MANILA, Philippines — The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and Philippine Army are preparing to file criminal charges against environmental activists Jonila Castro and Jhed Tamano.
Both will be facing perjury and other possible cases for allegedly betraying the country’s legal system by executing affidavits that they are members of the New People’s Army (NPA) and its allied groups and that they are voluntarily surrendering to the military, only to recant during a live press briefing in Plaridel, Bulacan last Tuesday.
James Clifford Santos, associate solicitor of the Office of the Solicitor General and spokesman for NTF-ELCAC’s legal cooperation cluster, said what happened forms part of the demolition tactics of the communist rebel movement.
Santos described the incident as “a grand scheme to hoodwink the government” – undermining its efforts to offer better and more peaceful lives to former NPA members – and support the left’s ultimate goal of impairing the public trust.
One of the immediate remedies, he said, would be the filing of perjury charges based on how Castro and Tamano made a “willful and deliberate assertion of a falsehood.”
The NTF-ELCAC, at a virtual press briefing yesterday, noted that photo and video evidence showed a surrender to two mayors in Bulacan and the 70th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army and witnessed by Castro’s parents, the Commission on Human Rights in Region 3 and the Public Attorney’s Office.
Castro even admitted on video that she is an NPA member, who became a combatant of the Lino Blas Command, while Tamano admitted to being a member of the Kabataang Makabayan.
Undersecretary Ernesto Torres Jr., executive director of the NTF-ELCAC secretariat, said the presentation of the two surrenderees who now claim that they were abducted by the military was “imbued with a tremendous amount of good faith” on the part of the government.
“We were betrayed unfortunately through a web of deception,” he said, noting that the families of the activists themselves were betrayed.
“We thought we have saved two more souls,” Torres added, believing that there might have been a pre-planned deception plan when Castro and Tamano executed their handwritten affidavits.
Because of what happened, Torres said there might be changes on how the NTF-ELCAC or the military would be accepting and presenting NPA surrenderees.
Lt. Gen. Roy Galido, Philippine Army commanding general, said the PA would also file charges.
“We are a country of laws, we have rules of law, we have a court here and we felt betrayed. That’s why we will file the necessary case and just have to use our laws. Just like when you are also betrayed when your clients are betrayed, they file a case against you, so we just have to follow the rule of law in our country,” Galido told reporters.
Meanwhile, Caritas Philippines yesterday asked the Marcos administration to put an end to its crackdown against Castro and Tamano.
Kidapawan Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo, Caritas Philippines president, said in a statement that the national government should protect also the rights of the two environment activists.
“We are deeply concerned by the government’s attacks on environmental defenders who are simply working to protect our planet and the rights of communities affected by climate change and environmental degradation,” Bagaforo said.
Caritas Philippines said it was concerned by the military’s alleged abduction of the 21-year-old Castro and 22-year-old Tamano last Sept. 2 in Orion, Bataan while they were conducting research on the impacts of land reclamation along the coasts of Manila Bay. It was only last Sept. 19 when they were released.
It added that those responsible for the abduction should be made accountable by the national government.
“The government’s abduction of Castro and Tamano is a clear attempt to silence environmental defenders and intimidate those who speak out against destructive development projects,” Bagaforo said. – Evelyn Macairan, Ramon Efren Lazaro