'Red-tagged, kidnapped, dead': Dev’t worker abducted in Cebu turns up dead in Mandaluyong

MANILA – Human rights group Karapatan is calling for an investigation into the death of Elena Tijamo, a development worker who was abducted in Cebu last year and turned up dead in Mandaluyong on Tuesday.

According to Tijamo’s sister Violeta, she was abducted by four armed men and two women in Bantayan Island on June 13 last year.

“Nandoon po kami eh, pati yung anak niya nung kinuha siya, sapilitan po,” Violeta said.

She said she did not recognize her sister’s abductors because they were masked.

Violeta added, however, that her sister was able to call their family intermittently even while in the presence of her captors.

“Hindi po niya sinasabi (kung sino ang dumukot sa kanya) tsaka yung ano lang niya, yung pamilya lang namin yung kinakamusta niya. Yun lang yung sasabihin niya. Wala nang iba.”

Violeta said she last spoke with her sister on May 13.

A SURGERY IN MANDALUYONG

In a statement, Karapatan said an attending physician at the VRP Medical Center in Mandaluyong issued a death certificate for a certain Ava Perez Reyes, who reportedly died of cardio pulmonary arrest and aspiration.

That death certificate was handed by a certain “Michael” to a sibling of Tijamo on August 30.

Karapatan said Tijamo called that sibling on August 27 to inform him that she will undergo surgery at the same hospital.

Violeta said she did not know that her sister was planning to undergo surgery. But she noted that her siblings who knew were at some point informed that the surgery was successful.

“Hindi nila nakita pero sabi nila, okay na. Successful yung operation,” she said.

Violeta said she believes her sister’s abduction may have had something to do with her death.

“Kasi po kung di nila kinuha yung kapatid ko dapat hindi pa po siya namatay ngayon.”

She also believes that state forces were involved in her sister’s abduction.

“Kasi panahon ng ECQ (enhanced community quarantine) yun eh. Mahigpit yung ano, maraming checkpoint yun. Sino ba naman yung ano… pumapasok nang kung ano-ano kung hindi nga yung nasa, sa gobyerno.”

RED-TAGGED

Karapatan secretary-general Cristina Palabay said Tijamo worked as a coordinator for Farmers Development Center-Central Visayas (FARDEC).

The same group has been red-tagged by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

“Yung FARDEC kung saan po nagtatrabaho, nagsisilbi bilang coordinator si Ate Elena, ay isa doon sa mga nabanggit o nilista ng AFP at NTF-ELCAC sa Kongreso. At actually ngayon pwede niyong i-Google eh, doon po sa Facebook page ng NTF-ELCAC, at lagi yung binabanggit so tingin namin, yun yung koneksyon ng red-tagging.”

“Harmful na tinatawag yung red-tagging dahil nag-i-incite ito ng karahasan sa mga organisasyon o mga miyembro nito na makaranas ng ganitong mga tipo ng paglabag sa karapatang pantao,” Palabay said.

Palabay said they intend to tell the International Criminal Court about Tijamo’s case, as they want the ICC to also look into attacks against activists in the Philippines.

“Hindi pwedeng, ano lang, ituring na numero si Ate Elena at iba pang mga biktima sa mga state-sponsored na kampanyang ito,” she said.

The ICC’s probe on the country is currently focused on deaths due to the war on drugs.

• PH drug war victims who approached ICC ‘overwhelmingly support’ probe on killings

“There are several similarities in the patterns as to how the violations were conducted in the course of the government’s campaign on the drug war and in the counter-insurgency campaign. Definitely we will inform, as much as possible the ICC, and other international bodies on this sad development,” she said.

Violeta said their family now hopes to bring home Tijamo’s body as soon as possible.

“Plano namin po yung makuha naming yung bangkay tsaka maiuwi sa amin.”

She also hopes authorities will conduct a probe into her sister’s death.

“Sana po, tuloy pa rin yung imbestigasyon,” she said.

• NTF-ELCAC gets higher proposed funds in 2022 despite calls for its abolition
• Senators want NTF-ELCAC to account for millions in unspent 2020 funds