Today, December 2nd, marks the fourth year of the unjust arrest of peasant organizer Amanda Echanis, who was arrested under the Duterte regime in Baggao, Cagayan alongside her then month-old baby and slapped with a trumped-up case of illegal possession of firearms and explosives.
Under the Marcos Jr. regime, another woman peasant organizer, Desiree Jaranilla Patuñ-og, was arrested in Mexico, Pampanga on July 29, 2024 with three other peasant rights activists, charged with violation of the Anti-Terror Act and illegal possession of firearms based on planted evidence.
On November 8, 2018, then 66-year-old Virginia Villamor, who had yet to recover from a hip injury, was arrested with her husband Alberto and NDFP consultant Vicente Ladlad at their rented house in Novaliches, Quezon City and charged with illegal possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives after the arresting team planted these items.
Under the current regime, another elderly woman, then 78-year old Rosita Taboy, was arrested with her husband Antonio Legaspi at their home in San Jose del Monte, Bulacan on May 26, 2023. Rosita, who is diabetic and hypertensive, lost her husband in April this year after he succumbed to a heart attack. Despite her numerous health issues, the courts have yet to act on her motion for hospitalization. She also faces trumped-up charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives.
On February 7, 2020, the fourth year of Duterte’s rule, Katungod-Sinirangan Bisayas secretary general Alexander Abinguna was arrested with four others in Tacloban City. The human rights defender and his companions were slapped with bogus charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives.
On August 13, 2024, Jayvee Apiag, former secretary general of Karapatan-Southern Mindanao was arrested in Digos City and is facing six trumped-up cases—four for attempted murder in Davao City, Digos City and Malaybalay, Bukidnon and another case for illegal possession of firearms and explosives in another court in Malaybalay.
On March 24, 2019, in a wave of arrests under Duterte, NDFP consultant Frank Fernandez was arrested with his wife Cleofe Lagtapon and companion Ge-Ann Perez in Liliw, Laguna. The three, who were seeking medical attention for their illnesses, were charged with a trumped-up case of illegal possession of firearms and explosives, on top of fabricated murder charges against the couple. Frank Fernandez was 71 when arrested and suffers from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
On October 24, 2024, another ailing and elderly NDFP consultant, 68-year old Wigberto Villarico, was arrested in Fairview, Quezon City. Villarico suffers from spondylitis, hypertension, heart arrhythmia, asthma, diabetes and prostate enlargement, among others. Like Fernandez, he faces a slew of trumped-up charges, including kidnapping and murder.
These parallel cases starkly show that not much has changed from Duterte’s time to the present. The Marcos Jr. regime perpetuates the same repressive policies and practices that earned notoriety for the Duterte regime. As in Duterte’s time, jails and prisons under Ferdinand Marcos Jr. are filled with peasant organizers, human rights defenders, and elderly and ailing activists, including NDFP consultants—all of them facing trumped-up charges arising from planted evidence and the perjured testimonies of bogus witnesses.
There are currently 757 political prisoners languishing in various detention centers nationwide, 148 of them arrested under Marcos Jr. Ninety-seven are ailing and 103 are elderly.
None of them deserves to stay a minute more behind bars.
It is Rodrigo Duterte who must be imprisoned, not just for the tens of thousands killed in his bloody drug war, but for all other human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law in the course of his despotic regime.
Ferdinand Marcos Jr. must likewise be held accountable for perpetuating, among others, Duterte’s repressive policy of manufacturing cases and unjustly imprisoning activists, human rights defenders and freedom fighters.
Free all political prisoners!
Jail Duterte! Hold Marcos accountable!