The Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) vehemently condemns the abduction of a campaigner of progressive partylist group Bayan Muna in the Southern Tagalog region as another proof of the rottenness of elections in the country under elite democracy.

We demand that Pauline Joy Banjawan, who is also an organizer of progressive urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay), be immediately surfaced and those responsible for her abduction be held accountable.

Before she went incommunicado around 3:00 in the afternoon of April 26, Banjawan reported to her colleagues that she was being tailed by unknown individuals while campaigning in Sto. Tomas City, Batangas. She went missing after an observable increase in the number of military personnel in full battle gear who were deployed in the area.

Banjawan’s family claims that Pauline Joy is in the custody of the Philippine National Police in Sto Tomas, Batangas, apparently after being abducted by the Philippine Army’s 59th Infantry Battalion (IB) which made the false accusation that she was carrying firearms and explosives.

Banjawan hails from an urban poor family and has been a Kadamay organizer since the late 2000s. For the upcoming May 12 elections, she has been campaigning for Bayan Muna, holding house-to-house sorties, recruiting members and forming chapters of the partylist.

Bayan Muna and Kadamay are the foremost progressive partylist group and progressive urban poor organization in the country, respectively. Successive governments have accused them of being Communist fronts and the Rodrigo Duterte administration heavily red-tagged them.

Civil and political rights are crucial to democracy, or the people’s power over the government and majority rule. Banjawan’s abduction and other similar human rights violations further weaken the country’s democracy. They stifle the political participation of the poor and other marginalized groups who comprise the majority of the country and should actually rule the country in a democracy. They strengthen the elite’s hold of the country’s government and political system.

Banjawan’s abduction goes hand-in-hand with the worsening bastardization of the party-list system, which should be the exclusive domain of the poor and marginalized sectors but has become a playground of the country’s traditional politicians. It is intertwined with the continuing red-tagging of, and spread of fake news against, progressive partylist groups and candidates.

For all his attempt to project himself as a democrat, as part of his campaign to rebrand his family name, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr is presiding over the further weakening of the country’s democracy, as shown by Banjawan’s abduction. He should take decisive steps to surface Banjawan and stop the violations of civil and political rights under his rule.