Lawmakers, rights advocates seek SC help vs AFP ‘hit list’

Progressive lawmakers, human rights advocates and several others on Friday sought protection from the Supreme Court due to threats to their life, liberty and security after they were included in an alleged military “hit list.”

Petitioners include Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate, Gabriela Rep. Emmi de Jesus, former Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano, former Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño, Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay, Children’s Rehabilitation Center executive director Jacqueline Ruiz, Rural Missionaries Coordinator Sr. Mary Francis Añover, Rev. Irma Balaba of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines, and Ofelia Beltran-Balleta, representing the family of former Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran who passed away in 2008.

“Petitioners have suffered from surveillance, red-tagging and various forms of harassment through the years and are now being implicated in trumped-up charges involving the hundreds of Lumad who fled their homes in Talaingod, Davao del Norte to escape atrocities of the military and paramilitary forces occupying their communities,” the 36-page petition stated.

Petitioners, through their counsel from the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), said the hit list was appended to a criminal complaint by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police, on charges of kidnapping, serious illegal detention, and violations of Republic Act No. 9298, or the “Anti-Trafficking of Persons Act of 2003”, and Republic Act No. 10364, or the “Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2012.”

The crimes were allegedly committed against some evacuees from Lumad communities in Davao del Norte and Bukidnon. More than 700 evacuees, who were forced to flee due to AFP operations and rights abuses, are now staying at the compound of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines in Davao City.

“This is an indication that the CIDG (Criminal Investigation and Detection Group) was provided with dossiers of the Petitioners and the other individuals included in the lists. Obviously, such dossiers came from other sources, since the individuals whose names appear in the lists, including the Petitioners, are not fugitives from justice, and that the conduct of counterinsurgency operations is not a function of the CIDG,” the petition stated.

Petitioners sought the issuance of writs of amparo and habeas data.

Habeas data will not only compel military and government agents to release information about the enforced disappearances but require access to military and police files. The  writ of amparo, on the other hand, bars military officers in judicial proceedings to issue denial answers regarding petitions on disappearances or extrajudicial executions, which were legally permitted in Habeas corpus proceedings

Petitioners want the high court to compel the military and police to release the information they have gathered against them and destroy it.

“Petitioners are not compelled merely by normal apprehension in decrying and seeking the Court’s protection from the threats to their lives, liberty and security which are the subject of this Petition. These threats must be viewed in light of injustice that the leaders and members of petitioners’ organizations have suffered under the State’s dark conspiracy of treating unarmed civilians as fair targets of counterinsurgency operations,” the petition stated.

Respondents in the said petition include, among others, President Aquino III, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, AFP Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Hernando Iriberri, PNP Chief P/Dir. Ricardo Marquez, Army Chief Maj. Gen. Eduardo Año, Eastern Mindanao Command Chief Lt. Gen. Aurelio Baladad, and CIDG Director C/Supt. Victor Deona,