By Danielle Deloria
Bulatlat.com

MANILA — Trumped-up charge against 70-year-old indigenous rights advocate Myrna Cruz-Abraham was officially dismissed on Monday, Aug. 4.

Cruz-Abraham was arrested on Jan. 27 while grocery shopping with her daughter in San Rafael, Bulacan. She was accused of involvement in an ambush on March 6, 2007, in Sta. Teresita, Cagayan which wounded a barangay captain and a police officer. She was charged with frustrated murder, immediately detained, and spent a week in jail before securing bail. 

Read: Family, colleagues of Myrna Cruz-Abraham denounce second arrest

This marks the second time Cruz-Abraham was imprisoned on fabricated charges. In March 2010, she was arrested for murder and alleged violations of the election-related gun ban. She was released in December 2010 after the court dismissed the charges due to lack of evidence but she had to endure nine months of unjust detention.

In a five-page decision, Judge Conrado T. Tabaco of the Aparri Regional Trial Court Branch 9 granted Abraham’s demurrer to evidence, effectively dismissing the frustrated murder charge against her. The court said that the prosecution’s own witnesses denied knowing the accused or naming her as a suspect in the 2007 Cagayan ambush.

In a statement, Cruz-Abraham’s family expressed gratitude to those who supported her during her arrest and detention, including Catherine Salucon of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers. They also celebrated Myrna’s innocence, saying, “Justice has finally prevailed. The truth has come out, our mother is not a criminal. She and her companions never stopped proving that defending the oppressed is not a crime. We firmly maintain that Mama did nothing wrong. It is never wrong to resist injustice.”

Continuing fight for the political prisoners

Human rights groups welcomed the court’s decision in Cruz-Abraham’s case and called on the government to end systemic injustices that continue to target political activists.

Cristina Palabay, secretary-general of Karapatan, criticized the use of so-called former rebels or “rebel returnees” in fabricating cases against activists. She highlighted the pattern of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) using scripted testimonies to file charges against critics and civilians.

“Aside from the obvious inconsistencies in their complaints, these individuals are known military assets in the communities, and are therefore beneficiaries of whatever monetary benefit that this entails. The credibility of these individuals are as poor as that of the NTF-ELCAC’s record, one that is established and built on fomenting fascist terrorism in the country. For the prosecution and courts to entertain these allegations means that there is a concerted scheme for political persecution of dissenters,” Palabay said.

According to Karapatan, there are 757 political prisoners in the Philippines, including 148 arrested under Marcos Jr., 97 sickly and 103 elderly. 

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan – National Capital Region (Bayan-NCR) also condemned Myrna’s detention, calling it as proof of the continuing injustice against political detainees. “Many elderly individuals remain imprisoned for crimes they didn’t commit, while figures like Sara Duterte and Imelda Marcos, who have stolen massive public funds remain free.”

In 2018, former First Lady Imelda Marcos was convicted of seven counts of graft. She was sentenced to a minimum of 6 years and 1 month to a maximum of 11 years for each count, totaling 42 to 77 years of imprisonment.

Despite the Sandiganbayan issuing a warrant of arrest, the government failed to detain her. Officials have repeatedly cited her age, health, and gender as reasons for not enforcing the court order.

Read: Guilty Imelda still free as elderly, ill political prisoners remain behind bars

Ironically, there are political prisoners, just like the dictator’s wife, who are sick and elderly yet they were still unjustly detained and convicted. (AMU, DAA)