“The trauma from his ordeal has rendered him unable to perform his usual day-to-day activities as he remains apprehensive about potential retaliation from his torturers,” the petition read.
“Its claim of insufficient evidence to support the allegations of state-sponsored abduction contradicts the broader documented pattern of state attacks against environmental defenders.”
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL Bulatlat.com MANILA — Progressive groups welcomed the Supreme Court’s ruling on the petition filed by former Bayan Muna representative Siegfred D. Deduro, declaring that red-tagging, labeling, and guilt by association threaten a person’s right to life, liberty or security. In a decision dated July 4, 2023 penned by Associate Justice…
In a statement, Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said that there have been many occasions that the courts dismissed writ of amparo petitions despite clear threats on their life, security and liberty.
“We ask the Supreme Court not to wait for red-tagging and death threats to materialize into extrajudicial killings, or detention, trumped-up charges and even abductions to become enforced disappearances.”
The SC also granted a temporary protection order and “prohibited the respondents from going within a radius of one kilometer of the petitioners and their immediate family.”
“We will continue fighting until the armed forces of Marcos Jr. surface our fellow human rights defenders. We will seek all legal actions and remedies to secure Loi and Ador’s rights and freedom, and to hold their criminal violators accountable.”
In its second manifestation, the group stressed that the SC should revisit the CA ruling as their leaders and members continue to experience judicial harassment, threats, and red-tagging by military and police authorities, including those perpetrated by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) spokesperson and Southern Luzon Command chief Antonio Parlade Jr.
The National Union of Peoples Lawyers (NUPL), counsel for Anakbayan, lambasted the NTF-ELCAC “for capitalizing on a familial conflict and turning it into a witch-hunt for members of Anakbayan and the Kabataan Partylist, which are legitimate organizations advancing the Filipino youth’s aspirations for national democracy.”
“The police and military have mastered the art of preparing false documents to justify the filing of fabricated charges.”
At least 40 lawyers have been killed under President Duterte alone according to the NUPL.