THE youth activist who was shot during a fact-finding mission in Negros Oriental is now out of danger, said Kabataan Rep. Sarah Elago.
"As of now, CJ Matarlo, is already in stable condition," Elago said in a text message Monday, December 4.
Matarlo, 23, is the Kabataan Partylist coordinator in Cebu City, was shot in the shoulder on November 28, when armed men attacked their group, composing of 30 people, while they were making their way to Barangay Catalina in Negros Oriental to investigate the alleged human rights violations committed by the military.
Killed in the attack were Elisa Badayos of Karapatan Central Visayas and Elioterio Moises, a barangay tanod and member of local peasant organization Mantapi Ebwan Farmers Association.
Elago and the rest of the members of the Makabayan bloc earlier filed a resolution seeking a congressional investigation into the incident.
Denouncing the supposed attack, the Makabayan lawmakers said the killing of the human rights defenders is a "direct assault" on the rights of those they seek to protect.
"Fact-finding missions are conducted for the purpose of investigating human rights violations and issues that do not usually reach mainstream media and the public for the very reason that the violations are committed by state agents themselves," the resolution read.
"To deny access to fact-finding missions and to impede the work of the human rights advocates is to prevent the voices of the communities to be heard and for human rights violations to be exposed," it added.
The attack against the fact-finding team in Negros Oriental happened on the day that President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the police and military to shoot any armed member of the New People's Army (NPA), whom he branded as terrorists following his order to terminate the peace negotiations between the government and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.
On the same day, 15 suspected members of the NPA were also killed in Nasugbu, Batangas. Among them was University of the Philippines student Josephine Lapira. (SunStar Philippines)