MEDIA RELEASE April 29, 2000
The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan today accused the government and the military as responsible for the April 27 ransacking and robbery of the office of its Cordillera regional affiliate in Baguio City. This is the ninth time that an attempt was made to raid the said office.
"Who else wants to silence the Cordillera People's Alliance (CPA)? Who else are miffed that the CPA is leading the Cordillera people in calling for President Estrada's ouster?" said BAYAN National Chairperson Rafael Mariano.
The CPA is BAYAN's regional chapter in the Cordilleras. It is an alliance of grassroots mass organizations representing various sectors.
The CPA office found at Baguio City's Leonard Wood Road was ransacked at 1:30 a.m. on April 27. Taken were a complete computer set and Citizen printer, 3 central processing units, a scanner, 1 box of diskettes, an automatic voltage regulator, a fax machine, anti-mining campaign papers, finance and administrative documents and a folder containing addresses of CPA contact organizations here and abroad.
Interestingly, a photocopying machine worth P200,000 and other valuables were left untouched by the robbers.
Mariano said that the US-Estrada regime and the AFP are on a fascist rampage all over Northern Luzon, with heightened military operations, raids on offices of people's organizations and successive warrantless arrests and detention of activists and ordinary folk like churchworker Lorna Rivera-Baba of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente who was recently arrested without warrant by the Intelligence Service of the AFP.
"Ordinary hoodlums would seek money and valuables. But in this case, the culprits' aim was to cart away important files in a vain attempt to derail the CPA's work and sow fear among its members," he explained.
The CPA is currently waging campaigns against the controversial San Roque Multipurpose Dam Project and the operation of mining firms Newcrest, Newmont, Philex and Lepanto. Documents on these campaigns were among those stolen in the early morning heist.
In a statement, CPA Secretary-General Joan Carling said that the perpetrators might use the stolen items "to sow intrigues, disinformation and other acts against the people's movement in the Cordilleras."
"By taking with them important files, they also intend to harass and intimidate CPA members and disrupt and paralyze CPA's operations," Carling said.
Mariano also took exception to the claims of local police that the break-in could be an "inside job," saying that CPA members were at Abra province for the Cordillera Day activities."
"There is a clear pattern of institutionalized and premeditated attempts to subvert the rights of the Cordillera people, including cause-oriented groups like CPA," Mariano said. "The government, the military and mining firms would benefit the most from revolting human rights abuses, raids and harassments of progressive organizations and individuals in the Cordilleras."
Last February, the office of DINTEG, a Cordillera lawyers' advocacy organization, also suffered the same fate. DINTEG was handling cases of Cordillerans displaced by government's ventures with foreign multinational mining corporations. ###