In the early dawn of December 10, 2020, six trade union activists and a journalist were simultaneously nabbed in a large-scale police operation within Metro Manila.
Ironically, on the day that thousands of Filipinos are set to take to the streets to commemorate International Human Rights Day, the morally depraved and fascist Duterte administration pulled out all the stops to orchestrate a twisted show of impunity and oppression in the illegal arrests and incarceration of the HRD7.
To refresh on the events of that day: at around 2 am the police forcibly entered the homes of the victims, incapacitated them as the police planted evidence, belatedly presented search warrants from then-Quezon City Executive Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert and soon sent them to jail. It was among the last of many similar patterns of arrests that year and the #HRD7 were among more than 70 affected by Villavert’s search warrants.
Manila Today editor Lady Ann “Icy” Salem was the third journalist to suffer a similar pattern of arrest in 2020, after Eastern Vista editor Frenchie Mae Cumpio who is still in jail, and Panghimutad’s Anne Krueger who is still battling the case at the trial court level.
Come morning, the Human Rights Day 7 as they were called were not only branded as part of a notorious gun-running syndicate but also red-tagged as high-ranking urban operatives of the CPP-NPA-NDFP. But the victims’ families, friends, and community soon discredited the government’s disinformation against them, especially the journalism community in the Philippines and beyond who supported Icy.
Four years have passed since then, and Duterte’s successor Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. is reeling on the same path. Despite the quick dismissal of the cases against them at the trial court, Icy and labor union organizer Rodrigo Esparago are still bugged by the dogged pursuit of the Office of Solicitor General (OSG) to reopen their case.
The trial court and Court of Appeals both pointed out inconsistencies in the police officers’ statements and maintained that the events the police alleged in their application for warrants could not have happened.
The police have also not returned the laptops, phones, and hard drives they took from Salem and Esparago up to this day–part of what the trial court tagged as a “fishing expedition” as they took more than what was specified in the search warrants they obtained from Villavert.
Three of the #HRD7 have been released from jail and cleared of the ridiculous charges filed against them. Yet the fight for justice is far from over as trade union activists Mark Ryan Cruz, Romina Astudillo, Jaymie Gregorio, and Joel Demate remain jailed as their cases drag in the trial courts.
Despite losing at the trial court and Court of Appeals still under the Duterte administration, the Marcos administration with its rehashed officials from Duterte, continues to appeal the case at the Supreme Court (SC). The SC recently served notice that its Second Division has referred the government’s case against Salem and Esparago to the Court En Banc (the whole SC). We earnestly await the resolution of this case, hoping that the SC will soon dismiss the government’s cases against Salem and Esparago.
Just as the SC recognized the fairness of the law in upholding the quashal of warrants that ended the government’s hounding of the Tondo 3, we remain hopeful for its exercise of wise counsel in Salem and Esparago’s case. We hope that the SC will not only decide in favor of Salem and Esparago, but also help others who were victimized by the same government and police scheme to persecute perceived government critics.
The latest development on the HRD7’s case only challenges us to continue to work for justice, not only for Icy, but where justice is due to the oppressed.
Also under the Marcos Jr. administration, the Anti-Terror Act (ATA) of 2020 has been weaponized, and aimed at progressive groups, activists, and critics. The current administration has traded the discredited and exposed “tanim-ebidensya” scheme under Duterte for charging activists with the Anti-Terorrism law or related cases such as financing terrorism.
Esparago was also recently implicated in a terror charge filed by elements of the 82nd Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army in Nueva Ecija and referred to the anti-terror court in Bulacan. Esparago was tagged as a member of the CPP-NPA involved in an alleged armed encounter with the AFP in Laur, Nueva Ecija in October 2023. The Malolos anti-terror court swiftly dismissed the case in September 2024.
The continuous harassment experienced by Salem and Esparago proved once more that the government is hellbent on pursuing critics and dissenters even at the expense of using the people’s money and government resources. Political persecution and harassment remain staples in the Philippine government.
On the 76th year of the commemoration of International Human Rights Day, Manila Today commits itself to continuing the campaign to uphold justice through fearless journalism. Despite continued threats and harassment, we remain steadfast in reporting from the margins and the dispossessed.
#FreeHRD7
