“The warrantless arrests of fellow Socio Major and [KMU] International Affairs officer Kara Taggaoa and PASODA president Larry Valbuena, which followed after Leila De Lima’s hostage situation and Ka Percy’s slay case, is a reminder that the Marcos-Duterte administration’s true purpose will never be to serve the people.Its perverse tagging and brazen attacks on students of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy, and the youth, at large, sustains and reaffirms even the past regimes’ repression on the youth’s right to dissent and to organize.”
GC Cascolan, Sociology Department Representative, on the trumped-up charges against Kara Taggaoa and Larry Valbuena
Sociology Department Representative GC Cascolan strongly condemned the trumped-up robbery and direct assault charges against BA Sociology major and labor organizer Kara Taggaoa and jeepney workers’ group president Larry Valbuena.
Both Taggaoa and Valbuena were initially charged with “robbery,” last September 27, based on a commotion during an Anti-Terror Law mobilization in front of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) last July 2020. Police Chief Master Sgt. Feliciano Evangelio, then confronted by protesters for their intelligence-gather, framed the two for stealing his gun and inflicting harm on him.
Upon arranging for arraignment on the previous charges, Taggaoa and Valbuena were separately arrested yesterday, October 10, for a new charge of “direct assault.” Although they were recited their Miranda Rights, no warrant of arrest was readily provided according to Kilusang Mayo Uno.
The additional charge increased their bail byP72,000 in addition to a P200,000 bail for robbery . As of writing, they are currently detained in Camp Karingal.
A quick response mobilization was also held yesterday in front of Camp Karingal to collectively condemn the cases filed against Taggaoa and Valbuena. Student organizations and sectoral groups denounced the Marcos-Duterte regime’s overused playbook in consistently criminalizing dissent and hampering the people’s right to dissent.
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To this, Cascolan lambasted the regime’s harassment and abuse of powers, highlighting that the administration’s intent is to “never serve the Filipino people.”
Countless instances of intimidation, surveillance, and arrests can attest to the regime and its predecessors’ brazen violation of the youth’s right to dissent. Prior to becoming a labor organizer, Taggaoa was the spokesperson of the League of Filipino Students who exhausted efforts in engaging in community work and fighting for the students’ greatest welfare.
It was during her time when students were clamoring for the Free Tuition Law, which now provides several students access to tertiary education. As her CSSP comrade Reb Mejino recounted, it is deplorable that Taggaoa is now being deprived of her right to education—as Taggaoa re-enrolls to finish her Sociology degree while organizing laborers.
On the other hand, Valbuena was one of the victims of the Duterte regime’s anti-poor jeepney modernization program under the guise of implementing lockdowns. They protested the administration’s lack of regard for jeepney drivers which led to the state forces’ surveillance and intimidation in their sector.
Cascolan maintained that Sociology must be utilized to counter the state’s resort to harassment and outright violence on its critics, and to expose the long-standing culture of impunity that continues to pervade Philippine society. He asserted that the discipline, as a radicalizing program in exposing the prevailing conditions of society, must be “exhausted to serve the greater interests of the masses,” unlike the Marcoses and Dutertes.
He enjoined all Konsensiya ng Bayan to unite with the calls to #FreeKaraAndLarry and to #DefendCSSP.
For monetary donations, you may donate to the following:
BDO
Acct. Name: Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU)
Acc. Num.: 001490187039
GCASH
Joanne Cesario – 09612067348
Note: For Kara and Larry
#StopTheAttacks
Featured image courtesy of GC Cascolan
