Prior to his death, the slain rights worker was included in a poster identifying him as a communist personality. It was the same poster where slain rights lawyer Benjamin Ramos and 60 others were also included.

READ: Murdered NUPL lawyer was 'red-tagged' earlier in 2018

The group said that Patigas was a survivor of the Escalante massacre in 1985 where 20 farmers and farm workers were killed. He later continued his humanitarian work and joined in fact-finding missions in Negros.

The slain rights worker also received death threats while doing his work. Karapatan added that Patigas faced a complaint in 2017 but it was later dismissed due to lack of probable cause.

“As we condole with the family and friends of Tay Toto, as we cry with the loss of a good man and a diligent human rights worker, we pay tribute to his valuable contribution to the overall human rights advocacy in the Philippines. We vow to pursue the struggle for justice and realization of people’s rights amidst tyrants and fascists pervading the country,” Karapatan said.

Patigas’ killing came weeks after 14 farmers and habal-habal drivers were killed in military and police operations.

The police and the Palace insisted on the legitimacy of the operation as they said that the slain “fought back” against the law enforcement agents and that they were personalities believed to have participation in a military ambush.

Rights groups and witnesses contradicted the police’s “nanlaban” narrative.

Killing of red-tagged personalities

Kaisahan, a non-government organization pushing for Negros Occidental farmers’ land rights, said that the killing of the 14 was the latest in the spate of killings of personalities that authorities have linked to communist groups on the island province in five months.

“The ‘Sagay 9’ massacre, the murder of human rights lawyer Atty. Ben Ramos and the killing of ‘Negros 14’—all of these happened within five months in the same island. This is an unfortunate proof that ‘red-tagging’ endangers the life of our farmers and the marginalized communities who do nothing but work hard for their basic needs, and reclaim their rights,” Kaisahan then said.

Philippine jurisprudence defines red-tagging as “the act of labelling, branding, naming and accusing individuals and/or organizations of being left-leaning, subversives, communists or terrorists (used as) a strategy... by State agents, particularly law enforcement agencies and the military, against those perceived to be ‘threats’ or ‘enemies of the State.’”

The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers asked the Supreme Court for relief from the supposed state enforced “red-tagging” of rights lawyers. — Kristine Joy Patag