DAVAO CITY – Migrants rights’ advocates here condemned the alleged harrasment of their members and organizers after one of their houses was ransacked.
In a press conference Wednesday, Irish Maquilan, spokesperson of Migrante Davao said the house of their education officer Grace Gamalinda was ransacked at 9 pm on July 20.
Gamalinda and her daughter, Arriane, were also included in the list of support groups who were charged with Serious Illegal Detention and Human Trafficking of lumads inside the Haran Mission Center compound owned by the United Church of Christ in the Philippines.
The “trumped-up charges” according to the group were filed by the Criminal Investigation and Detention Group (CIDG) XI.
In a separate incident, an OFW returnee and Migrante Davao staff, Cristy Balinawa, was allegedly tailed by “state forces” days after the commotion in Haran at 9 pm July 27.
The group claims that Balinawa was also “threatened” by “three police officers” while she was on her way home from Haran.
“For days, (Balinawa) noticed patrol cars parked near her house, while on July 27, a police officer pointed a gun at her,” Maquilan said.
“We are not engaged in [any] criminal activity, we are simply here to help ordinary people stand up for their rights,” said Maquilan.
Migrante said that both Gamalinda and Balinawa have already filed a police blotter of the incidents but “encountered a problem with the police officer assigned in the station.”
In a phone interview, Carlo Olalo, spokesperson of Kilusang Mayo Uno here, said, “the police officer argued that the perpetrators were not members of the police force because they did not tuck-in their shirts.”
The victim,however, claimed that the three were wearing police uniforms. (davaotoday.com)
