By JILIANNE BAUTISTA and PRINCESS FRIEL LONTOC
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – It has been more than three years since a joint military and police operation barged into the staff house where community journalist Anne Krueger lived. She and more than 50 others were later arrested for allegedly possessing firearms and ammunition. Various groups stressed that these were planted during the raid.

Krueger continues to battle before a Bacolod court for the dismissal of the charges against her. “Truth will prevail,” she said, full of hope despite the court’s earlier denial of her motion to quash the search warrant and suppress the evidence against them.

Witnessing labor issues

During her teenage years, Krueger said that she was always curious why the poor remain poor while the rich get richer. It was during her stint in the business process outsourcing industry that she started to realize the reason for this.

“I became interested in labor rights because I witnessed the exploitation and maltreatment of companies towards their employees,” Krueger told Bulatlat.

As she wrote for the company’s newsletter, she saw how employees were being discouraged from fighting for their rights and holding their employers accountable for issues on job security, salary, benefits, and occupational health and safety.

Krueger said that she saw the need to educate her co-workers on the unfair and abusive working conditions, prompting them to take action against the company. Because of this, she was red-tagged several times.

Krueger persisted in her advocacy because she was agitated whenever workers are being lied to. “If you go out there in the community, you see their sufferings and hear the call for help of those who were abused, there’s the will and drive that something should change.”

Working for alternative media

Her advocacy in fighting for workers’ welfare inspired Krueger to explore these issues more deeply through documentaries. “If there is no one to inform or report to the public and stop doing our work as alternative media, we will neglect the people’s right to know.”

Krueger first became affiliated with Paghimutad Negros in 2017 as a member of a documentation team sent to Negros. They were sent to aid and feature workers from different sectors involved in labor issues.

Later on, she officially became a correspondent for the organization after it was officially established as an alternative media in 2018. There was a surge of killings then in Negros like the Sagay Massacre where nine sugarcane farmers got killed. This massacre was part of a series of killings in Negros island, following the deployment of more military troops in the region.

“We need to give these people a channel or a venue to voice out their concerns. The alternative media will serve as their voice to amplify their plight to the government and to let the people know what is happening,” Krueger said.

She stressed the importance of the alternative media’s presence and the need for more community journalists to help report on those who are silenced, suppressed and ignored. “We need more community journalists because you can’t expect mainstream media to cover human rights violations because they prioritize marketable content.”

Krueger said that these issues caught the attention of those in power, prompting them to silence the labor organizers and human rights defenders in the area.

Krueger now serves as the national coordinator of BPO Industry Employees Network (BIEN). The latter is a recognized organization of call center workers allied together to promote BPO workers’ welfare and rights to decent wage, proper benefits and right to form unions.

Her workers’ rights advocacy continues to this day as she was also among those who participated in the recently-concluded High Tripartite Mission by the International Labor Organization, where she shared her observations as part of the delegate of the private sector.

Trumped-up charges

On October 31, 2019, state forces conducted simultaneous raids of offices of progressive organizations, among them Gabriela Negros chapter.

Krueger was there, together with a Paghimutad staff and peasant organizer Danilo Tabura. They were preparing the documents of 49 call center agents who experienced different forms of workers’ rights violations.

At 4:00 pm, members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) barged in with their high-powered firearms. There were no members of the barangay council or a civilian to witness the raid.

“It was like a scene from a movie,” Krueger told Bulatlat. “I kept asking them, why are you here? What do you need from us?”

The military held a warrant containing a mere description of the Gabriela office. The address on the warrant was wrong. During their search, they allegedly found two firearms, one located under the front desk office and another inside a backpack wedged in a space between two houses in the compound.

Krueger meticulously documented everything through her gadgets, acquiring almost four hours of footage and a short Facebook live video. The live footage included state forces bringing in a backpack into their staff house, which, she said, later turned out to contain firearms.

“We’ve reported human rights violations, especially in the (Negros) Oriental side where there are a lot of extrajudicial killings, so I really thought we were going to die then,” Krueger said. “In those situations, it is normal to feel scared, but at the time I just felt angry. Why does this have to happen to us?”

Krueger, together with her companions, swore by their statement that the firearms were planted by state forces. The raid ended at around 10:00 pm.

The raid was seen by four of her children, the youngest being a two-year-old boy.

Parenting and motherhood

After the arrest, her six children were immediately picked up and brought to Manila. Krueger was detained for 12 days before she was able to post bail, amounting to P220,000 ($3,995). She was not able to see them until almost a month after her arrest, which was the longest time she was apart from them. “They began to feel scared every time they saw policemen, uniformed men – they feared that they would take me away again. It really was a traumatic experience for them.”

When the pandemic happened, Krueger decided to stay with her children in Manila while working remotely. Her husband, Michael de la Concepcion, is also an organizer at BIEN. Together, they try to balance work and family, as well as educate their children in the best way they can.

“It came to a point that one of my children asked me, what if I wasn’t an activist–maybe we would’ve been like any other normal family,” Krueger told Bulatlat. “As parents, we try to explain the situation and make them understand the purpose of what we’re doing.”

Long way to go

The case continues after three years, and they have not even gone to trial yet.

Her Motion to Quash Evidence and Suppress Evidence has been constantly delayed due to the changing of judges, cancellations and COVID-19 cases within the court. On December 7, 2022, their motion was denied by the Regional Trial Court Branch 50 of Bacolod City.

Judge Ferdinand Elbert Jomilla stressed that the issuance of the warrant was valid based on probable cause. On December 12, they filed a Motion for Reconsideration but it was denied as well.

Krueger, alongside her companions, pleaded not guilty, and their pre-trial is scheduled on June 16.

Of those arrested that day, two are still detained.

“They targeted mere activists when they were actually searching for NPA members. They wanted to reach their quota, for them to receive incentives from the administration at the time. Of course, the easiest way is to target the vocal critics of the government,” she said.

Krueger added that it would be a long fight before justice is finally served. However, she stands firm, saying that this is not the time to cower down. “If this happens to us, and it feels like this, what more about the masses – the farmers and laborers who experience the same intimidation and attacks on their human rights?”

She said that the masses will always be there to support them and that their stories and contribution to the movement will not be forgotten. “These cases, even though they take a long time, the chances are high that justice will be served. These fabricated cases will not last long, and the truth will come out eventually.” (JJE, RTS, DAA)