Justice for Myrna Navales and Uldarica Prado Justice for all homeless workers

If anybody has any doubt as to what costs obtain from the struggle of millions of urban poor dwellers for their right to decent and affordable housing, then the case of Myrna Navales and Uldarica Prado shows that in some cases, poor people even pay for this right with their lives.

Navales, 43 and Prado, 44, were President and Treasurer, respectively, of the Green Valley Homeowners Association (GVHAI) in Brgy. Punturin, Valenzuela City, an affiliate of an urban poor confederation in Metro Manila, Kapisanan ng mga Maralitang Obrero (KAMAO). They are also affiliated with the Alliance for Progressive Labor (APL). The two were at the office of the GVHAI-KAMAO at around 3 pm of November 20 when three unidentified men in civilian clothes dropped by their office to supposedly "invite" Navales to the police station. With the absence of a warrant of arrest, Navales refused but the unidentified men insisted. Prado and Roberta Bejo accompanied Navales but once on the road, Bejo jumped out of the vehicle after noticing that they were not on their way to the police station. It was the last time both Navales and Prado were seen alive.

The following morning, at around 8 am, the mutilated bodies of Navales and Prado were found in Sitio Bato-Bato, Cabanatuan City. Both were visibly tortured. Navales’ body was found with a gaping wound in her stomach, her neck showing marks of strangulation and her right hand completely severed. The autopsy report concluded that both died of shotgun wounds.


This crime has the word premeditated written all over it. Not only were Navales and Prado taken against their will, there seems to be no plausible explanation as to why two women, who between them left behind a total of 10 children, would be abducted and be found dead less than 24 hours later.

That is, unless one takes into consideration that GVHAI-KAMAO is locked in a struggle to allow its members to purchase a parcel of land in Brgy. Punturin, the ownership of which is still being contested.

To top it all, the barangay refuses to issue a clearance to the association members to facilitate their application with the city government for the installation of lines for electricity.

It was reported that early this year, Navales also started receiving death threats.

And as the events of November 20 show, someone out there thought Navales was apparently such a threat that the only means by which they could hopefully silence the "problem" that is the GVHAI was to deal a striking blow to its officers.

At the heart of these twin murders is not only the violation of their rights, but more so, a demonstration of the obstacles faced by millions of homeless poor people in their efforts at finding a tiny little space of land for themselves. In the homeowners' association's effort to do nothing other than process their papers to hopefully own a piece of land, someone thought of "making a killing", with disastrous consequences.

We demand that an investigation be dispatched with haste to ascertain the facts behind the murder of Navales and Prado. Too many urban poor dwellers have already given up too much for too little a piece of land, and in the bureaucratic layers that heap on top of what passes for housing programs in this country, Navales and Prado found themselves paying for their inviolable right with their lives.
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Akbayan Party List
Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL)
Kapisanan ng mga Maralitang Obrero (KAMAO)
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women-Asia/Pacific (CATW-AP)