The SUN HK : HK activists pay tribute to Filipinos who died defending rights

By Danilo A. Reyes

Participants write solidarity messages on a tarpaulin used at the event

Expressed in various art forms, the Cultural Night held on Dec 10 at KUC Space in Jordan to mark International Human Rights Day, turned emotional as it paid tribute to Filipinos who died defending human rights.

Among the victims honored at the event were Ericson Acosta, a community organiser who was also a poet and a singer; and Joseph Jimenez, a peasant organizer, who were both killed on Nov. 30 this year on Negros Island in the Visayas.

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Acosta and Jimenez were last seen alive when arrested by the military but died a few hours later, in circumstances their friends believe were due to an armed encounter. They became the latest addition to the growing list of leftist activists killed across the country.

Ramon Bultron, Migrante International’s deputy secretary general, who himself was subjected to overt surveillance and threats, said that “red tagging” or the labelling of leftist activists as communists, has intensified the attacks on leftist activists.

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Bultron said the worsening abuse is a continuing reminder that the “rights on paper,” the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948, is still an ongoing struggle to realise these rights, and many have died defending it.

Bultron says he's a victim of red-tagging of activists

In a statement sent to the SUN Hong Kong, Cristina Palabay, secretary general of Philippine-based human rights group Karapatan, said that the rising number of victims were no longer due to extrajudicial killings alone, but also political imprisonment.

Since Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took over as president in June 2022, the number of political prisoners has gone up to 828 as of the end of last month. Among them, 96 are sickly and 77 are elderly.

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On top of this, Palabay said about 10,000 civilians have been displaced and the lives of 3,000 others were put in danger because of indiscriminate shooting by soldiers in the countryside during military operations.

During the event, black and white photos of those who died defending human rights in the Philippines were put on display, along with the date on when each had died, and how.

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Deaconess Joyous Prim paid tribute by reciting a poem she wrote, “5 months in,” in which she portrayed the almost daily calls for help from activists in the Philippines since Marcos Jr. took office.

Prim was one of the organisers of the event hosted by the Hong Kong Campaign for Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (HKCAHRPP), a coalition of Hong Kong-based human rights defenders.

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Another participant, American activist Sienna Christie, paid tribute to the late Zara Alvarez, a human rights defender and teacher on Negros Island whom she met during a visit in the Philippines years back.

Christie’s song, “Name of a List,” was provocative and emotional, as it recounted her personal encounter with Alavarez when she was still alive.

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Prim and Christie’s tributes were a reminder that the people on the placards were not just numbers nor names, but were human beings who cared for others.