MANILA, Philippines — The arrest of two indigenous peoples’ human rights defenders, who were among the petitioners seeking to invalidate the controversial antiterror law, only shows the dangers faced by dissenters, petitioners told the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
In a manifestation, the petitioners said the arrest of Windel Bolinget and Chad Errol Booc “further [proves] the chilling effect that such a law can CREATE, as activists, indigenous peoples and indigenous peoples’ rights supporters are now tagged as criminals.”
Bolinget, head of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance, was ordered arrested for murder in March 2018 in Davao del Norte over “trumped-up charges,” while Booc, a volunteer teacher in a school for tribal evacuees, was arrested on Monday, along with 25 others, at the University of San Carlos in Cebu in what authorities said was a “rescue operation.”
—Tina G. Santos