MANILA (UCAN): Rights activists criticised the Philippine government for its treatment of two environmental activists who were reportedly abducted, after pleas against their enforced disappearance were rejected by the Court of Appeals.
“The decision of the Court of Appeals to deny Jonila Castro and Jhed Tamano protection will affect other communities who are facing serious human rights issues,” Carlos Conde, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said on August 15.
The decision on August 2 cleared security agencies of any involvement in the abduction of 21-year-old Castro and 22-year-old Tamano. The court stated that the activists were unable to provide evidence to support their claims. The 55-page decision was made public on August 12th.
The court’s decision has been criticised for giving government agencies, particularly the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict [NTF-ELCAC], a “free pass,” Conde said. The task force was established in December 2018 to bring peace to conflict areas affected by the long-standing Maoist insurgency in the Philippines.
“This [court decision] can worsen impunity,” Conde added.
The environmental group, Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, also lambasted the Court of Appeals decision to deny the two environmentalist’s petition for writ of amparo and writ of habeas data.
The writ of amparo is a legal remedy for the protection of victims of human rights violations while the writ of habeas data seeks to release and destroy personal information being held that threatens one’s life and security and violates the right to privacy.
Kalikasan said the court’s decision highlights the limitations inherent in existing mechanisms for redress in the country, LiCAS News reported on August 14.
“Its claim of insufficient evidence to support the allegations of state-sponsored abduction contradicts the broader documented pattern of state attacks against environmental defenders,” the group said.
Castro and Tamano were vocal critics of environmental destruction wreaked by land reclamation projects in Manila Bay.
Four armed, masked men in a sport utility vehicle forcibly took the duo on 2 September 2023 while they were at a bus stop in the town of Orion in Bataan province [Sunday Examiner, 1 October 2023].
After 17 days, the NTF-ELCAC presented them before the public, claiming they were “surrenderees” of the communist New People’s Army. However, Castro and Tamano publicly denied the allegations and blamed the 70th Infantry Battalion for their abduction.
They said they were questioned and subjected to death threats while in custody.
The military filed a defamation case, which carries a maximum punishment of a six-month jail term, against the two on January 29. The two paid 18,000 pesos [about US$964] bail on February 21.
On August 12, Castro and Tamano filed a motion for reconsideration before the Court of Appeals. They expressed readiness to go to the Supreme Court.
“This court decision is yet more proof that the climate of impunity persists under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.,” said Cristina Palabay, secretary general of the rights group, Karapatan.
“We are appalled and we are indignant for Jonila and Jhed, and all victims of enforced disappearance and fake or forced surrenders,” Palabay said.
In September last year, Global Witness said that the Philippines “has consistently ranked as the worst place in Asia for land and environmental defenders, with 281 people killed since 2012.”
In a statement in September 2023, Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of San Carlos claimed that the “systematic abductions” of activists across the country “point to state forces as the culprits.”
He said, “Perpetrators, including military and police officers, as well as officials of state institutions such as NTF-ELCAC and DND [Department of National Defense], involved in abductions and kidnappings, must be held accountable.”
