{"id":8480,"date":"2023-05-22T01:00:07","date_gmt":"2023-05-22T00:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/?p=8480"},"modified":"2023-05-18T09:46:59","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T08:46:59","slug":"labour-rights-activist-murdered-two-indigenous-rights-activists-disappeared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/labour-rights-activist-murdered-two-indigenous-rights-activists-disappeared\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour rights activist murdered, two indigenous rights activists disappeared"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>April 2023 saw the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rappler.com\/nation\/visayas\/bacolod-bpo-labor-organizer-killed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">murder<\/a> of labour rights activist Alex Dolorosa and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.philstar.com\/headlines\/2023\/05\/03\/2263504\/ip-rights-defender-companion-go-missing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">disappearance<\/a> of two activists, struggling for indigenous rights, Gene Roz Jamil de Jesus and Bontoc-Ibaloi-Kankanaey Dexter Capuyan.<\/p>\n<p>Alex Dolorosa was found dead with 15 stab wounds in Bacolod City on April 24, 2023. Dolorosa was a legal assistant at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BIENPhilippines\/status\/1650715080894590976\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BIEN Pilipinas<\/a>, the BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) Industry Employee&#8217;s Network, which advocates labour rights in the outsourcing industry. BIEN reported that Dolorosa had been a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rappler.com\/nation\/visayas\/bacolod-bpo-labor-organizer-killed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">victim<\/a> of &#8220;state surveillance and harassment&#8221; since early 2023, forcing him to change his place of residence.<\/p>\n<p>The causes and the course of Dolorosa&#8217;s murder are still under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rappler.com\/nation\/visayas\/bacolod-bpo-labor-organizer-killed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">investigation<\/a> by the local police station in Bacolod. Human rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch (HRW), as well as several trade unions, strongly <a href=\"https:\/\/newsinfo.inquirer.net\/1761568\/in-bacolod-bpo-workers-seek-justice-for-slain-union-leader\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">condemned<\/a> the murder of trade union and LGBTIQ activist Alex Dolorosa and <a href=\"https:\/\/humanrightsnews.substack.com\/p\/human-rights-watch-statement-on-the?utm_source=post-email-title&amp;publication_id=1244029&amp;post_id=117317318&amp;isFreemail=true&amp;utm_medium=email\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">called<\/a> for a thorough investigation. HRW&#8217;s Carlos Conde <a href=\"https:\/\/humanrightsnews.substack.com\/p\/human-rights-watch-statement-on-the?utm_source=post-email-title&amp;publication_id=1244029&amp;post_id=117317318&amp;isFreemail=true&amp;utm_medium=email\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">stressed<\/a> that Dolorosa&#8217;s work with BIEN as well as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Yax-5O4_mBk&amp;feature=youtu.be\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">surveillance<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2022\/01\/17\/philippines-end-deadly-red-tagging-activists\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;red-tagging&#8221;<\/a> (i.e. falsely accusing him of supporting the communist insurgency) that preceded the murder, must be included in the murder investigation. Dolorosa&#8217;s murder underscores the severity of the threat situation of human rights defenders, BPO <a href=\"https:\/\/newsinfo.inquirer.net\/1761568\/in-bacolod-bpo-workers-seek-justice-for-slain-union-leader\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">added<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA), as well as relatives and friends of Gene Roz Jamil De Jesus and Bontoc-Ibaloi-Kankanaey Dexter Capuyan, defenders of indigenous rights who have been reported missing since April 28, 2023, have come to the public <a href=\"https:\/\/www.philstar.com\/headlines\/2023\/05\/03\/2263504\/ip-rights-defender-companion-go-missing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in search<\/a> of information and their whereabouts.<\/p>\n<p>De Jesus is from Bulacan and was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rappler.com\/nation\/cordillera-group-urge-government-surface-indigenous-peoples-rights-defenders\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">involved<\/a> in various student initiatives as a journalist and activist before graduating cum laude with a degree in communication studies in 2016. He also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rappler.com\/nation\/cordillera-group-urge-government-surface-indigenous-peoples-rights-defenders\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">served<\/a> as information and networking officer for the Philippine Task Force on Defending the Rights of Indigenous People before his disappearance.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rappler.com\/nation\/cordillera-group-urge-government-surface-indigenous-peoples-rights-defenders\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Capuyan<\/a> was a student at the University of Baguio and editor-in-chief of a student magazine. He <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rappler.com\/nation\/cordillera-group-urge-government-surface-indigenous-peoples-rights-defenders\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">was<\/a> identified by the government as belonging to a &#8220;communist terrorist group&#8221; and listed as a suspected leader of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Before his disappearance, Capuyan resided in Benguet and travelled to Rizal for medical treatment. A high bounty has been placed on his arrest. For this reason, CHRA <a href=\"https:\/\/www.philstar.com\/headlines\/2023\/05\/03\/2263504\/ip-rights-defender-companion-go-missing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fears<\/a> that Capuyan and De Jesus are in government custody without the knowledge of their relatives; CHRA has already called for their release.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo \u00a9 Johannes Icking<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>April 2023 saw the murder of labour rights activist Alex Dolorosa and the disappearance of two activists, struggling for indigenous rights, Gene Roz Jamil de Jesus and Bontoc-Ibaloi-Kankanaey Dexter Capuyan. Alex Dolorosa was found dead with 15 stab wounds in Bacolod City on April 24, 2023. Dolorosa was a legal assistant at BIEN Pilipinas, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":4508,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[63,58,68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-rights-defenders","category-human-rights-news","category-indigenous-people"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8480"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8500,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8480\/revisions\/8500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}