MANILA, Philippines — A Tagum City court has recalled the arrest warrant against Indigenous leader Windel Bolinget and others accused in a murder case in Davao del Norte back in 2018.
In a March 8 order, Judge Sharon Rose Saracin of the Regional Trial Court Branch 30 in the city granted Bolinget's motion for reconsideration, and told prosecutors to reinvestigate the charge against them.
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The arrest warrants were issued in September 2020 against him and nine others which they have long sought to dispute as mere trumped-up charges.
Bolinget said he was nowhere in the province when the incident took place as he vowed to exhaust legal remedies to clear his name.
While the Cordillera Peoples Alliance', which Bolinget heads, said this is a good development, it said threats to his security remain with the Cordillera police yet to take back the shoot-to-kill order against him.
"These are dangerous since these directly threaten the life and security of Bolinget," the group said in a statement, referring to the directive of Police Brig. Gen. R'win Pagkalinawan of the Cordillera regional police.
Groups described the IP leader as an activist "vocal on government's inefficiency" as well as opposed to mining by foreign companies and other cases involving the Indigenous' ancestral lands.
'Tokhang' campaign against leftists
Apart from the shoot-to-kill order, CPA said law enforcers in the region's resolution for a "Tokhang-style" of anti-insurgency campaign could put Bolinget's life in peril.
"We fear that the police and military in the Cordillera will commit the same atrocities if unhampered," the group said. "If any harm befalls Bolinget and other leaders and members of the CPA and its allied organizations, the police and military are accountable."
The shoot-to-kill order as well as the said campaign can be traced from orders by President Rodrigo Duterte, whose language have long concerned groups as encouraging violence amid remarks of backing cops facing cases, and his declarations of no regard for human rights.
Members of the progressive Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives warned too that the Tokhang-style of operations could lead to more human rights abuses, as they sought for a probe over the move.
It is unclear yet if Bolinget has been freed after the court ruling, but before that, he had turned himself in to the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation. — Christian Deiparine