The Center for Women’s Resources join rights groups in the call to investigate the abduction of Dyan Gumanao and Armand Dayoha, a teacher and health worker who went missing ten days before the International Labor Organization’s High-Level Tripartite Mission to the Philippines, this January 23, 2023.
Dyan Gumanao of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers-Cebu (ACT Cebu) and Armand Dayoha, a volunteer of the Alliance of Health Workers-Cebu (AHW-Cebu) are activists who have been experiencing multiple harassment and surveillance since 2020. Dyan is one of the eight arrested during a protest action in UP Cebu opposing the then Anti-Terror Bill.
The two activists were found last January 16, six days after they were abducted. Recently, a video by a concerned citizen surfaced showing the two being manhandled and forcefully pushed inside a van.
Prior to the case of Dyan and Armand, community organizers Elena Pampoza and Elgene Mungcal went missing in Moncada, Tarlac last July 3, 2022. Two months before, Loi Magbanua, a labor organizer and women’s rights advocate, was abducted by state forces. This impunity is aggravated by Executive Order 70 (the whole-of-nation approach) and the Anti-Terror Law, intensifying brutal attacks toward activists and rights advocates.
CWR joins human rights groups in calling for an impartial investigation into the abduction of development workers Armand Dayoha and Dyan Gumanao. The ILO should include these cases in its investigation when it commences the mission in the country next week. #
