Tindig Pilipinas : ‘Flimsy’ charges vs opposition is ‘mockery of judicial process’
MANILA, Philippines — “It is a mockery of the judicial process.”
This was how Tindig Pilipinas, a staunch critic of the Duterte administration, described the sedition complaint filed by the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) against opposition members over the “Ang Totoong Narcolist” videos.
The opposition alliance said the “filing of flimsy charges” were meant to silence the “democracy, free speech and the redress of grievances that are all constitutionally guaranteed as basic fundamental rights of each and every Filipino.”
READ: Sedition case filed vs Robredo, 35 others over ‘Bikoy’ videos
The group also criticized the filing of the complaint which happened amid the administration’s decision to allow China to fish in the country’s exclusive economic zone.
“All the more curious that this government crackdown is happening right at this time when this administration is besieged with charges of selling out our country and its territorial integrity to China, tolerating the impunity foisted by our neighbor from the North without as much as a whimper from our government, and effectively rendering the president and his government China’s lapdogs,” read the statement on Saturday.
READ: Duterte on West Philippine Sea: I’m the owner, I’m just giving China fishing rights
Tindig Pilipinas also said the charges “suspiciously” occurred when the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted the Iceland-initiated resolution asking the UN for a deeper probe into the human rights situation in the Philippines.
“The move also suspiciously came at a time when the UN Human Rights Council just recently adopted a resolution requesting the High Commissioner to conduct comprehensive monitoring and reporting on [human rights] situation in the country,” it said. /muf
READ: Greater scrutiny on PH killings gets UN rights council’s nod
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