Myrna “Micah” Cruz-Abraham
Myrna “Micah” Cruz-Abraham is a woman human rights defender who has worked for decades to defend the rights of the most marginalised communities in the Philippines, including women, workers, indigenous peoples, and farmers. Myrna also worked with Center for Women’s Resources and the Institute for Religion and Culture, establishing the Women’s Center which became pivotal in the training and education of women workers in Metro Manila since 1983. In 2017, the woman human rights defender joined Sandiwa, a network that advocates for the rights of national minorities and indigenous peoples. In particular, Sandiwa has advocated for the rights of Moro communities, specially their right to self-determination, ancestral lands and territories. They also supported the Lumad Bakwit School in Manila from 2017 to 2019. As a result of her work, she has faced reprisals, mostly from state actors.
The climate of impunity in the Philippines, coupled with the administration's encouragement of extrajudicial killings of suspected drug users, as well as the increasingly hard line of the military against the Philippine National Democratic Front , have led to a serious deterioration of the situation of human rights defenders in the country. Since the election of President Rodrigo Duterte in May 2016, HRDs have faced a wave of assassinations and violence. Judicial harassment and the criminalization of HRDs remain common; politicians and private actors, such as mining companies, use the justice system to silence those who oppose their interests. HRDs are accused of violent crimes or of belonging to the New People's Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party. HRDs have also reported cases of close surveillance by the police. Since martial law was declared in Mindanao in May 2017, and given the fear that it will be extended to the whole country, human rights defenders are increasingly targeted by threats, acts intimidation and harassment by the military.
