Tanggol Bayi, an association of women human rights defenders, joins other activists and women’s rights advocates in a prayer gathering and protest action at the Department of Justice to call for an end to the use of terror laws against women human rights defenders in the Philippines.
Several women human rights defenders and activists have been charged with violations of anti-terror and terrorist financing laws. As proof of the malicious and arbitrary nature of these charges, a number of the cases have been dismissed. But more bogus terrorism charges loom in the horizon as state repression mounts.
Among the more notable cases are those of:
Dr. Natividad Castro, a graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Medicine, has, for decades, been serving the most impoverished peasant and indigenous areas in the Caraga region as a community doctor. On December 7, 2022, the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) designated her as a “terrorist individual.” Among the reasons cited for her designation was her being the executive director of the Community Based Health Program (CBHP) which the ATC accused of having links to the CPP-NPA-NDF. Castro has been working as a community doctor, public health practitioner and human rights activist in the Agusan provinces since 1996, when she started her medical practice.
Miguela Peniero, an environmental defender, was arrested with youth activist and fellow environmental defender Rowena Dasig on July 12, 2023 in Atimonan, Quezon. Both were slapped with trumped-up charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives. These charges, however, were dismissed in August of this year, leading to Dasig’s release. But Peniero remains in jail due to other trumped-up charges, notably a case alleging violation of the Anti-Terrorism Act. She came to know about the case after she was served an arrest warrant dated July 18, 2023, the sixth day of her detention. Concerns have also been raised over Peniero’s health, since she is a cancer survivor.
Alayza Lemita, a sister of Ana Mariz Lemita-Evangelista, one of the victims of the Bloody Sunday Massacre of March 7, 2021 that saw nine activists killed and six arrested, was subjected to intense harassment along with other members of her family because of their determination to seek justice for Ana Mariz. Alayza was falsely accused of violating Section 4 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, but the case has been dismissed. State authorities, however, slapped her with another case, this time for alleged financing terrorism, for which she has already submitted her counter-affidavit. She and a woman sari-sari store owner had allegedly fed adobo to the New People’s Army.
Desiree Jaranilla Patuñ-og, a peasant organizer, was arrested with three other Central Luzon-based activists on July 29, 2024 in Mexico, Pampanga. On top of the bogus charge of illegal possession of firearms and explosives, she is facing a trumped-up case of violating the Anti-Terrorism Act in relation to an alleged encounter on October 7 and 8, 2023 in Nueva Ecija between the New People’s Army and the military.
Estrella Catarata, a human rights defender, social workers and psychologist, was one of the founders of the Cebu-based Community Empowerment Resource Network, Inc. (CERNET). She was the executive director of the Central Visayas Farmer’s Development Center (FARDEC) Inc., which advocates for land rights and sustainable food production. In 2001, FARDEC was one of nine NGOs to form the CERNET network. Catarata remained a board officer of CERNET until 2013. She is now the executive director of Sibol ng Agham at Teknolohiya (SIBAT) Inc. She is one of 11 women development workers out of a total of 27 persons with former or current connections to CERNET who have been falsely charged with violating the law on terrorist financing. Their case is currently pending in court.
Women human rights defenders in the Philippines are being red- and terror-tagged in order to turn public opinion against them, and set them up for graver human rights violations such as extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance and arrest and detention on trumped-up charges. Being women, they face the added danger of gender-based violence from state authorities. Thus, they often doubly suffer in the face of state repression.
Political prisoners are living proof of state fascism. Out of the total 755 political prisoners nationwide under the Marcos Jr. regime, 147 are women, unjustly incarcerated for their political activities.
Tanggol Bayi joins other human rights defenders and women’s rights advocates in the call to dismiss all terror law charges against women rights defenders who are imprisoned or have been slapped with charges of violating the Anti-Terror Law and the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Law. We also call for the release of all women political prisoners who have been falsely portrayed as criminals for their activism.