Carolina Arado was 52 years old when her house in Compostela Valley, in the Philipinnes, was strafed on July 13, 2017. She died on the spot from the bullet wounds and her family was severely wounded, but they managed to survive.
Carolina Arado was a member of the farmers’ organisation Hygpong sa mga Mag-uuma sa Mabini (HuMaBin) and she has been fighting against human rights violations committed by military agents, as well as opposing the entry of large-scale mining corporations in the province.
HuMaBin launched a report in which they state her house was indiscriminately fired at and that they believe the perpetrators to be members of government forces.
The army denies the accusation, according to them, the military was « maliciously accused by NDF-allied organizations who are spreading propaganda to besmirch the good image of the military ».
The human rights advocate group Karapatan, on the other hand, said Carolina Arado is the sixth victim of extrajudicial killing since Martial Law was declared. In total, they documented 104 victims of extrajudicial killings under Duterte’s counter-insurgency program from July 2016 to October 2017. The group said this is on top of 20 incidents of forced evacuations and 17 cases of aerial bombardment.