By SHERWIN DE VERA
www.nordis.net
BAGUIO CITY — Cordillera police arrested indigenous peoples rights activist Jennifer Awingan at her residence in Barangay Pinsao, Baguio City on January 30 at 11:30 AM, for rebellion.
The police accused her of being a high-ranking officer of the Ilocos-Cordillera Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines. The incident report said she is also the target of “COPLAN BALIK LOOB” of the intelligence unit of the Police Regional Office Cordillera.
She is currently under the custody of the Baguio City Police Intelligence Unit for documentation.
Judge Corpuz Alzate of Branch 2 Bangued Regional Trial Court in Abra ordered her arrest on January 24. The court recommended no bail.
Awingan, a native of Pinukpuk, Kalinga, is a Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) Research Commission staff.
She is the mother of Kilusang Mayo Uno International Officer Kara Lenina Taggaoa, who also faces allegations of direct assault and robbery filed by the police before a Quezon City court and is currently out on bail. Her husband, Ronald, is president of the Union of Faculty and Employees of Saint Louis University.
Last year, Awingan sought the assistance of the Commission on Human Rights Cordillera following a series of harassment by men who introduced themselves as military personnel.
Development workers, other CPA leaders, and a journalist were also in the warrant. All accused are victims of red-tagging.
Included are Northern Dispatch Ilocos correspondent Niño Joseph Oconer, CPA chair Windel Bolinget and regional council member Stephen Tauli, development workers Sarah Abellon-Alikes and Florence Kang, and peasant rights activist Lourdes Jimenez.
Oconer served as the regional coordinator of Anakbayan Ilocos.
Bolinget was among those implicated in the killing of Garito Tiklonay Malibato, in Kapalong, Davao del Norte, on March 2018. The court dismissed the case in July 2021 for lack of probable cause.
Suspected state agents seized Tauli in August 2022 near the CPA provincial office in Tabuk City, Kalinga. He is a volunteer worker of Timmuyog ti Mannalon ti Kalinga and is active in the anti-dam struggles in the province. His captors released him after more than 24 hours after his reported abduction.
Abellon-Alikes is a development worker at the Katinnulong Dagiti ti Umili ti Amianan, a development institution focusing on environmental concerns and disaster preparedness. She faced several charges filed by the police and military against attacks by the New People’s Army in Benguet and Ilocos Sur. The courts dismissed all of the cases.
Lulu Jimenez is a secretariat member of the peasant group Alyansa dagiti Pesante iti Taeng Kordilyera (Peasant Alliance in the Cordillera Homeland) and also worked with CPA’s research. She also contributes articles and analytical pieces to Northern Dispatch.
Kang is the executive director of the Ilocos Center for Research, Empowerment, and Development and Kabataan Party-list 5th Nominee during the 2019 elections. He was among those named by the 7th Infantry Division as “Threats in Region 1” in one of the Ilocos Regional Peace and Order Council meetings in 2020. # nordis.net
