KARAPATAN welcomed the recent wins of activists against trumped up charges by State security forces and the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), as it renewed calls to “abolish the notorious government entity that has endangered lives and freedoms since its establishment.”
Yesterday, June 5, 2025, abduction survivors and young environmental activists Jonila Castro and Jhed Tamano received a copy of a court order dismissing the retaliatory oral defamation charges against them by Lt. Col. Ronnel dela Cruz, commanding officer of the 70th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army. The said charges, according to KARAPATAN, is a form of reprisal on the two activists’ efforts to seek justice against their captors and torturers.
Castro and Tamano were abducted in Orion, Bataan, tortured and illegally detained for 17 days before being surfaced in a press conference called by the NTF-ELCAC where they were to be falsely presented as surrenderers. However, they courageously went off-script and confirmed to the public that they had been abducted. The oral defamation charges were filed by the military against the two victims in retaliation. Judge Sheila Orquillas of the Plaridel Municipal Trial Court granted the motion to quash the petition filed by the victims, thus leading to the case’s dismissal for lack of merit.
Also yesterday, trumped-up charges of unlawful possession of small firearms and ammunition against United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) Rev. Nathaniel “Dodo” Vallente were dismissed by the Regional Trial Court Branch 51 in Carmen, Bohol. Pastor Dodo had been released from prison on September 6, 2024. The charges which were dismissed by the court yesterday were bailable cases.
Reverend Vallente, a Bohol-based pastor of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) was acquitted by Carmen, Bohol RTC Branch 51 on June 5, 2025. He was arrested at his house in San Jose, Mabini, Bohol by elements of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police (PNP-CIDG) on June 25, 2021 and charged with illegal possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives on the basis of evidence planted by the raiding team. Before his arrest, Reverend Vallente was a peasant rights advocate and served as the adviser of Nagkahiusang Mag-uuma sa San Jose, a local peasant organization.
Recently, public sector unionist Eugene Eugenio, one of those arbitrarily arrested in the Bloody Sunday police and military operations on March 7, 2021, was acquitted of fabricated charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives by the Regional Trial Court Branch 139 in Antipolo City.
“Through these charges, activists, humanitarian workers, and political dissenters have been unjustly kept in prison or are under constant threat. It is a systematic scheme by the NTF-ELCAC and State security forces to derail the work of these individuals and groups and to instill the climate of fear and impunity among the people, by weaponizing the laws and using the courts to quell dissent,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay.
“Jhed and Jonila, as well as Reverend Dodo as well as Eugene have been vindicated. We will continue to fight for the rights of those who have been unjustly arrested and detained on trumped-up charges within and outside the courtroom,” KARAPATAN said.