Hustisya (Victims United for Justice) joined environmental and rights activists in expressing support for Jonila Castro and Jhed Tamano who are scheduled for arraignment today, March 24, 2025 at the Metropolitan Trial Court in Plaridel, Bulacan for retaliatory and baseless grave oral defamation charges.
It will be remembered that Castro and Tamano, both community organizers working against the environmentally destructive Manila Bay reclamation projects, were abducted in Orion, Bataan on September 2, 2023. For 17 days, they were subjected to physical, mental and psychological torture and coerced into signing an affidavit stating that they were surrendering to the government. In exchange, they would be surfaced but required to denounce their organizations and advocacies.
In a stunning turnaround, Castro and Tamano went off-script and courageously disclosed before a press conference organized by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) that they had indeed been abducted and had not surrendered. They disowned their sworn affidavit for having been executed under duress. “They have since been threatened and vilified by the NTF-ELCAC, which filed a case of grave oral defamation against the two activists who dared to speak truth to power,” said Hustisya secretary general Ofelia Balleta.”
“This retaliatory case is proof that the persecution of dissenters persists under the Marcos Jr. regime,” added Balleta. “It will be recalled that ten human rights defenders from Karapatan, the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines and Gabriela were also slapped with a retaliatory case of perjury by then National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. after the latter was impleaded by the human rights defenders in a petition for writs of amparo and habeas data,” she said. “Up to now, Esperon has not relented and was even joined by Marcos Jr.’s National Security Adviser Eduardo Año in appealing his case after losing at the Metropolitan Trial Court.”
“Hustisya calls for the junking of the retaliatory case against Castro and Tamano and all other retaliatory cases against human rights defenders,” urged Balleta. “The persecution of dissenters must stop.”