Free Porquia and Guillen, Defend Development Work

This is how community work is punished in the Philippines today.

Two women in their 60s were arrested in Pavia, Iloilo on 02 April, in the middle of Holy Week, when courts slow down, when offices close early, when most people are told to pause and reflect.

That pause did not apply to Josephine Parra Porquia (64 years old) and Ma. Luisa Tagamolila Guillen (62 years old).

They were taken on the basis of accusations that follow a familiar pattern: tag someone as a rebel, build a case around testimonies that are difficult to verify, and let the weight of the process do the rest. It is a method that does not need to prove much at the start, it only needs to detain.

Porquia has spent years working with migrant communities and has already lived through the killing of her husband, Jose Reynaldo “Jory” Porquia, in 2020. Guillen has dedicated decades to women’s rights work, even as her own family has faced violent attacks. These are not distant figures but people who have stayed in the work despite the cost.

What happened in Pavia shows how easily that work can be turned against them.

Choosing this moment to carry out the arrest matters. With limited court operations, every hour in detention stretches longer, and every legal step becomes harder to secure. The process itself becomes part of the punishment.

Under the administration of Ferdinand Marcos Jr., cases like this continue to surface—filed, revived, or enforced in ways that place community workers in the position of having to defend their freedom instead of doing their work.

For organizations and individuals engaged in development work, these hits close to home. It raises a simple but urgent question: if this is how long-time community workers are treated, what protection exists for other doing the same work today?

Defend NGOs Alliance stands with Porquia and Guillen, and with many others who face harassment for organizing, serving, and speaking with communities. We call for their immediate release and the dismissal of the charges against them.#