As the Office of the Prosecutor of Antipolo City dismisses the 59th Infantry Battalion’s complaint against youth activists Kenneth Rementilla and Jasmin Rubia using Republic Act 11479 or the Anti Terrorism Law, Karapatan reiterates its call for the urgent repeal of the terror law, as it is being used to violate the constitutional rights of citizens to freedom of association, free expression and even the freedom to extend sympathies to families of victims of extrajudicial killings and conduct fact-finding missions in the case of Rementilla, Rubia and young human rights worker Hailey Pecayo.
These complaints are based on deliberate falsehoods spun by the soldiers of the 59th IBPA and their paid witnesses, and are orchestrated upon the direction of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and the Anti-Terrorism Council. The Antipolo City prosecutor’s decision bears out the dire lack of evidence against Rementilla and Rubia. We call on the dismissal of similar cases against United Methodist Church pastor Rev. Glofie Baluntong and others in Southern Tagalog.
We congratulate Pecayo, Rementilla, Rubia and their families, as well as the various human rights organizations in Southern Tagalog and in the Philippines who campaigned against these forms of judicial harassment. We laud the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers for their excellent support and legal assistance to the three human rights defenders.
Cristina Palabay
Karapatan Secretary General