Esperon’s perjury complaint proves gov’t is ‘hell-bent on silencing critics’ — Karapatan
MANILA, Philippines — Human rights group Karapatan said Wednesday that the perjury complaint filed against them by National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. is merely adding merit to their writs of amparo and habeas data petition and shows that the government is “hell-bent on silencing its critics.”
The human rights group was reacting to the perjury complaint filed by Esperon against them as well as two other groups — women’s group Gabriela and religious group Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) — for allegedly issuing false statements in their petition.
READ: Nat’ l Security Adviser Esperon sues religious group, 2 others for perjury
The groups filed the petition over the alleged practice of the government and military to tag organizations as communist fronts.
Esperon, however, said that the RMP claimed to be a registered organization in the petition even though their certificate of registration had been revoked.
“We stand by our attestation made in good faith and borne out of diligence that they are true and correct based on our own personal knowledge and/or based on authentic records,” Karapatan said in a statement.
“We do not have any intent to falsify, manufacture or misrepresent anything even on such microscopic technicalities and minute procedural points,” the group added.
Karapatan explained that the perjury complaint deflects the issues raised by their petition.
“The cynical claim of perjury by a national security adviser deflects on the more fundamental matters and transcendental issues in our petition,” the group said.
“The filing of a perjury complaint, along with other documented judicial harassment, extrajudicial killings, defamation and threats directed at our colleagues, is part and parcel of the attacks we face, aimed at discrediting our advocacy and invalidating the urgency of the pleas of the victims of human rights violations,” the group said.
“National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. is merely adding to the merit of our petition; that this government is indeed hell-bent on silencing its critics using the entire extent of its resources and through deliberately magnifying technicalities to veer the conversation away from the core issue of state-perpetrated attacks,” it added.
The petition of the human rights groups was dismissed by the Court of Appeals (CA), saying they failed to support their allegations of disappearances and extrajudicial killings of its members. (Editor: Eden Estopace)
READ: Rights group slams CA dismissal of amparo petition
