(Updated) “Tonight, we learned of the sad news that our former campaign and education director and paralegal in Negros, Zara Alvarez, was killed in Bacolod City,” said human rights group Karapatan in a statement late on August 17.
Alvarez was gunned down at around 6:45pm along Sta Maria Street in Eroreco, Barangay Mandalagan in Bacolod City, according to local media Panghimutad.
“We are in deep grief and indignation. Zara Alvarez, 39, was imprisoned for nearly two years and after her release, she continued to work as Karapatan’s paralegal and as research and advocacy officer of the Negros Island Health Integrated Program,” said Karapatan.
The group lamented how Randall Echanis, who they said helped established Karapatan, was only laid to rest in Marikina hours earlier and another killing followed his.
Alvarez is the 13th human rights worker from Karapatan killed under the Duterte administration.
Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said Alvarez received a death threat against Alvarez through their public information desk number in July 2019.
“The military and police never ceased in harassing her even as she was distributing rice to impoverished members of her barangay just last April amid the mass hunger caused by the lockdowns. We have no doubt that State forces are behind her merciless murder — the latest in a string of killings in Negros ever since Memorandum Order No. 32 was implemented in November 2018,” said Palabay.
On October 30, 2012, Alvarez was arrested and charged by the military with murder along with 42 other activists. She was imprisoned until her release on bail on July 22, 2014. Just March 4 of this year, Alvarez was acquitted of a murder charge for lack of evidence–from what human rights groups have always said were “trumped-up cases” used to arrest and detain activists and keep them from their work and advocacies.
Karapatan said Alvarez was included among the 649 names, that also included a UN Special Rapporteur, internationally acclaimed environmentalist, journalists, rights defenders, critics and civilians, the government wanted tagged as “terrorists” in a proscription case the Department of Justice filed in February 2018.
Her name and that of many others were stricken off the list by the Manila Regional Trial Court handling the cases and has been trimmed down to only two –Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Maria Sison and alleged CPP Mindanao Commission Secretary Antonio Cabanatan.
