Police officers refused to answer questions about Alliance of Concerned Teachers – Region 7 Coordinator Dyan Gumanao and Alliance of Health Workers – Cebu Coordinator Armand Dayoha, two missing development workers in Cebu, as activists demanded answers in front of Police Regional Office-7 (PRO-7) on Saturday, January 14.
PMaj. Arnel Alegria, the attending police officer, said that they could neither confirm nor deny the presence of Gumanao and Dayoha in their custody because Regional Director Lt. Col. Gerard Ace Pelare was not in the office.
The couple were expected to arrive on January 10 after spending the holiday season with their families in Cagayan De Oro, but their loved ones have been unable to contact them since their ship docked in Pier 6 of the Cebu Port onboard 2GO’s MV Maligaya.
Before the two activists went missing, they had reported several instances of red-tagging, harassment, and suspected state surveillance and tailing dating back to 2020.
“These irregularities that they have observed have been considered to be possible monitoring of the two of them as to active development workers and long-time human rights advocates in Cebu” said Karapatan – Central Visayas.
Since their time as student activists in UP Cebu, both Gumanao and Dayoha have been victims of state attacks.
Gumanao was part of the Cebu 8, a group of activists arrested for protesting the Duterte administration’s Anti-Terror Law in 2020.
The couple were also tailed by non-uniformed state forces after a commemoration of the Mendiola Massacre in January 2021.
Rights groups raise alarms over missing activists
Human Rights group Karapatan urged state forces to cooperate in the efforts to identify the whereabouts of the missing activists.
“State agents should immediately surface the two union organizers — they have red-tagged their organizations, surveilled and stalked them. Who else would have the motive and means to abduct them?” said Karapatan Secretary General Tinay Palabay.
Palabay asked the Commision on Human Rights to assist in searching for the missing activists in military camps, police stations, and safehouses.
Karapatan – Central Visayas likewise condemned the incident, saying it was not unusual for the Marcos and Duterte regimes to target activists and to use violence to silence them.
“We assert that there is nothing wrong with their work and the advocacies they carry with them, and that citizens who decisively tread the path that they have should not be harassed, threated, silenced, or arrested,” they said in a statement.
The couple’s family and friends have likewise called for help in identifying their whereabouts.
“If they think the two have committed violations, if they have cases they wish to file against them, they should take it to court. We have laws. We have the rule of law… This is why we are asking, as parents, that they be kept safe and that they can be surfaced. There is no reason to take interest in the life of those two children,” Gumanao’s father said in an interview with Rappler.
#SurfaceDyanGumanao
#SurfaceArmandDayoha
#DefendTheDefenders
#StopTheAttacks
Featured image courtesy of Tug-ani
