Ofelia Balleta, daughter of the late labor leader and former Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran, has condemned the inclusion of her father in the mug shot gallery of fugitives suspected of crimes despite his death seven years ago.
Balleta joined lawmakers and human rights advocates who have filed petitions with the Supreme Court for protection, writ of amparo and habeas data after discovering that their photos were part of a police rogues gallery as suspects in a supposed kidnapping and human trafficking complaint by three lumad a few months ago.
The other petitioners were Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani T. Zarate, Gabriela Women’s Rep. Emerenciana de Jesus, former Anakpawis Rep. Rafael V. Mariano, former Bayan Muna Rep. Teodoro Casino, Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay, Sister Mary Francis Añover, Rev. Irma M. Balaba and Children’s Rehabilitation Center executive director Jacquiline Ruiz.
Trumped-up charges
Named respondents in the petition were President Aquino, Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Hernando Iriberri, Philippine National Police Chief Ricardo Marquez, Army Chief Maj. Gen. Eduardo Año and Eastern Mindanao Command Chief Lt. Gen. Aurelio Baladad.
The petitioners said they were “being implicated in trumped-up charges involving the hundreds of lumad, who fled their homes in Talaingod, Davao del Norte, to escape the atrocities of the military and paramilitary forces occupying their communities.”
“With the exception of the heirs of Beltran, the petitioners’ rights to life, liberty and security are under threat from the respondents. They are being threatened by the respondents because of their political affiliations and advocacies as nationalists and progressive legislators, human rights defenders and activists.
“The petitioners are likewise asking the court to compel respondents under the writ of habeas data to produce and, if necessary, update and rectify, or suppress and destroy data, information and files in their possession under their control or contained in their data base, which relate to or concerns the petitioners.”
The petitioners said that based on the narration of Datu Dalon and Landahay on April 30, 2015, after being interviewed by an officer of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group based in Davao City, they were shown pictures of leaders of Bayan, Karapatan, League of Filipino Students, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, Panalipdan and Pasakawas.
From the gallery of offenders, they were able to identify fellow human rights activists tagged as respondents to charges of kidnapping, serious illegal detention and human trafficking.
They said the charges against them were manufactured even as they quoted the statement of Chaloka Beyani, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, that the lumad are “not victims of human trafficking.”
“In the first place, the complaints for kidnapping and serious illegal detention and human trafficking are clearly manufactured and meant to distort the truth behind the Manobos’ terrible ordeal and disparage human rights and humanitarian workers who came to their aid,” the petitioners said.
“The indigenous peoples whom I interviewed informed me that they relocated to this facility freely and in response to the militarization of their lands and territories and forced recruitment into paramilitary groups operating under the auspices of the AFP,” the petitioners said, quoting Beyani in his statement after an official visit to the Philippines.