Rights group denounces sedition complaint vs anti-corruption activists
KARAPATAN Public Information
KARAPATAN Public Information Desk, 09189790580
Rights group denounces sedition complaint vs anti-corruption activists
KARAPATAN condemned the Department of Justice (DOJ) for coming up with a slew of trumped-up sedition charges against 97 protesters, including mass leaders, who participated in the anti-corruption rally on September 21, 2025, instead of seriously running after corrupt politicians and their cohorts in the private sector.
Among those who received subpoenas from the DOJ is Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) president Renato Reyes Jr. At least four student leaders have also received summons to appear before the DOJ -- Tiffany Faith Brillante, president of the Sentral na Konseho ng Mag-aaral of the Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP); Joaquin Buenaflor, chairperson of the University Student Council of the University of the Philippines Diliman; Jacob Baluyot, national chairperson of the Alyansa ng Kabataang Mamamahayag-PUP and associate editor of The Catalyst, student publication of the PUP; and Aldrin Kitsune, officer of Kalayaan Kontra Korapsyon and student leader from De La Salle University College of St. Benilde (DLS-CSB). They are among a total of 34 individuals who have been subpeonaed and who reportedly comprise only the first batch charged by the DOJ.
“The activists are being slapped with sedition and inciting to sedition charges in relation to the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012,” said KARAPATAN secretary general Cristina Palabay, “meaning that they are being persecuted for their social media posts and public statements assailing massive bureaucratic corruption. This is obviously meant to send a chilling effect to government critics and suppress their online activities, especially since penalties for cybercrime-related sedition are one degree higher compared to simple sedition, and are further amplified when posts become viral online.”
Palabay moreover noted the irony of the police charging the September 21 protesters for alleged “damage to government property worth Php4.84 million,” when the corrupt bureaucrats who have stolen trillions of pesos in the course of decades through anomalous infrastructure projects are able to roam free. “The biggest thief is, of course, the Man in Malacañang under whose authority these projects became possible,” she decried.
“These harassment charges against protesters are acts of desperation by a government that now finds its back to the wall, given the extent of public awareness and outrage against bureaucratic corruption,” said Palabay. “This will not deter the people from demanding accountability and seriously seeking genuine and viable alternatives to a system so steeped in corruption,” she concluded. #
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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. It was established in 1995.