Ben Madilynn
THE Catholic church and other cause-oriented groups hailed the acquittal of 34 members of various progressive and development-oriented organizations who were slapped with the country’s draconian anti-terrorism law charges.
“We are hoping that our judiciary will continue to be the voice of the voiceless. However, we continue to pray that those in power will prefer justice over abuse of authority,” said Jing Rey Henderson, head of communications and partnership development at Caritas Philippines, the humanitarian arm of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.
“We have always believed that the anti-terror law is a shock and awe tactic to disenfranchise the already marginalized,” Henderson told Sunstar Philippines on Friday, September 6, 2024.
In an 11-page decision dated September 3, which was released to the media on September 5, Malolos City Regional Trial Court Branch 12 Presiding Judge Julie Mercurio dismissed the cases “for lack of probable cause.”
Activist lawyer Aaron Pedrosa, secretary-general of a multi-sectoral coalition of grassroots organizations Sanlakas, maintained that the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 “continues to be weaponized to silence critics who are slapped with trumped up charges to frame them as terrorists.”
“Activism is not a crime. Despite the acquittal, the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration continues to wage lawfare against activists which is a troubling indication of not just intolerance to legitimate dissent but the wholesale disregard of the right to air grievances and press for redress,” Pedrosa, who became the 8th petitioner on the constitutionality of Terror Law in 2020, said in a report from Catholic news site UCA News.
Among the 34 acquitted activists were Nathanael Santiago, secretary general of Bayan Muna partylist; Anasusa San Gabriel, a lay worker of the Bulacan Ecumenical Forum; Assert Socio-Economic Initiatives Network convenor Rosario Gonzalez; Anakpawis campaign director Servillano Luna Jr.; development worker Rosario Brenda Gonzalez; and trade union organizers Rodrigo Esparago and Ed Cubello.
The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), the counsel for Santiago and San Gabriel, also welcomed the court’s dismissal of the “fabricated charges of terrorism.”
“This dismissal is not an anomaly but part of a disturbing trend. To our knowledge, at least five anti-terrorism cases have collapsed in court due to the State’s inability to provide sufficient evidence to support their claims. All cases involved perjurious testimonies and false accusations from military elements and/or so-called rebel returnees,” NUPL said in a statement to the media on September 5.
The charges against the accused stemmed from the complaint filed by the Philippine Army’s 84th Infantry Battalion of the 7th Infantry Division based in Caranglan, Nueva Ecija, when it said the 34 individuals were part of the communist rebel group that was involved in a firefight against the military on Oct. 8, 2023, in the village of San Fernando, Laur, Nueva Ecija, a landlocked province in the central Luzon region of the country.
At least one soldier died during the alleged military encounter with the rebels.
“The active participation of each accused in the commission of the acts of terrorism which were intended to cause death or serious bodily injury to any person, or endangers a person’s life, and through the possession or use of ammunition, weapons, and explosives with the purpose of intimidating the public in order to create an atmosphere of fear and to undermine public safety must be clear and supported by competent evidence,” Judge Mercurio said in the decision.
Meanwhile, NUPL, along with other progressive groups, reiterated their call to repeal the controversial anti-terror law and the terror financing prevent and suppression law, saying “these laws have become blunt weapons wielded not to suppress but to sow terror, standing in the way of the very freedoms and liberties they purport to protect.”
Citing recent data from Philippine-based rights group Karapatan, at least 98 activists, development, church workers are now facing charges in violation of the anti-terror law and the terror financing prevent and suppression law, according to alternative online news site Bulatlat. (SunStar Philippines)
