“This PILC’s fourth grant of a demurrer to evidence in an illegal possession case against a person in the peace process, a pattern that debunks what police want us to believe. What’s true: peace consultants are not armed and dangerous!”
The family called on the CHR and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to regularly monitor Manuel Esteban Jr.’s condition and help them with his transfer to a regular jail or facility where he can be free from any pressure or threat.
State agents have killed and arrested several JASIG-protected peace process participants, especially after formal NDFP-GRP peace negotiations were cancelled by GRP President Rodrigo Duterte in 2017.
“There is nothing most fearful, most oppressive and most unjust than the way political prisoners are being treated under this regime.”
“How can the ATC, three years hence, claim to have ‘verified and validated information’ against these peace consultants when it has already been proven in court that there is none? The ATC regurgitating false assertions has been a most dangerous weapon especially in the heat of oral arguments on the terror law.”
Edre Olalia, president of the National Union of Peoples Lawyers (NUPL) and lawyer of Wilma Austria said this is “a politically motivated persecution and hardline attack” as it was resurrected out of nowhere after 30 years.
“The tyrant dies and his rule ends, the martyr dies and his rule begins.” – Soren Kierkegaard By DEE AYROSO
By JONAS ALPASAN Bulatlat MANILA – The National Democratic Front of the Philippines filed a complaint before the Government of the Republic of the Philippines on the tailing and surveillance on its panel member and consultants in Manila last March 16. In an April 6 letter to Philippine government chief negotiator Silvestre Bello III, NDFP…
Duterte’s recognition and respect for these previously-signed agreements has opened doors for both the resumption of peace talks and the release of political prisoners through peace talks.”