Groups denounce perjury raps vs environmental defenders
MANILA, Philippines — Environmental and human rights groups condemned the filing of perjury cases against two anti-reclamation activists who accused the military of abduction, labeling the move as judicial harassment.
The Department of National Defense filed perjury and grave slander complaints against Jonila Castro and Jhed Tamano, who revealed at a press conference hosted by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict last September 19 that the military had abducted them.
The environmental activists also countered the government’s claim that they voluntarily surrendered to authorities.
In a statement, Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said that the claims in the perjury complaint against Castro and Tamano are “fraught with lies, absurdities and inanities that are so incredible and inconsistent.”
“The judicial harassment of Jhed and Jonila are desperate and face-saving moves by their accusers who cannot bear the thought of their own scheme blowing up in their faces,” Palabay said.
A coalition of environmental defenders also called for an end to the “unjust legal persecution” of the two activists, noting that such harassment jeopardizes the women’s work of organizing communities around the Manila Bay.
“Instead of using public resources to abduct environmental defenders then file harassment cases against them when they reveal the truth, we challenge the Marcos Jr. government to join us in our advocacy of rehabilitating Manila Bay,” said Jean Lindo, the spokesperson of the Environmental Defenders Congress.
The ENVIDEFCON also urged the government to abolish the NTF-ELCAC, which has frequently accused government critics of being members or supporters of the communist insurgency without providing evidence.
The two activists earlier sought protective writs from the Supreme Court against the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the NTF-ELCAC. Authorities deny involvement in the disappearance of Castro and Tamano.
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