The People Surge Alliance of Yolanda Survivors (People Surge) joined the family and relatives of 25-year old Jefferson Custodio, member of People Surge and Municipal Farmers Association of Carigara (MUFAC), in a memorial held on All Souls’ Day.
Custodio was gunned down last August 22 by alleged military elements of 19th Infantry Battalion of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Prior to his killing, Custodio reported the series of harassment and threats he received from the Military Intelligence Group and the 19th Infantry Battalion of the AFP. He was delivering farm tools for farmer beneficiaries in the upland villages of Carigara when he was killed.
In their message, parents Alicia and Rodolfo Custodio aired out their grief over their son’s death, and pleaded for justice and an end to extrajudicial killings.
The Custodio family sought assistance from Region 8’s Commission on Human Rights. A formal blotter has already been filed and forwarded to the Carigara Police Station.
The murder of Custodio came two months after another Yolanda survivor and People Surge member was also murdered. Peasant leader Rodolfo Basada was killed on June 29 in Pinabacdao, Samar. According to data from the Task Force-Justice for Environmental Defenders (TF-JED), a total of seven (7) disaster responders—including humanitarian workers and disaster survivors—have been killed under the Aquino regime.
“Are they threatened by how the self-reliance and mutual aid of our people are exposing how hollow and useless the Aquino government’s rehabilitation efforts are?” said Dr. Efleda Bautista, People Surge Chairperson, in reaction to Jefferson’s killng.
People Surge reported that they have been engaged in various relief and rehabilitation efforts and the recent victims of extrajudicial killings in the region were their volunteers and organizers who partook in said efforts.
On January 25, two months after Yolanda battered Eastern Visayas and some parts of the country, the storm survivors organized a big protest rally in the region’s hub. The 15,000-strong contingent of People Surge marched in the main thoroughfares of Tacloban City, calling for justice from what they call the “criminal negligence” of the Aquino administration in its disaster response.
People Surge announced that they will hold a Human Rights Victims’ Conference on November 5 in Tacloban City. The aim of the conference is to consolidate the various cases of rights violations in the region and strengthen the campaign on social justice and human rights, as a response to the intensified militarization and rights violations in the Yolanda-affected communities.
