Beating the deadline, the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) appealed on September 27 before the Supreme Court (SC), seeking to nullify and set aside the Court of Appeals (CA) January 27 decision and August 29 resolution that both denied their petition for certiorari.
The OSG sought that the firearms and explosives charges against Manila Today editor Lady Ann Salem and Sandigang Manggagawa sa Quezon City labor organizer Rodrigo Esparago be reopened at the trial court level.
On December 10, 2020, in time for the International Human Rights Day commemoration, a string of police raids was conducted in Manila, Quezon City, and Mandaluyong to serve the search warrants for firearms and explosives issued by Quezon City Executive Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert. The raids resulted in the arrest of one journalist and six labor organizers, later known as the Human Rights Day 7 or HRD7, which the police claimed were part of a gun-running syndicate. Not long after their arrest, the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict linked the seven being the top leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines – New People’s Army (CPP-NPA).
Human rights groups and the lawyers of the HRD7 said the cases were “trumped up” and the police methods and the cases were rehashed.
For one, Salem’s lawyers from the Public Interest Law Center (PILC) noted that Esparago was also named in another Villavert-issued search warrant for Esterlita Suaybaguio, who was arrested in August 2019 and was acquitted in September 2021. Upon applying for search warrants against the HRD7, the police attached a photo of Esparago that was supposedly taken by their informant in 2020. But the same photo of Esparago was used by the police in the application for search warrants against Suaybaguio in August 2019.
To show that the cases were fabricated and politically motivated, Salem and Esparago through their lawyers filed their motion to quash warrant and motion to dismiss the cases in January 2021, after a month in jail. Among other things, they presented the inconsistencies in the testimonies of the police and their informant, upon which the issuance of the search warrants was based.
The trial court granted the motion in February 2021. The SolGen sought to reverse this, filing a petition for certiorari at the CA in May 2021. The CA upheld the trial court’s decision in January 2023, denying the SolGen’s petition.
In its appeal of the CA decision at the SC, the OSG said that the inconsistencies in the testimonies were “minor and irrelevant details” and should not lead to the reversal of the probable cause.
The CA noted the fact that Salem and Esparago only moved to the condominium unit on October 23, 2020 already refuted the police informants’ statements in the application of the warrant that they met them there in May 2020 and the former delivery guy, a certain Chris, allegedly killed by the group received firearms at the unit from May to October 2020. This was impossible, said the CA.
The OSG also averred that the items to be seized were described sufficiently and should not render the search warrants as general warrants or null and void.
The CA already said that a search warrant need not describe the items to be seized in minute and precise detail but common elements and features of the items shall be inquired upon such as the color, size, shape, material, brand, parts or any and all crucial and decisive description of the object to be captured.
The CA added that the decision noted the Mandaluyong court’s observation that while the police applicants said they were in close proximity to the respondents, “it is incomprehensible that they could not remember the brands or at least the color of the laptop and the cellphone they had seen up close.”
Aside from the firearms and explosives, the search warrants issued by Villavert only indicated “1 phone”, “1 laptop” and the police ended up seizing 4 phones and 3 laptops of different colors, brands, and models. The CA and trial court agreed that such results in the search were precisely what the law sought to prevent: an unbridled search and a violation of the rights of the accused. The CA and trial court also agreed that the police undertook a fishing expedition. Apart from seizing more than 1 phone and 1 laptop, they also seized other items not indicated in the warrant such as hard drives and sling bags.
ATA, disinformation apart from trumped-up cases
On August 1 this year, Lorraine Badoy, Jeffrey Celis, Franco Baranda, Yna Mortel, and NTF-ELCAC legal counsel James Santos), tagged Salem and Esparago as urban operatives of the Communist Party of the Philippines – New Peoples’ Army (CPP-NPA), in a program aired over Sonshine Media Network International (SMNI).
The SMNI hosts pushed that the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) could be used against freed political prisoners like Salem and Esparago.
SMNI is a media network owned by televangelist Apollo Quiboloy, a known Duterte ally. Badoy and Celiz used to be part of NTF-ELCAC and frequently red-tag activists, journalists, lawyers and government critics.
In Southern Tagalog, 16 activists were charged with the ATA. They are United Methodist Church pastor Rev. Glofie Baluntong, peace advocate Fe Serrano, human rights workers and paralegal workers United Church of Christ of the Philippines pastor Rev. Edwin Egar, Hailey Pecayo, Kenneth Rementilla, Jasmin Rubia, John Peter Angelo Garcia, peasant organizer Carlo Reduta, Alaiza Lemita (sister of Bloody Sunday victim Chai Lemita-Evangelista) and six peasants in Mindoro Occidental and Quezon provinces.
“The increasing use of the terror law and other trumped-up charges against activists is among the notable trends during the first year of the Marcos Jr. regime, as it implements draconian policies rolled out as laws during the Duterte administration and continues its campaign of political persecution of activists and political dissenters. As a result, at least 49 individuals have been arrested and detained under the Marcos Jr. administration out of the 778 political prisoners as of June 2023,” said rights group KARAPATAN.
The Marcos Jr. administration, through Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC), has designated several individuals as “terrorists” for being alleged members of the CPP-NPA, including community doctor Dr. Naty Castro, Cordillera-based activists Sarah Abellon Alikes, Jennifer Awingan, Windel Balag-ey Bolinget, Stephen Ambucay Tauli, Jovencio Sannadan Tangbawan, and May Rodriguez Vargas-Casilao.
They were named and identified by the ATC based on supposed “verified and validated information” with regard to their violations of the Anti-Terrorism Act, particularly Sections 4, 6, 10, and 12 which generally pertain to the planning, recruitment, provision of material support, and commission of terrorism.
In a statement, Manila Today lambasted the rampant red-tagging and dangers of ATA seen not only as a grave violation of human rights but further poses a severe threat to the safety and well-being of journalists and activists alike.
“While this is not the first time that personalities on the show have tried to link people and groups to the ongoing armed struggle in the Philippines, we further emphasize the Manila RTC ruling through Judge Marlo Magdoza-Malagar affirming that CPP-NPA are not terrorist organizations but are waging a revolutionary war for more than five decades,” Manila Today said in a statement.
“We call on the Marcos Jr. administration to address rampant human rights violations committed in the first year of his term. […] That journalists like Salem must not be vilified because of their right to freedom of expression at the expense of other civil and political rights,” it added.
