Human Rights Advocates Negros Island

17/08/2025

Dapat ikulong si Duterte at panagutan ang pagpaslang kay Zara Alvarez -- human rights defender, volunteer health worker, aktibista -- biktima ng terror-tagging, harassment, at brutal na pamamaslang ng rehimeng Duterte.

Ang pagpaslang kay Zara Alvarez, isang human rights worker at volunteer health worker, ay isa sa pinakakarumal-dumal na krimen sa ilalim ni Duterte. Si Alvarez ay isa sa 222 na human rights defenders na pinatay noong nakaraang rehimen. Tinarget siya dahil nais siyang patahimikin sa kanyang paninindigan na isiwalat ang mga paglabag sa karapatan ng mga manggagawang bukid at magsasaka sa Negros. Sa kabila ng lahat ng panganib, ipinagpatuloy niya ang kanyang gawaing maglingkod sa mahihirap na mamamayan ng Negros.

Hangga't nagpapatuloy ang pamamaslang, panunupil, at paglabag sa karapatang pantao, patuloy din ang panawagan ng hustisya at panagutin ang mga maysala.

06/08/2025

Celebrating my 2nd year on Facebook. Thank you for your continuing support. I could never have made it without you. 🙏🤗🎉

01/07/2025

PRESS STATEMENT
July 1, 2025
Human Rights Advocates in Negros (HRAN)

Development Work Is Not a Crime. Free the People from Marcos’ Crackdown on Rights Defenders.

The arrest and detention of Felipe “Ipe” Gelle is only one of many deliberate attacks on development work and people’s advocacy under the Marcos Jr. regime.

Gelle, a human rights volunteer with HRAN and former staff of the Paghidaet sa Kauswagan Development Group (PDG), was arrested on June 24 in Bacolod City on charges of terrorism financing and sedition. These charges, based on old and recycled allegations, are baseless. The Iloilo Regional Trial Court had already dismissed identical charges against two other PDG workers Federico Salvilla, Perla Pavillar, and LGU worker Dharyl Albañez, citing lack of jurisdiction and failure to constitute an offense.

Despite this precedent, CIDG Bacolod deliberately stalled Gelle’s bail process. For five days, they failed to secure and transmit the necessary documents, causing undue hardship and extending his detention without justification. These delaying tactics are part of a coordinated effort to harass and silence rights defenders through legal intimidation.

Gelle’s arrest came just days after UN Special Rapporteur Irene Khan, in a report to the UN Human Rights Council, condemned red-tagging in the Philippines and called for the abolition of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). His case is living proof that red-tagging has become a gateway to criminalization and prolonged detention.

The Marcos Jr. regime continues the authoritarian legacy of Duterte under the guise of unity and peace through the so-called National Action Plan for Unity, Peace, and Development (NAP-UPD). But peace cannot be built on fear. This plan, paired with the full operation of the NTF-ELCAC, is nothing more than counterinsurgency dressed as reform: used to surveil, harass, and jail those who serve the people.

Negros Island has long been a flashpoint of political repression. Gelle’s former organization, PDG Inc, has been repeatedly targeted for its advocacy for agrarian reform, sustainable farming, and peasant rights. Its founding figure, Atty. Ben Ramos Jr., a respected people’s lawyer and human rights defender, was assassinated in 2018 after enduring years of red-tagging. The current attacks are a continuation of the same campaign to crush grassroots organizing in Negros.

We are not afraid. The release of Gelle on bail is not because of a functioning justice system; Instead, it was won through collective resistance and solidarity. But the threats remain. Those who expose land grabbing, militarization, and corruption continue to be branded as enemies of the state.

HRAN demands:

1. An immediate halt to the use of anti-terror laws to harass development workers and human rights defenders.
2. The abolition of the NTF-ELCAC and an end to state-sponsored red-tagging.
3. The review and dismissal of all trumped-up terrorism-related charges against activists and development workers.
4. Full protection and support for Gelle and all development workers under threat.

Development work is not terrorism. Community service is not sedition. To stand with the people should never be a crime.

29/06/2025

STATEMENT CONDEMNING THE DELAYING TACTICS OF CIDG BACOLOD IN THE BAIL PROCESS OF FELIPE GELLE

Human Rights Advocates in Negros (HRAN) strongly condemn the clear delaying tactics of CIDG Bacolod, which continue to cause undue hardship to human rights worker Felipe Gelle and violate his right to swift justice.

