Rights groups and Indigenous activists expressed rage and grief outside Camp Aguinaldo on Thursday, April 30, marking three years since two Indigenous rights defenders were seized at gunpoint in Rizal. The protest was led by Katribu, Sandugo, and Kabataan para sa Tribung Pilipino. They highlighted the ongoing disappearances and linked them to the recent Toboso killings.
On Thursday, April 30, demonstrators gathered outside Camp Aguinaldo to mark the third anniversary of the disappearance of Dexter Capuyan and Jereos De Jesus. Capuyan, a 56-year-old Bontoc-Ibaloi-Kankanaey organizer, and De Jesus, a 27-year-old staff member of the Philippine Task Force for Indigenous Peoples' Rights, were seized at gunpoint from a tricycle in Taytay, Rizal, on the evening of April 28, 2023.
Activists spray-painted a large X on banners featuring logos of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, and Marcos' image. They also plastered posters of the two missing men on the camp's walls. TABAK, an Indigenous alliance, linked the case to the April 19 Toboso killings, where the AFP's 79th Infantry Battalion killed 19 people it described as rebel combatants, though rights groups said nine were unarmed civilians.
"The state forces' withholding of information and freedom from Dexter and Bazoo is proof of the continuing fascism against the people," TABAK said. The Panaghiusa Philippine Network to Uphold Indigenous Peoples' Rights called the government's silence "complicity" and demanded a credible investigation. In August 2025, the Court of Appeals ruled the two as victims of enforced disappearance due to serious gaps in the police probe.
Capuyan and De Jesus are among at least 15 people forcibly disappeared since Marcos Jr. took office in 2022, according to Karapatan. The International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances stated, "These are not mere statistics; they are sons, fathers, activists, and indigenous peoples’ defenders. The involvement of state forces in these abductions is a stain on the soul of this nation."
