Acquittal of human rights defenders from 3 Civil Society organisations
On 9 January 2023, Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court Branch139 acquitted ten human rights defenders from Karapatan - the Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights, GABRIELA - National Alliance of Women, and the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) of perjury, dismissing the charge initiated in March 2020 by former National Security Advisor Hermogenes Esperon Jr. who accused them of lying when they sought protection from the Supreme Court
On 2 March 2020, human rights defenders from Karapatan, Gabriela and the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines received a court notice sustaining a motion filed by a government official, finding probable cause to charge the human rights defenders with perjury.
Karapatan is an alliance of individuals, groups and organisations, formed in 1995 for the promotion and protection of human rights in the Philippines. It is committed to the defence of people’s rights and civil liberties through education, training, advocacy, research and network building.
On 9 January 2023, Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court Branch139 acquitted ten human rights defenders from Karapatan - the Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights, GABRIELA - National Alliance of Women, and the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) of perjury, dismissing the charge initiated in March 2020 by former National Security Advisor Hermogenes Esperon Jr. who accused them of lying when they sought protection from the Supreme Court
The ten human rights defenders in question include Karapatan Chairperson, Elisa Tita Lubi; Karapatan Secretary General, Cristina “Tinay” Palabay; Karapatan Deputy Secretary General, Roneo Clamor; Karapatan Treasurer, Gabriela Grista Dalena; Karapatan National Council members, Edita Burgos, Wilfredo Ruazol, and Jose Mari Callueng; GABRIELA Chairperson, Gertrudes Ranjo Libang; GABRIELA Secretary General, Joan May Salvador, and member of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, Emma Cupin. They were facing retaliatory perjury charges levelled against them by National Security Adviser, Hermogenes Esperon.
The perjury case stems from a petition for protection, facilitated through the writs of amparo and habeas data, a feature of Philippine law designed to supplement the weak recourse of habeas corpus in the legal system. This was submitted by the organizations Karapatan, GABRIELA and RMP in May 2019 in response to ongoing harassment they faced from the Philippine government. The petition was initially granted but later denied by the Court of Appeal in June 2019. While this acquittal does mark a positive outcome for the human rights defenders in question, the initial petition for protection previously sought has still gone unresolved.
On 2 March 2020, human rights defenders from Karapatan, Gabriela and the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines received a court notice sustaining a motion filed by a government official, finding probable cause to charge the human rights defenders with perjury.
Karapatan is an alliance of individuals, groups and organisations, formed in 1995 for the promotion and protection of human rights in the Philippines. It is committed to the defence of people’s rights and civil liberties through education, training, advocacy, research and network building. Gabriela is a grassroots-based alliance that organises Filipino women, primarily from marginalised sectors of society, and helps empower and train them to fight for their rights and interests through collective action. The organisation provides direct services to marginalised women including counselling services, medical missions, relief and rehabilitation in times of disaster, as well as capability building trainings on women’s rights. The Rural Missionaries of the Philippines is a church-based national organisation, comprising priests and lay persons. The group empowers farmers, fisherfolk and indigenous peoples, and educates them on their rights.
On 2 March 2020, human rights defenders from Karapatan, Gabriela, and the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines received a court notice informing them that on 24 February 2020, a Quezon City Prosecutor had granted a motion for reconsideration, finding probable cause to charge the human rights defenders with perjury.
In May 2019, the human rights defenders had filed a petition for a writ of amparo citing the increasing attacks, smear campaigns and red-tagging1 of human rights defenders by the Philippine military. However, on 28 June 2019, the Philippine Court of Appeals denied the petition. A government official, who had been named in the petition, filed perjury complaints against the human rights defenders for allegedly including false information.
In September 2019, an assistant Quezon City prosecutor dismissed the complaints against all but one human rights defender. Following this, the government official filed a motion for reconsideration of the dismissed complaints. On 24 February 2020, the Quezon City prosecutor sustained the motion and found probable cause to charge ten individuals with perjury. According to the Philippines law, perjury is punishable by imprisonment from six months to two years and two months. Some of the human rights defenders have applied for anticipatory bail ahead of the issuance of the warrants for their arrest.
This is not the first time members of these organisations have been intimidated and attacked. The human rights defenders have been wrongfully charged, threatened on social media, physically attacked and even accused by officials of having links to armed communist groups in the past.
Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned by the increasingly hostile environment for human rights defenders in the Philippines. It urges the government to stop the judicial harassment of human rights defenders as it believes they are being targeted for their legitimate and peaceful work for the protection of human rights.
1 “Red-tagging” refers to the broad trend of labelling by the Philippine authorities of human rights defenders, journalists, rural communities and others perceived as threats or enemies of the State, as having links to communist groups.
