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DAVAO City–Fidelina Margarita “Gingging Avellanosa-Valle,” the development worker and freelance writer “mistakenly” arrested Sunday morning at the Laguindingan Airport in Misamis Oriental, managed to get in touch with a nun before she was forcibly taken away by the police.

Sister Mila Gimeno of the Missionaries of the Assumption said she received a frantic call from the 61-year-old Valle at around 10:07 am, informing her that she was being arrested and that she would be brought to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).

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Valle, married with four children and two grandchildren, was at the Laguindingan Airport awaiting her flight back to Davao City where she resides, when she was arrested. Before that she was in Pagadian City for a training-workshop.

The nun said she could hear a commotion in the background and heard Valle ask the arresting officer why she was being arrested but was told to just go with them to the CIDG office.

“She was forcibly arrested. Forceful gyud,”  recalled Sister Mila.  But she also said Valle kept asserting her rights, questioning the arresting team on the basis for her arrest.

Before their phone connection was cut, Sister Mila heard Valle say “gibira na ko, gibira na ko.” The nun said she tried to call Valle several times after that but could no longer contact her.

Valle, a 1982 graduate of  BA Communication Arts at the Ateneo de Davao University, was a reporter of the Media Mindanao News Service from the 1980s until it ceased operations in1996.  She was a correspondent of Mr & Ms Special Edition until the People Power ousted the Marcoses in 1986. She also served as administrative officer of Mindanews on its first year in 2001.

Valle was also a columnist of Sunstar Davao until early 2018. She now writes a column, Kanak Gamay na Kyatigaman for the online news portal Davao Today and uses the pen name “Fides Avellanosa.”

She went into development work and teaching, did consultancy work and served as volunteer in projects on Indigenous Peoples and is presently doing research work for the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines while completing a book with Sister Mila on the MA’s 30-year history.

She finished her MA in Humanities, Major in Women Studies at the St. Scholastica’s College Manila and Assumption College of Davao in 2010.

Valle worked on various issues –  human rights, women, Indigenous Peoples, disaster risk reduction, peace, ecology, children, among others. (Carolyn O. Arguillas of Mindanews)

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