Since June 25 (Wednesday), CIDG Bacolod has failed to secure the warrant of arrest for Gelle’s two cases issued as far back as 2024 and process his bail. Despite formal communications from Gelle’s lawyer requesting that the necessary documents be transmitted, no meaningful action has been taken to move the process forward.

We stress that the cases of other former Paghidaet sa Kauswagan Development Group (PDG) Inc. staff members, who were arrested on the same charges of alleged terrorist financing, have already been dismissed. The continued detention of Gelle, and the delays caused by CIDG Bacolod’s inaction, amount to harassment and a violation of his rights.

We call on CIDG Bacolod: stop obstructing due process and immediately act to facilitate the bail process of Felipe Gelle. We likewise urge all Negrosanons and our allies to join us in demanding Ipe Gelle’s immediate release.

08/10/2024

20/09/2024

Human Rights Advocates Negros joins the call of the families and friends of the Escalante Massacre for justice as we mark the day of the infamous massacre.

The social conditions and the human rights abuses that the Negrense faces during the dark days of the Marcos Sr dictatorial rule and among them the killings of innocent civilians, massacres enforced disappearances torture and other cases remains and getting worse under Marcos Jr.

The repression of rights remains that even the families and friends of the victims of the Escalante Massacre cannot light a candle in the marker guarded by heavily armed police and members of the 79th Infantry Battalion Philippine Army.

31/08/2024

NEWS UPDATE: Quezon City Regional Trial Court Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert, known for her granting of questionable search warrants against activists, was not selected to be an associate justice at the Court of Appeals, according to the list of appointees released by the Supreme Court.

Burgos-Villavert was among the final list of nominees bidding for the four open associate justice seats at the appellate court, but was ultimately not selected by the president for a position.

Defective search warrants issued by this judge in the past have led to the wrongful arrest of many activists—some of whom remain under detention to this day.

READ: https://bit.ly/4cKSVfe

Photo from the Supreme Court.

30/08/2024

In the wind we hear their laughter
In the rain we see their tears
Hear their heartbeats we hear their heartbeats

U2 “Mother of the Disappeared”



ON THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE DISAPPAREAD

HOLD MARCOS JR FOR INCREASING CASES OF ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES



Today we mark the International Day of the Disappeared. On this day and every year, we call on the Philippine Government to surface those who were abducted by state security forces (AFP/PNP/paramilitary) to surface them as they remain missing to date. As signatory to the international treaty on Enforced Disappearance, it is the primary responsibility of government to make efforts to locate and surface them.

On April 5, 2022, KADAMAY leader Iver Larit was reported to be taken by armed men and to date has not been surface. He was among those redtagged by Negros Occidental Provincial Police Office in a tarpaulin posted in various places in Moises Padilla in March 2018. He was also among those targeted by a search warrant issued by Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert in raids among the offices of progressive organizations in Bacolod City where the 79th IBPA and the CIDG tagged him as “urban cadre of CPP-NPA".

On April 19, 2023, Human Rights Advocates Negros received a report that Rogelio Posadas, Lyngrace Martullias and two habal-habal driver Renald Mialen and Reniel delos Santos were waylaid somewhere in Hinigaran. After three days, the 303rd Brigade announce the alleged death of Rogelio Posadas while his companion disappeared to date.

On September 15, 2023, Deah Lopez a local peaant organizer and a tricycle driver Peter Agravante were abducted at Barangay Gil Montilla, SIpalay City. Three days after, Peter Agravante dead body was thrown in a cliff in Barangay Nagbo-alao, Basay, Negros Oriental while Deah Lopez remain missing.

As define by Article 2 of International Convention on Enforced Disappearance states “the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law”.

In addition, the declaration states “No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for enforced disappearance”.

The lack of action on the part of the government and police reflects that these cases may have the acquiescence of the Marcos government in its desperate effort to declare “end of local communist insurgency” and stable peace and internal security.

We call on the public to join us in our call to surface the victims of enforced disappearance, condemn these inhuman acts and to make the Marcos Jr government accountable for its responsibility. # # #

29/08/2024

Filipinos online were quick to share their anger and frustration at Vice President Sara Duterte as she dodged questions about the funds of the OVP during a House briefing for the agency’s 2025 budget on Tuesday, August 27.

READ: https://trib.al/LyI8fMx