Apayao gov hit for offering P1-M to kill ‘communists’

Rights group: Red-tagged activists endangered 

HUMAN RIGHTS group Karapatan assailed Apayao Gov. Elias Bulut, Jr. for issuing “an official order which the former said, may be “used to drive and encourage extrajudicial killings.”
    In an executive order dated Sept. 30, 2022 Bulut offered reward money of P100,000 for anyone who “captures, arrests or kills in a legitimate military operation a member of the communist terrorist group (CTG), meaning the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) .
    “The governor upped the bounty to P1,000,000 if the person arrested, captured or killed is a “high-ranking CTG personality,” Karapatan said.
    This is a kill order, said Karapatan secretary-general Cristina Palabay. “It gives the go-signal for anyone to arbitrarily attack and kill political activists who have been repeatedly threatened and red-tagged, and be paid handsomely for it.”
    “Is it just coincidence that last Oct. 25, Lorraine Badoy and the other talking heads of NTF-ELCAC recited the names of members and community leaders of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) as ‘mga pangalan ng CPP-NPA’ on their program aired over the SMNI network?” asked Palabay.
    “A Cordilleran governor issues a hit order with bounty, then Badoy and her ilk come up with a hit list comprised of Cordilleran activists,” said Palabay. “Following the pattern we have observed in other cases,” she said. “It looks like CPA leaders and activists are being set up not only for intensified threats, harassment and intimidation, but for arrest, capture or murder.”
    “With incessant red-tagging and this latest bounty offer, the State has cranked up its deadly campaign to suppress human rights defenders and other activists working for people’s rights and welfare,” said Palabay.
    “All freedom-loving Filipinos must forge ranks to counter these virulent and stepped-up attacks on our civil and political rights,” Palabay said.