Before her disappearance, Gayo was conducting research in Region 2 on the impact of drought, typhoons, and other disasters on poor farming communities.

Before her disappearance, Gayo was conducting research in Region 2 on the impact of drought, typhoons, and other disasters on poor farming communities.

By Shan Kenshin Ecaldre
Bulatlat.com

LAGUNA — An international human rights group raised concern over the disappearance of Scarlet Lyne Gayo, a staff member of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines–Cagayan Valley (NDFP-CV). They stressed that it could be an enforced disappearance linked to counterinsurgency operations.

“There are indications that she is being held by the military and pressured to turn against her revolutionary comrades in exchange for the dismissal of several trumped-up charges,” said Robert Reid, global chair of Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle (FFPS).

Reid said that the alleged coercion violates Gayo’s fundamental rights. “This clearly goes against her right to her own political beliefs and her right not to be arrested without a warrant,” he said. “If there is a case against her, she should be surfaced in court and accorded her rights as an arrested person, including the Miranda rights and the right to a lawyer of her own choice.”

Repression

FFPS said Gayo’s disappearance is part of a long-standing pattern of repression used by state forces against activists and peace advocates.

“This type of fascist violence has been a popular weapon of the US-Marcos regime, as well as previous administrations, in their psychological warfare and all-out counterinsurgency war against the Filipino people,” Reid said.

The NDFP-CV said that Gayo has been missing for more than three weeks. According to spokesperson Salvador del Pueblo, Gayo was on medical leave and was expected to return to her unit when contact with her was lost. She was last seen in Cavite on December 9, 2025.

“Based on information gathered, Gayo was apprehended by agents of the AFP and is being forced to betray her comrades in the revolutionary movement in exchange for the dismissal of fabricated charges,” del Pueblo said.

Before her disappearance, Gayo was conducting research in Region 2 on the impact of drought, typhoons, and other disasters on poor farming communities, work that placed her in close contact with communities long affected by militarization.

Past cases

Previous attacks on peace consultants cited by Reid pointed to earlier attacks against NDFP peace consultants in Northern Luzon, including the abduction, torture, and killing of Ariel Arbitrario in Cagayan Valley in September 2024 and the killing of Randy Malayao inside a bus in Nueva Vizcaya in 2019.

“Both were NDFP consultants in peace negotiations and carried documents under the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees,” Reid said. “They should have been protected from attacks.”

Reid stressed that NDFP staff and consultants play a critical role in advancing efforts toward a just and lasting peace.

“They are leaders and members of mass organizations and unions who are deeply integrated with the people,” he said. “They are in the best position to bring forward the people’s demands for a just and lasting peace.”

Under the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), the safety of NDFP personnel must be ensured to allow full participation in peace negotiations. Reid said that continued abductions and attacks against them “not only violate JASIG and fundamental rights but also undermine the peace process itself.”

Calls for immediate release

Citing previous cases of enforced

disappearance, Reid warned that victims are often subjected to “severe physical and psychological torture aimed at coercing them to renounce their organizations,” raising serious concern for Gayo’s safety.

Del Pueblo said that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) must be held accountable should Gayo or her family be placed in danger, stressing that her disappearance violates international humanitarian law.

FFPS and the NDFP-CV called on the international community to demand the immediate surfacing of Gayo and her “prompt and unconditional release,” urging solidarity with the Filipino people’s struggle for a just and lasting peace. (RTS,  DAA)

The post Missing NDFP-CV staff in military custody? appeared first on Bulatlat.

From Bulatlat via This RSS Feed.