Young women environmental defenders Jonila Castro and Jhed Tamano are community organisers from AKAP Ka Manila Bay, which supports fishing communities opposing reclamation projects in Bataan and Bulacan. Jonila and Jhed disappeared on 2 September 2023. After two weeks, the two activists appeared at a government press conference hosted by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict. The military purportedly intended to present both activists as having voluntarily surrendered, but Castro and Tamano used the press conference to share they were abducted by State authorities.

“The truth is we were abducted by the military via a van… We were obliged to surrender because they threatened to kill us. That’s the truth. We did not want to be in the custody of the military… We want to show today the state’s blatant fascism towards activists, who only want to fight for Manila Bay…”, said Jonila Castro.

The National Security Council (NSC) and police denied the women were activists and said the allegation they had been abducted was an “elaborate hoax”. After the press conference, a perjury compliant was brought against Castro and Tamano for “putting the military in a bad light”. Although Department of Justice prosecutors dismissed the perjury complaint, they moved to indict Castro and Tamano for grave oral defamation. This came shortly after the Supreme Court granted both HRDs protective writs. The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict has been known to accuse HRDs and government critics of being communist sympathisers, a practice known as “red-tagging”.

Some of the projects in northern Manila Bay include San Miguel Corporation's New Manila International Airport (NMIA) in Bulacan, the Manila Bay Integrated Flood Control, Coastal Defense and Expressway (MBIFCCDE), and the Northern Access Link Expressway (NALEX) which will allegedly affect fishing and farming communities in Bulacan, Pampanga, and Tarlac.