“Every time there is someone who knocks on our door, I feel nervous. If I hear some voices of men outside our home, I start to worry.”
MANILA — A former administrative staff member of a Bukidnon-based non-government organization that had advocated for environmental rights decried the alleged police visit she recently encountered.
“I was traumatized,” Wilonah Itum, former staff of Kalasan People’s Center for Environmental Concerns Incorporated, told Bulatlat in an interview.
On June 2, Itum said two individuals in civilian clothes who introduced themselves as personnel of the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) visited her house in Cagayan de Oro, asking some questions as they were investigating Kalasan.
She told the men that she is no longer connected with the organization because it was dissolved when its contract ended in 2024. “Their next questions were, how did you get into Kalasan? Who ‘recruited’ you? Their term was ‘recruited’ instead of asking who hired me.”
In addition, the alleged state forces asked the name of their former project coordinator and the latter’s whereabouts.
The now-defunct Kalasan, a Higaonon term for forest, was part of the corporate social responsibility of Unifrutti, a multinational company producing and distributing premium fresh fruits. Kalasan, which was based in Malaybalay City, Bukidnon, was established in 2013 due to environmental concerns after the deadly typhoons Sendong and Pablo that ravaged Mindanao in 2011 and 2012.
It became a partner of government agencies in implementing activities related to environmental protection.
In January this year, despite the dissolution of Kalasan, the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), through Resolution No. TF-113, imposed a sanctions freeze order (SFO) against the organization following its designation as a terrorist group by the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) through Resolution No. 81, series of 2025.
The former Kalasan staff informed the CIDG personnel about the organization’s origin as they allegedly asked about their fund source and if they received funds internationally.
Itum was unaware of the designation when Kalasan was dissolved. She just knew it because of this incident. Hence, she was shocked.
“Until now, I was traumatized. Every time there is someone who knocks on our door, I feel nervous. If I hear some voices of men outside our home, I start to worry,” she told Bulatlat in the vernacular, adding that those so-called CIDG agents allegedly kept communicating to her after the visit.
She asked for legal assistance as she considered it harassment.
Karapatan, a human rights alliance, denounced the visit of state forces to Itum’s residence and the terrorist designation of Kalasan, calling for the repeal of the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act and the Anti-Terrorism Act, describing these laws as “being obstacles to people-centered development and injurious to the people’s civil and political rights.”
Instead of focusing on red-tagging and intimidating ordinary citizens, Itum stressed that the state should address first the systemic corruption in the country by holding accountable all public officials implicated in anomalies. It should focus on providing decent employment and addressing the rising prices of goods, she added. (RVO)
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