Burgos-Villavert also issued thesearch warrants that led to the arrest of Gabriela Metro Manila spokespersonCora Agovida and her husband Kadamay Metro Manila campaign officer Mickael TanBartolome in Manila earlier the same day. “(President Rodrigo) Duterte isintolerant of dissent,” said Elmer Forro, secretary-general of Bagong AlyansangMakabayan (Bayan) Panay. “Truly, the real horrors and monstersof today come in uniform, expensive barongs,and suit and ties that perpetrate State terrorism in surreptitious anddeceptive ways,” said Karapatan vice chairperson Reylan Vergara. Peasant leaders, trade unionists,human rights defenders, cultural workers, a community journalist, women’srights activists as well minors were among the individuals arrested in BacolodCity (57) and Manila (two) during raids of the regional offices of Bayan Muna,Karapatan, Gabriela, the National Federation of Sugar Workers as well as theresidences of activists and mass leaders. By challenging government policiesdeemed inimical, activists were espousing people’s welfare and defending humanrights, said Forro. These were nothing new, he said, “butthe mass arrest of 59 individuals in one day of terror is as an alarming signof the government’s intensifying efforts to crackdown on its critics.” Supposedly seized by the CriminalInvestigation and Detection Group from the raids were “assorted short caliberfirearms, sub-machine guns, machine guns, live ammunitions, hand grenades,bladed weapons, Kilusang Mayo Uno flags, megaphones, microphones, andvoluminous subversive documents” according to National Task Force to End LocalCommunist Armed Conflict communications chief Martin Andanar. ILOILO City – Members of Iloiloprogressive groups staged a picket in front of the Police Regional Office 6 inFort San Pedro here yesterday to protest Thursday’s raids on their BacolodCity-based counterparts. They demanded the release of 57 arrested activists. Activism is not a crime, he stressed. Activists in Iloilo City demand the release of 57 colleagues in Bacolod City arrested in a raid on the eve of All Saints’ Day. Do policemen plan to arrest activists in Iloilo City, too? IAN PAUL CORDERO/PN For its part, human rights groupKarapatan decried the coordinated raids and mass arrests conducted by thePhilippine National Police and Philippine Army on Oct. 31. The evidenceallegedly gathered from the raids were planted, and were mere “Halloween dirtytricks” by a regime to discredit and silence critics, it asserted. The Karapatan official also questionedthe search warrant issued by Executive Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert of theQuezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 89 “whose jurisdiction does not evenfall on a city hundreds of miles away from Quezon City.” “Andanar must be delusional to evenput supposedly seized illegal firearms and explosives side by side with KMUflags, megaphones, microphones, and ‘subversive’ documents as evidence of theirconnections to the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’sArmy. They’re now also desperately and illegally confiscating activists’equipment as proof because they know that the firearms they ‘recovered’ fromthe offices are shamelessly planted,” Vergara said. “Andanar wants to give the impressionthat the arbitrary arrests were lawful simply by virtue of showing a searchwarrant. However, the questionable source of the said warrant is hidden fromthe public, conveniently removed from their press releases,” Vergaraexplained./PN read more