As we bury our beloved human rights & health worker warrior and champion of marginalized Negrosanons, we look back to one of Zara Alvarez’s post last July 20, 2019–a courageous message about the threats she just received and her indomitable vow to soldier on. One year after this post, on August 17, 2020, she was shot dead in cold blood at Eroreco Subdivision, Bacolod City.

Zara Alvarez – July 20, 2019:

Karapatan National Office informed me that they received an information today saying: “Pakisabi ka Alavarez xa yong isusunod, tapos lahat ng NUPL ubusin (Pls inform Alvarez that she will be the next, then we’ll get rid all the NUPL).

[The text reads:] “C Alvarez kamu ng Negros, pakisabi na lang po Ma’am (Alvarez of Negros, pls inform Ma’am) Hindi ko po alam Mam kung kailan, basta ds year po maam…concern lang po Maam (I just don’t know when is the specific date, but the target is this year Maam, I’m just concern Ma’am).”

This is another form of harassment against my life where everyday killings occur with an environment of impunity. I was already incarcerated for almost 2 years because of the trumped-up charges. After I was released last 2014, I still faced different forms of harassment. My picture was among the more than 60 individuals including those of the two known human rights defenders who were extra judicially killed, Atty. Ben Ramos and Bernardino “Toto” Patigas Sr.

Our pictures were posted in the public places in the town of Moises Padilla tagging us CNN (Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front of the Philippines) personalities. The contact number indicated in the poster in case any of us can be seen in the vicinity is the hotline number of the PNP Magallon.

My name was also included in the more than 600 individuals in the DOJ proscription list, tagging the CPP and NPA as terrorist groups but implicating us civilians in that case. The DOJ already amended it, trimming the more than 600 names into 8 then, finally, to two individuals. I was delisted in that proscription list, but the terror tagging still hounds me.

The last week of May, I learned that my name was mentioned in the affidavit of one of the witnesses in the multiple murder case filed against the survivor of Sagay 9 massacre. I was accused of having a meeting with the armed group and devising a plan to kill the farmers in order to sow terror among the people so that the people will get angry with the PNP and AFP.

Then came this recent information about me being the next target within this year. This is a serious matter and I should not take this lightly. Negros alone, with more than 80 documented cases of EJK since January 2017 until July 2019, became the stage of State terror. The killings in Negros is real and perpetrated by the state agents, like the cases of Oplan Sauron 1 in Guihulngan and Sta. Catalina last December 27,2018 and Oplan Sauron 2 last March 30, 2019 that took the lives of 14 farmers.

I was seriously alarmed because this government is conditioning us that if the victims were killed or arrested, it is because they were either involved in drugs or supporters of NPA. The time of my arrest last 2012, I was tagged as one of the high-ranking officials of the NPA. We were conditioned that if we speak, we will face the consequence of being tagged as leftists, activists, insurgents, dissenters and, probably, will face some form of harassment.

I am not the only one being threatened. Anybody who speaks against the president, exposing and opposing the anti-people policies of this present government, will surely be a target. And I was sad when the legal remedy, the Writ of Amparo, filed by Karapatan was dismissed. But I am positive that there are still small voices that could be turned into thunder.

I believe that there are still people who care about human rights and the safety of everybody. Because of these people who continue to care about human rights, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution expressing concern over the human rights situation in the Philippines. It specifically expressed grave concern over the killings and disappearances arising from the drug war of the current administration.

We should join together in urging the UN HRC to investigate what’s happening in the ground despite the claim of the Philippine government that our country has “fully functioning domestic accountability mechanisms.” We should not be silent. We should continue demanding the government to implement the recommendations in this resolution.

I’m afraid for my life and the many human rights defenders under threat. But I believe that what is more dangerous is if I remain silent in bringing the issues of the farmers and the many human rights issues. This threat is meant to silence me, and a warning to the growing numbers of political dissenters.

But I will still join others in calling: #DefendNegros! #StopTheAttacks!