Karapatan welcomes the dismissal of the cases filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) against four activists for alleged violation of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 2020.
In a joint order dated September 3, 2024, Malolos RTC Branch 12 Presiding Judge Julie P. Mercurio dismissed the cases against Makabayan secretary general Nathaniel Santiago, Anakpawis campaign director Servillano “Jun” Luna, Jr., ASCENT convenor and development worker Rosario Brenda Gonzalez and Bulacan ecumenical forum volunteer lay worker Anasusa San Gabriel for lack of probable cause. The cases stemmed from their alleged participation in an armed encounter between the New People’s Army and the 84th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army in Barangay San Fernando, Laur, Nueva Ecija on October 8, 2023.
Said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay, “The dismissal of the cases not only vindicates Nathaniel Santiago and the other respondents, but brings to the fore the baselessness, arbitrariness and malice that lie behind the cases filed, or instigated by, the DOJ against activists and other dissenters.”
“Laws have long been weaponized and manipulated by the DOJ through the filing of trumped-up cases against persons it perceives to be enemies of the state,” said Palabay, “but there has been an uptick in this vicious modus since the enactment of the ATA and the law against terrorist financing.”
To date, more than a hundred activists have been charged for violating either the Anti-Terrorism Act or the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act. “This vicious modus,” said Palabay, “is not only meant to derail the victims’ activism and suppress dissent. It further clogs our already burdened courts with frivolous cases.”
“We demand that the DOJ stop its judicial harassment of activists. It must desist from its malicious practice of red-tagging, churning out ridiculous and unfounded accusations and filing manufactured cases against them,” concluded Palabay.
