ST activists: We are not terrorists, the Marcos Jr. regime and its minions are the real terrorists
KARAPATAN Public Information
KARAPATAN SOUTHERN TAGALOG
PRESS RELEASE
July 22, 2023
ST activists: We are not terrorists, the Marcos Jr. regime and its minions are the real terrorists
A church leader and young human rights activists - all Southern Tagalog based human rights defenders recently charged with alleged violations of the Anti Terrorism Law - held a press conference today, on the eve of the State of the Nation Address of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Church leader Rev. Glofie Baluntong and youth activists Hailey Pecayo, Kenneth Rementilla, and Jasmin Rubia, decried the charges against them as trumped-up and baseless.
Rev. Baluntong of the United Methodist Church is the former Superintendent of the Oriental Mindoro-Romblon- Marinduque District of the UMC). Pecayo is a paralegal of Tanggol Batangan. Rementilla is currently Anakbayan Southern Tagalog's regional coordinator and Jasmin Rubia is the secretary-general of the Mothers and Children for the Protection of Human Rights (MCPHR).
The 59th Infantry Battalion (IB) filed the complaint against the Pecayo, Rementilla and Rubia, after the three participated in fact-finding missions on cases of extrajudicial killings in Batangas.
The three young activists were part of fact-finding mission teams that investigated the military's killing of farmer Maximino Digno and a young girl named Kyllene Casao in July 2022. The two were killed in Taysan, Batangas amid strong militarization in the region.
The four human rights defenders are among the 13 Southern Tagalog activists facing criminal complaints under the terror law.
“Ministering to the poor, providing services for them and defending human rights are never acts of terrorism. We decry the use of the law to criminalize our work and to derail our human rights advocacy,” the four stated.
The real terrorists, Karapatan said, are those who spread fear by threatening and harassing those who exercise their rights to freedom of association and free expression, as well as the people’s right to organize. “When soldiers encamp in communities and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict conduct their redtagging and forced or fake surrender sprees, they manifest themselves as the real terrorists,” it added.
Karapatan noted that the tactic of using criminal complaints using the ATA is a fast emerging pattern seen in Southern Tagalog. “This sets a dangerous precedent that seeks to foist a chilling effect in rural and indigenous communities in the region, which have long suffered from government-driven policies that spurred poverty,” it said.
"Amid pressing national problems that demand urgent attention, the answer by the Philippine government has always been to silence the voices of activists such as Baluntong, Pecayo, Rementilla, and Rubia, who expose state forces' gross human rights violations against the Filipinos," Karapatan asserted.
"On Marcos Jr.'s second SONA, the people of Southern Tagalog will remain vigilant and hold the Marcos Jr. administration accountable for its grave offenses against the people."
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KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties. It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign.