Cordillera activist Steve Tauli was found safe by a search party on Sunday evening, more than 24 hours after being reportedly abducted from Tabuk City, Kalinga, a regional human rights group confirmed.
The Cordillera Human Rights Alliance said that Tauli, a member of the Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA) council, was found at 10pm last night after the CPA initiated a search in Kalinga, “including persistent calls made to the local government units, the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).”
Tauli was reportedly still in shock and has yet to recover in order to state the full account of events, the group said in the statement.
According to the group, CCTV footage showed five unidentified men forcibly taking the 62-year-old activist sometime between 7:30pm and 8:30pm near the CPA provincial office along Ag-a Road in Tabuk City. They were seen boarding a red Toyota Innova.
The group has yet to disclosed where Tauli was found.
Tauli was no stranger to red-tagging, surveillance, and harassment before he went missing. CPA members said they suspected state forces were behind the abduction.
Recently, Tauli and the CPA has been providing support to Kalinga’s indigenous communities and opposed three dam projects along the Chico River in northern Luzon.
