Karapatan-Caraga said that Julieta Gomez and Niezel Velasco are both engaged humanitarian work over the years. In fact, the group said that “officers and personnel of some of government agencies in the region know them personally as they have coordinated activities particularly with the Department of Social Welfare and Development and local government units in the Surigao and Agusan provinces and several municipalities.”
“Release your incontrovertible evidence in public.”
“The victims live in constant fear for their lives, liberty and security. Adding insult to injury, even their families suffer the same. They deliberately singled out as the public is conditioned that they must have done something wrong to justify an extrajudicial punishment.”
Youth and student activists filed a complaint on Friday before the Commission on Human Rights and the National Bureau of Investigation, urging them to investigate the intensified red-tagging of their organizations and members amid the implementation of the Philippine terror law.
Ironically, cases against red-tagged individuals are being dismissed by government courts for lack of probable cause or because of insufficient evidence. Motions to quash search warrants were also granted by the courts, declaring whatever so-called evidence the police have acquired during the search as inadmissible.
“Simply put, the AFP and Philippine National Police (PNP) had no solid, intelligent basis before launching massive operations in a rural sitio in Nasugbu, Batangas in April 2020.”
Esperon, who sits as the vice-chair of the terror council, refused to provide Associate Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe the names of those they will designate as terrorists as it may preempt the ATC.
“The state’s brutal fascism killed Canlas who was exposed to COVID while in detention and under the custody of the BJMP [Bureau of Jail Management and Penology]. His unjust detention led to the swift deterioration of his health condition.”
The police and military also forced the victims to sign a document linking them to the Communist Party of the Philippines – New People’s Army (CPP-NPA), CEGP said.
Justice Edgardo Delos Santos questioned the “undue delegation of power” provided to the council, saying that the law is silent on how it will arrive at the conclusion in designating persons or groups as terrorists.
“As a journalist, you have to try to balance between your freedom to publish a story or minimizing harm to an already vulnerable subject.”