Pinay NGO worker deported after being detained in Indonesia

A Filipina working for an environmental non-governmental organization (NGO) in Indonesia was deported to the Philippines on Wednesday after she was arrested and detained with 14 other activists for allegedly causing “instability" in the area. Jean Marie Ferraris, a member of the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center-Kasama sa Kalikasan, was arrested by Indonesian police along with 14 other environmental activists while holding a press conference on coal-powered plants in Cirebon, West Java last Monday, the NGO’s executive director Judith Pasimio said in a news release posted on the group’s website. Ferraris and the 14 others were immediately brought to the Cirebon police station by about 100 cops, who were seen working with representatives of the independent power producer Cirebon Elektrik, Ltd., she added. Pasimio said Ferraris and the other activists, who came for other Asian countries like China, Thailand and India, were “illegally detained" and subjected to questioning for more than 24 hours. All 15 detainees were turned over to their respective embassies by 5 p.m. Tuesday without being filed formal charges. Ferrraris is scheduled to arrive in the country on Wednesday night, according to Pasimio. Although the activists have already been released, Pasimio said the Indonesian government must explain the arrest, which she described as a violation of the right to peaceful assembly. “We maintain that the Indonesian government should explain this affront [violation] against the rights of people to peaceably assemble and pursue genuine solutions to our deteriorating environment and rational utilization of natural resources for the national interest and not for the profits of corporations," she said in the release. The incident was only proof of the Indonesian government’s “collusion" with power companies such as Cirebon Elektrik. The Indonesian embassy has yet to release a statement on the incident as of posting time. - Andreo C. Calonzo/RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV