MANILA, Philippines — A United Nations special rapporteur is calling on Philippine authorities to dismiss perjury charges filed against human rights defenders in the Philippines, raising concerns that the suits are "a form of retaliation for the human rights activities" of groupls like Karapatan.
Karapatan Secretary-General Tinay Palabay, along with other members of Karapatan, Gabriela Secretary-General Joan May Salvador, and Sr. Emma Cupin of the Rural Missionaries of Philippines, are scheduled to go to court Monday to face a perjury charge filed by Hermogenes Esperon Jr., the country's national security adviser.
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UN Special Rapporteur on Human Right Defenders Mary Lawlor called on Philippine authorities to stop attacking rights defenders in the country.
"I urge the authorities in the Philippines to stop the targeting of Human Rights Defenders, and instead promote and protect their work," she said in a statement dated June 18.
The human rights defenders previously sought court protection from threats and harassment that they said were targeted at human rights defenders and development workers.
The Court of Appeals dismissed the pleas, saying "there is no evidence of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests, malicious prosecutions and defamations" and that court protection orders "cannot be issued on amorphous and uncertain grounds."
The petition named National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr., but it was eventually dismissed over said lack of probable cause and insufficient evidence.
Esperon, named a respondent in the petitions, filed the perjury charges two months after the CA junked them. He accused the group of misrepresenting Rural Missionaries of Philippines as a "registered non-stock, non-profit organization" in their plea.
READ: RMP says it’s in process of clarifying status with SEC
"Esperon’s perjury charge is evidently a retaliatory act after the groups included him as a respondent in a protection order filled before the Supreme Court against increasing attacks, intimidation, and red-tagging by government officials and security forces," Belgian health and development NGO Viva Salud said in a statement dated June 16.
Viva Salud has partnered with Gabriela and other local groups on health-related projects.
Lawlor raised a similar concern in her statement, saying the charges "may also be a form of retaliation for the human rights activities of these local Human Rights Defenders."
"We have seen in recent years that many defenders have been dragged before the courts, smeared, red tagged and murdered in the Philippines," she also said.
Karapatan’s Ryan Hubilla and Zara Alvarez were murdered in June 2019 and August 2020, respectively. Viva Salud said Alvarez died while waiting for the court’s decision on the petition for a writ of amparo.
Viva Salud also called for passage of legislation that would provide legal protection for human rights defenders doing their work in the country.
It also called on the UN Human Rights Council to start its "long overdue" investigation on the extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations in the country.
"We call on the incoming Marcos government to drop the perjury charges against [the human rights defenders] and instead address the worsening human rights situation left by the outgoing Duterte administration," the Belgian NGO also said. — Kaycee Valmonte with reports from Kristine Joy Patag and Gaea Katreena Cabico