Anti-mining activist goes missing after arrest

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – An anti-mining activist from Nueva Vizcaya went missing since August 21, the human rights group Karapatan-Cagayan Valley claimed this week.

Bryan Epa, 34, was reported missing after police allegedly arrested him on August 21 in Barangay Salvacion, Dumlao Boulevard in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya.

Barangay official Alfonso Shog-oy reportedly saw six policemen taking Epa aboard their patrol vehicle and announced during the arrest that Epa will be taken into custody because he looked ‘suspicious.’

Shog-oy reported that Epa resisted arrest but was punched in the stomach by two of the policemen, and then hit in the hand by a baton.

The following day, Shog-oy and lawyer Fidel Santos reportedly sought Epa at the police station, but they did not find him there.

Later, the police claimed that they have released a detained person on the same night that Epa was arrested, but records showed instead that it was another person- Felix Bacsa, Jr.– who was released and not Epa.

Epa has figured in the protest movement in Nueva Vizcaya opposing the entry of Australian mining company Royalco Philippines, Inc.

He is also reportedly among the locals manning the barricades, set up since 2007 to prevent mining equipment.

As such, the Manila-based group Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP) is expressing its concern over the continued disappearance of Epa.

According to KAMP, there had been 35 extra-judicial killings of indigenous peoples since Pres. Benigno Aquino III took office.