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Human rights group Karapatan slammed the recently revealed directive of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to compile a list of alleged New People’s Army (NPA) associates as an attack on rights defenders.

Dated May 28, the Memorandum from the PNP Intelligence Group orders task forces to submit a summary of information on alleged leaders of the NPA.

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“This is the Duterte regime’s relentless political persecution, mobilizing all its forces to threaten, and harass those who pose as hindrances to the government’s slaughter of the Filipino people,” Karapatan Deputy Secretary-General Roneo Clamor said in a statement.

According to Clamor, this latest PNP memo is strikingly in line with the proscription petition filed by the Department of Justice on February.

The list which Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra admitted to be unverified, contained 649 names of persons being linked by the police and military to the Communist Party of the Philippines and the NPA.

It features prominent indigenous rights activists in the Cordillera region such as Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, current United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; Joan Carling, Co-convener of the Indigenous Peoples Major Group for Sustainable Development and former Cordillera People’s Alliance Chair; Beverly Longid, current global coordinator of the International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation; Joanna Patricia Cariño, member of the CPA and Co-Chair of Sandugo; Windel Bolinget, CPA chairperson and National Co-convener of Sandugo; Jeannete Ribaya-Cawiding, former Chairperson of CPA-Tongtongan ti Umili and current Regional Coordinator of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers; Atty. Jose Molintas, former Asia representative to the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous People.

“There is no doubt that those on this list are targeted because of their work as rights defenders and activists,” Clamor explained. (davaotoday.com)

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