Activists on rare winning streak in court battles
Activists, including peasant rights advocates, labor organizers and peace consultants, have been in a winning streak this month in various local courts over what they call “trumped-up” charges filed against them.
According to human rights advocacy group Karapatan, five activists collectively called the “Sta. Cruz 5” have been cleared by Branch 70 of the Taguig City Regional Trial Court (RTC) of the charge of illegal possession of firearms and explosives, while five others were acquitted by Branch 266 of kidnapping with murder and frustrated murder charges.
Karapatan said it could not provide the dates and other details of the court decisions acquitting these activists, since both branches of the Taguig court have prohibited the release of those public documents. The Inquirer also sought permission to obtain the court rulings but to no avail.
Ordered released by Branch 70 of the Taguig RTC were Adelberto Silva, consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP); union organizer Ireneo Atadero; farmer Edisel Legazpi; women’s rights advocate Hedda Calderon; and driver Julio Lusania. The Philippine National Police had accused the Sta. Cruz 5 of illegally transporting firearms after their vehicle was stopped at a checkpoint in Sta. Cruz, Laguna, in October 2018.
Abduction-murder case
“[After police seized] their vehicle [then] returned it an hour later, the arresting team had already planted a .45-caliber pistol, a rifle, a hand grenade, an improvised explosive and ammunition inside it,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said in a statement.
Branch 266 of the Taguig RTC, meanwhile, ordered the release of NDFP consultants Renante Gamara and Tirso Alcantara, peasant organizer Dionisio Almonte and construction workers Diony Borre and Raul Razo.
According to the military, the accused took part in the 2007 abduction and murder of a “rebel returnee” in Mauban, Quezon province.
But Gamara claimed he had “never set foot in Mauban,” adding that he was in Manila helping in the campaign of Bayan Muna during that election year.
Almonte and Razo also denied being in Mauban when the rebel returnee was kidnapped.
Gamara posted bail in 2016 to join the peace talks between the government and the NDFP, but was later arrested and continues to be detained for other charges.
Borre has been in jail far longer after the military tagged him as a son-in-law of the late Communist Party of the Philippines spokesperson Gregorio Rosal—despite family ties not being a criminal offense.
Alcantara is supposed to be detained, as an accused in a kidnapping and murder case, but has been actually missing for some time, according to Karapatan.
Murder case vs senior
On Aug. 4, Branch 9 of the Aparri RTC dismissed for lack of basis a frustrated murder complaint filed against Myrna Cruz-Abraham, a leading advocate of indigenous peoples’ rights in Northern Luzon.
Cruz-Abraham, 70, was accused of plotting the ambush of a barangay captain and a policeman in 2007. A military and police team arrested her while she was shopping for groceries together with her daughter and grandchild.
Quoting the five-page ruling by Branch 9 Presiding Judge Conrado Tabaco, the Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon (Selda) noted that the prosecution witnesses themselves “denied either knowing the accused or having supplied her name as one of the perpetrators of the alleged crime committed.”
At her vulnerable age, Cruz-Abraham is no stranger to being accused of murder. In 2010 she was charged with that grave offense, and with violation of the election-period gun ban. But these were later dismissed for lack of evidence.
Still, she was detained for nine months because of that case until a Tuguegarao court ruled in her favor.
Early last week, Branch 47 of the Pampanga RTC dismissed the charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives filed only last year against the so-called “Mexico 4” activists—former University of the Philippines student regent Desiree Jaranilla-Patun-og and peasant organizers Maria Theresa Buscayno, Oliver Millo and Andres Ely.
The Aug. 13 decision in their favor cited lack of sufficient evidence, procedural lapses in their marking, and inconsistencies in the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses.
‘Bittersweet’ victories
But while Jaranilla-Patun-og and Buscayno have been released, Millo and Ely are still detained for other offenses.
Palabay regards the series of legal victories by activists as “bittersweet,” given the adversities still confronting them.
Furthermore, her group cites the more than 700 activists who remain political prisoners.
If anything, their recent breakthroughs in the legal front “underscores the injustice within our justice system that has enabled the illegal or arbitrary arrests of activists, peace consultants and ordinary folks on the basis of trumped-up charges which are cooked up by the authorities,” Palabay said.
