Rights group denounces harassment vs Mindanao NGO
KARAPATAN Public Information
PRESS STATEMENT
June 10, 2026
Reference: Cristina Palabay, KARAPATAN secretary general, 09173162831
KARAPATAN Public Information Desk, 09189790580
Rights group denounces harassment vs Mindanao NGO
KARAPATAN deplores the threats, harassment and intimidation by state agents of yet another grassroots-oriented development NGO and its former staff, and the potential targeting of companies and other entities they had worked with in improving the lives and conditions of local communities in Mindanao.
KARAPATAN received reports about the harassment of a former administrative staff of Kalasan People’s Center for Environmental Concerns, Inc. (KALASAN PCECI), a Mindanao-based environmental organization. KALASAN PCECI was arbitrarily designated as a terrorist group by the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) in January 2026. The designation was followed by a Sanctions Freeze Order that blocked all properties and funds owned or controlled by KALASAN PCECI.
KALASAN PCECI has long been involved in agroforestry and reforestation efforts and restoring ecosystems in Mindanao. It has partnered with networks of environmental defenders to support campaigns advocating for environmental rights and community defense. These activities, however, ground to a halt with the ATC’s terrorist designation of KALASAN and the freezing of the latter’s assets and accounts.
Since then, former officers and staff of KALASAN has been subjected to harassment. The latest incident involved an unwanted visit on June 02, 2026 by three elements of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police (PNP-CIDG), in Malaybalay City, to the Cagayan de Oro City home of Wilonah Barros-Itum, KALASAN’s administrative staff until 2024. She had served KALASAN for 11 years.
Two of the three CIDG elements introduced themselves as PLt. Rhoderick Bondad and Pcpl. Justin Bryan Bungalon. Upon arriving at Mrs. Itum’s house, the policemen asked for her number, called her, then asked to talk to her husband to ask for information about her. The policemen “invited” Mrs. Itum to go to the CIDG office for interrogation. Among the things they wanted to ask her where KALASAN’s fund sources, the names of her co-workers, when and how she started working in KALASAN and the full name of an officer of a Bukidnon-based agro-company with which KALASAN had once partnered for a reforestation project in degraded watershed areas of Northern Mindanao.
These arbitrary terrorist designations of people-centered NGOs that disrupt their operations serving impoverished and marginalized communities must stop. The Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act and its evil twin, the Anti-Terrorism Act must be rescinded for being obstacles to people-centered development and for being injurious to the people’s civil and political rights.
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KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties. It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign. It was established in 1995.