By JUSTIN UMALI
Bulatlat.com
SAN PABLO, Laguna – Police officers arrested the father of an activist facing charges of violating the Anti-Terrorism Law, September 1 in Barangay Silongin, San Francisco, Quezon province.
Roberto Mendoza is the father of Lieshel, a farmer who was charged by elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ 85 th Infantry Battalion last January 2024 with violating Section 12 of the Anti- Terrorism Law and the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act.
According to human rights watchdog Tanggol Quezon, Roberto was arrested at approximately 5 a.m. with no search or arrest warrant given to him. The group also states that police officers ransacked Mendoza’s home and destroyed the roof of their koprasan (a small hut where farmers smoke coconut meat to make copra).
“[Mendoza’s arrest is] clearly another tactic by the 85 th IBPA and the police to intimidate Lieshel into ‘surrendering’ as an alleged member of the revolutionary New People’s Army,” Tanggol Quezon said in its statement. “Lieshel and Roberto are ordinary farmers working honorably and standing up for their rights.”
Tanggol Quezon maintains that both Roberto and Lieshel Mendoza are innocent. “The Mendozas have nothing to ‘surrender’ for,” the group said in their statement. “If anything, the 85 th IBPA and the police should surrender given their long list of human rights violations in South Quezon and the Bondoc Peninsula.”
Mendoza is detained at the San Francisco Municipal Police Station pending charges filed against him. Tanggol Quezon is calling for his immediate release.
Mendoza’s arrest is the latest in a series of attacks against farmers and human rights defenders in the province. Tanggol Quezon notes that the 85 th IBPA is using a pattern of “using the law to equate human rights advocacy with crime.”
Last October 2023, another coconut farmer, Liezel Merchales, was charged with financing terrorism by the 85 th IBPA.
Yulesita Ibañez was similarly charged with financing terrorism and violating Section 12 of the Anti-Terror Law after the military alleged that they provided food and coffee to members of the NPA last January.
Ibañez and Mendoza are members of Karapatan Quezon and the group Coco Levy Fund Ibalik sa Amin (CLAIM). Soldiers have once forced Mendoza into presenting herself as a surrendered NPA combatant under the government’s Enhanced Community Livelihood Integration Program (ECLIP).
Their paralegals, Tanggol Quezon members Paul Tagle and Fritz Labiano, were also charged with financing terrorism last February. The charges against Tagle and Labiano were dropped last June by the Batangas Regional Trial Court for lack of evidence.
The 85 th IBPA is currently headed by Lt. Col. Reynir S. Nirza, who took the reins of command from Lt. Col. Joel R. Jonson last April. Under Nirza, the 85 th IBPA has been involved in the arrest of peasant and women’s right advocate Fatima Banjawan last August 2 while conducting a community investigation in Santa Elena, Camarines Norte. (RVO) 
