Cebu activists say readying legal action over abduction at city pier
Development workers Dyan Gumanao and Armand Dayoha are calling for accountability for their abduction in Cebu City earlier this month, which they attributed to state forces.
Rights group Karapatan last week also called on authorities to answer for their silence and seeming inaction in response to the kidnapping of the two, who were grabbed and forced into a van in broad daylight at the Cebu City port.
Gumanao of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers and Dayoha of the Alliance of Health Workers said in a briefing in Quezon City on Tuesday that they have already sought legal counsel on what they will do next.
Manila court: Not all activists are part of underground movement
dismissing the Department of Justice’s proscription petition against the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People's Army, the Manila court warned against the dangers of red-tagging groups or activists that are simply airing concerns on their specific advocacies or to how the government is running the nation.
The Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 19 in a decision dated September 21, signed by Presiding Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar, said membership in national democratic mass organizations (NDMOs) does not automatically mean that the individual is also part of underground illegal movements or even the CPP-NPA.
“Members of NDMOs espouse valid societal change, without necessarily giving through to ‘armed struggle’ or ‘violence’ aimed at overthrowing the government, as a means to achieve the same,” its decision read.