KARAPATAN denounces the resolution of the Supreme Court (SC), which was received only on October 28, 2024, dismissing with finality the petition for the writ of amparo and habeas data filed by Karapatan, Rural Missionaries of the Philippines and Gabriela on May 6, 2019. The decision came five years after the petition was filed.
The petition impleaded former President Rodrigo Duterte and several high-ranking officials of the Department of National Defense, National Security Council, Armed Forces of the Philippines, and the Philippine National Police for threats to life, liberty and security of human rights defenders. The said petition was dismissed by the14th Division of the Court of Appeals on June 28, 2018. The petition for review on certiorari, filed on June 28, 2019 at the Supreme Court which raised issues on the CA decision, was followed by two more manifestations filed by KARAPATAN, after the extrajudicial killing of three of its human rights workers – Zara Alvarez, Ryan Hubilla and Nelly Bagasala – who were supposed to testify in the hearings.
In its entry of judgment dated August 21, 2024, the SC stated that it resolved to deny the petition for “failure of the petitioners to sufficiently show that the Court of Appeals committed any reversible error in the challenged decision as to warrant the exercise of the Court’s discretionary appellate jurisdiction.” It must be recalled that the Court of Appeals based its dismissal of the groups’ petition for legal protection on mere technicality. Despite its urgency, not one witness was given a day in court.
“Many of our human rights workers who were denied the opportunity to testify on the threats they received from Duterte’s State forces have either been killed, arrested and detained, or disappeared, after numerous threats, harassment and red-tagging. This decision further exposes the failure of the domestic redress mechanisms, including the judiciary, to protect the rights of human rights defenders. It also shows the hypocrisy of those in the previous and current regimes in claiming that a robust justice system exists in the Philippines,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay.
The human rights alliance expressed their indignation on the SC decision, especially after its ruling on the case of Siegfred D. Deduro v. Ma. Gen. Eric C. Vinoya already recognized the dangers of red-tagging. “Three rights defenders mentioned in the petition who experienced red-tagging and surveillance were killed during the pendency of the petition and several other human rights defenders were arrested and charged with trumped-up cases because of their work. How many more activists and human rights defenders will be killed, arrested or abducted before we are heard?” said Palabay.
KARAPATAN said that numerous amparo and habeas petitions filed by activists have been dismissed by the courts.
After the dismissal of the petition, then National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr., one of the respondents in the petition, filed a criminal case for perjury against all the petitioners. The petitioners were acquitted of the charges on January 9, 2023 but the government continued to appeal the case.
“This is peak impunity and it continues to happen because the highest government officials like Duterte, the PNP and the AFP, get away with their crimes. We have seen a remorseless Duterte in the Senate and there is more reason to hold him immediately accountable. Our clamor for justice will not stop until Duterte and his lackeys are put behind bars. Duterte, panagutin!” ended Palabay.
