FORUM-ASIA deletes entry on former rebels after appeal

MANILA — The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), a Bangkok-based regional network of human rights groups, has removed references to former rebels Job David, Alia Encela, and Peter del Monte Jr. from its “Defending in Numbers 2023–2024” report after the three wrote to correct what they called false information about their case. FORUM-ASIA confirmed the deletion in an August 30 email to David and Encela, saying: “All references to you and your cases have been removed from our report and database.” 

In their August 8 letter, David, Encela, and del Monte told FORUM-ASIA that the case study included in the report miscast them as “indigenous peoples' rights defenders” who were abducted. 

They clarified: “During the time described in the report, we were also active and armed members of the New People's Army (NPA). Our arrest was not an abduction. We were taken into custody not as civilians but as members of an armed group.” They added that “we were treated humanely by state forces,” and formally asked that their case be removed “as a case of abduction and/or red-tagging.”

The report now carries a placeholder note where the entry once appeared, stating the case study was removed “for security reasons and to avoid further reprisal of the affected defenders,” and framing the change as a reminder of the hostile environment faced by human rights defenders. 

PAGE 52. The entry on the "case study" that previously highlighted the "abduction of Job David, Alia Encela, and Peter del Monte Jr." now carries a placeholder text that, to David, still implies that state forces harassed them to ask for the entry's deletion.

The organization did not identify the source of the original claim. In an interview, David said it was Karapatan Southern Tagalog that first reported the incident in September 2023, framing them as civilians. “The incident illustrates how groups like Karapatan are able to seed unverified claims into international rights networks, which then get amplified as if they were legitimate,” he said. 

In asking to correct the narrative, the three former rebels said that the mischaracterization “erases our agency and the reality of our journey,” noting they have since voluntarily surrendered, reintegrated into civilian life, and continue advocacy work “but no longer as members or cadres of the CPP operating through legal organizations.” 

David also pointed out that their case had been cited in a local daily as an example of “red-tagging,” which they disputed in a Letter to the Editor.  “At the time of our arrest, we were not misidentified or unjustly labeled,” their letter read. 

The removal shows FORUM-ASIA can act on corrections. But the placeholder text in page 52 of the report emphasizes “security” rather than accuracy. 

“We’re concerned that the disclaimer still implies that state forces harassed us in order to ask FORUM-ASIA to take out our names. They should have said that the information was wrong in the first place,” David asserted.

He also questioned the fact-checking mechanism that international watchdogs like FORUM-ASIA employs. “We’re hoping that they will also listen to former rebels in order to make their reporting more accurate and credible.”