Video shows unidentified man intimidating household of Cebu engineer arrested for joining #JunkTerrorBill rally

By FYT

“He was just arrested now, but next time, he might be exchanging fire with government troops, and that’s when you’ll say it’s too late, when he’s already in a coffin,” the man can be heard saying in Cebuano in the video obtained by FYT.

He was referring to Al Ingking, a 25-year-old electrical engineer and one of the “Cebu 8” who were arrested during a rally against the anti-terrorism bill on June 5.

According to Ingking’s family, the man and his companion arrived at their house in a silver Toyota Avanza with plate number YGB-903 at 1:50 PM on Monday, June 8. The incident happened a few hours before Ingking and 7 other protesters were released from jail.

The undidentified men came with a threat, Inking’s sister told FYT in a phone interview.

“Badlonga na ninyo kay sa sunod ninyo mahibaw-an naa na na siya sa kabaong (Warn him or he’ll be in a coffin the next time you see him),” one of them who claimed they were from a certain government agency allegedly said.

“The men started asking questions about my brother like whether this was really my brother’s place of residence, and whether he has been an activist for a long time,” Ingking’s sister said.

“My brother was merely exercising his right of freedom of speech and to peaceably assemble, to speak out on the possible horrors of what the Anti-Terrorism Bill could bring, and yet these men have the gall to invade our house; to intimidate, insinuate, and make fallacious statements against my brother and activists,” she added.

Ingking said he is not affiliated with any progressive group but he shares the growing clamor to junk the anti-terrorism bill as a concerned citizen.

“Umabot na siya sa boiling point. I felt that I really had to act, ‘Please do something and don’t let this opportunity pass by’. To use my voice, however little it may be, before it is silenced by this anti-terrosim bill.” Ingking told FYT in a phone interview.

“I felt that it was already too much – how the government railroaded the Anti-terrorism Bill instead of focusing on what’s important for the society today, which is the COVID-19 pandemic,” he added.

Ingking graduated cum laude in electrical engineering at the University of the Philippines Diliman in 2016.

“Our parents taught us that we should not only be excelling in academics or other stuff,” he said, stressing that “we should also have the heart for the masses, have the empathy for others. #