Methodist pastor, 10 pals missing in Mindoro Occidental

A Protestant pastor active in human rights work and 10 companions have been reported missing since Thursday in the northern part of Mindoro Occidental, a militant group said yesterday.

Methodist pastor Jojo Velasco, secretary-general of the human rights group Karapatan in Mindoro Occidental, and his companions were visiting neighboring towns to conduct talks on the celebration of Human Rights Day on Dec. 10 when they disappeared, according to Bagong Alyansang Makabayan secretary-general Teodoro Casino.

"This is most ironic," he said. "We believe they have been abducted by people who do not want the people in the region to know about the rampant violations of human rights there."

Casino said the disappearance of Velasco and his companions only highlights the worsening condition of human rights under the Arroyo administration.

Karapatan claimed that 19 human rights cases have been happening every week since January, when Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo came into power.

"This is a far cry from the five human rights cases that happened each week under the Estrada administration," said Casino.

He said militant groups will hold a "People’s Tribunal" at Mendiola in Manila on Dec. 10 to indict the Arroyo and Bush administrations for human rights abuses.

Militant groups also reported that another Protestant pastor, Rodel Gregorio, also connected with Karapatan, was arrested along with 15 others in Sablayan, Mindoro Occidental last Thursday.

Dani Beltran, Karapatan national deputy secretary-general, said Gregorio and his companions were in a jeep when policemen flagged them down.

He said the police charged the pastor and his companions with sedition and vandalism for putting up a banner that demanded an increase in the buying price of unhusked rice (palay) in the local market from P7 to P15 per kilo.

Beltran said activists in the two Mindoro provinces risk life and limb in the struggle for human rights and social justice.

Since President Arroyo took over Malacañang, he claimed that at least 30 volunteers of the Bayan Muna party-list group have been killed. More than half of them were based in Mindoro.

The latest victim of violence was Bayan Muna municipal coordinator Antonio Martinez, who was abducted from his home in Puerto Galera town last Nov. 23. His headless body was found 23 kilometers away the next day.

Military authorities have tagged Bayan Muna chapters in Mindoro as fronts for the recruitment of civilians into the communist New People’s Army (NPA), which the group has denied.

Beltran said Karapatan has documented 1, 545 cases of alleged human rights violations in at least 405 barangays around the country, including 27 cases of forced disappearances of civilians.

The human rights group has blamed most of these cases on the military or vigilante groups with links to the police and the military.