On August 10th, Randall Echanis, a human rights activist in the Philippines, was murdered in his own house. Reports indicate he suffered brutal treatment before his death. On the 17th of August, the day that Echanis was buried, Zara Alvarez, a legal worker for the human rights group Karapatan, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen. She was the thirteenth human rights activist killed in the past four years in the country.
The victims had a few things in common:
They worked in grassroots organisations that authorities claim to be linked to the communist insurgency.
Both have a history of being "red-tagged", a form of political harassment wherein the authorities label them "communists" - a label closely linked with death.
The Philippines recently passed a counter-terrorism law that uses a vague definition of terrorism to subject suspects who were arrested without a warrant to weeks of detention before an appearance in front of a judge. A special body appointed by the president would provide the authority to enforce the law. The law allows arrests and long prison sentences for people or representatives of organizations that simply don’t support the president.
On March 28, 649 people including Alvarez, appeared on a list of people the government sought to label as terrorists. While Alvarez and many others were subsequently removed from the list, they continued to receive threats and harassment.
Alvarez’s photo also appeared in a publicly displayed poster depicting terrorists. Benjamin Ramos Jr. and Bernardino Patigas were also killed and were pictured in the same poster. Their murders remain unsolved.
Following Alvarez's murder, her colleague Clarizza Singson received a death threat on Facebook warning her that she would be next. The threat is particularly worrying as Singson was also featured on the poster and in the list of suspected terrorists.
Written by Anushree Appandairajan
Artwork by Izzy Johns
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