Former Radyo Lumad station manager thwarts warrantless arrest

CMFR/PHILIPPINES – A former station manager of the now-defunct Radyo Lumad thwarted attempts by government soldiers to take her into custody without a warrant.

On 3 August 2019, members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) 1^st Special Forces Battalion “invited” Kristin Lim to go with them to their base in Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon for questioning.

Bukidnon is 810 kilometers south of Manila.

Lim refused as the soldiers did not present a clear and valid reason why. The soldiers left but came back the following morning. Lim said they only left past noon after village officials intervened and proposed a dialogue between her and the soldiers.

Lim feared that they might file cases based on trumped up charges against her.

“As a citizen, I do not feel safe when forced to do things that clearly violate my liberties, because I was never informed of the nature of the invitation. Nor did they clarify the ‘questions’ the soldiers wish to inquire on my person,” she added.

According to a National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) statement, Lim is a church lay worker from the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP), and was formerly employed by the Bukidnon-based Radyo Lumad, a project ran by the RMP until its temporary closure in January “due to threats and harassment.”

Lim and the rest of the staff of Radyo Lumad were repeatedly subjected to “red-tagging,” which was among the reasons the project ceased operations, said JB Deveza of NUJP Western Mindanao Safety Office.

In a pooled editorial, Altermidya Network condemned the recent attacks on their colleagues, among them  Brandon Lee, a  correspondent for NorDis (Northern Dispatch), who was shot by unidentified gunmen in front of his home in Lagawe, Ifugao last August 6. As alternative media practitioners, both Lee and Lim reported on the issues of the marginalized and oppressed. “Like other human rights defenders, journalists writing about human rights have been treated as targets by those who have no respect for the lives and liberties of the Filipino people,” the editorial said.