BAYAN USA continues to demand the immediate surfacing of Steve Abua, who has been missing for almost two weeks after being forcibly disappeared on November 6. Abua, 34, is an organizer among peasant and indigenous communities with the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) [Peasant Movement of the Philippines]. Of the 18 enforced disappearances under the Duterte regime, 14 have been peasant organizers.
It is no question that state forces are ultimately behind Abua’s abduction. The Duterte regime—including its minions in the military, police, and National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC)—has a history of political repression in Central Luzon, including a raid earlier this March that led to the arrest of KMP Vice Chairperson, Joseph Canlas. Canlas passed away while being held in prison due to a lack of access to needed medical treatments.
Abua represents what the regime is most afraid of: an organized people’s movement fighting to address the root problem of landlessness in the Philippines. We call on the cowards who abducted Abua to surface him immediately, and for the immediate passage of the Human Rights Defenders Protection Act, which is currently being deliberated on in the Philippine House of Representatives. We also call on the immediate passage of the Philippine Human Rights Act in the U.S. House of Representatives, which would cut aid to the Philippine military and police behind many of the attacks on peasant organizers.
Follow Surface Steve Abua Now to stay up to date on the campaign to surface Abua.