Marcos Jr. regime’s use of anti-terror and terrorist financing laws vs activists and dissidents presented at IPT

Southern Tagalog activist Hailey Pecayo’s testimony before the International People’s Tribunal (IPT) speaks of the unjustness and arbitrariness by which the regime of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. accuses human rights defenders and other political activists of violating anti-terror and terrorist financing laws.

At 19, Hailey Pecayo serves as the spokesperson of Tanggol Batangan, a provincial alliance of human rights advocates, volunteers and professionals providing legal assistance and support for victims of human rights violations in the province of Batangas.

In July 2022, she joined a fact-finding and humanitarian mission to look into reports that soldiers from the 59th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army had killed a nine-year-old girl, Kyllene Casao and a mentally challenged 50-year-old farmer, Maximino Digno, in Batangas.

In retaliation, the soldiers falsely accused Hailey of being a member of the New People’s Army, committing attempted murder and violating the Anti-Terror Act and international humanitarian law. As in other cases of this nature, the criminal complaints against Hailey were based on fabricated testimonies of soldiers and so-called rebel surrenderees and were clearly meant to derail her work as a human rights defender.

The cases against Hailey have been dismissed, but she remains a target of red- and terror-tagging, surveillance, threats and harassment, including sexual harrasment, from the military.

Barely three months after the dismissal, the Department of Justice (DOJ) concocted yet another case against two other young Southern Tagalog activists, Fritz Jay Labiano and Adrian Paul Tagle, this time for alleged violation of RA 10168 or the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012.

Fritz is the coordinator of Kabataan Partylist in Quezon province while Adrian is the coordinator and spokesperson of Tanggol Quezon and a member of Karapatan-Southern Tagalog.

The DOJ’s indictment stems from Fritz and Adrian’s response as human rights defenders, to reports that environmental activist Miguela Peniero and indigenous peoples rights advocate Rowena Dasig had been arrested and were detained at the Atimonan Municipal Police Station. Fritz and Adrian looked into their condition and gave the detainees Php 500.00 (US$8.77), drinking water and some food items.

Fritz and Adrian’s indictment sets a very dangerous precedent as it penalizes human rights defenders and humanitarian aid workers providing assistance to activists in police or military custody.

Meanwhile, Fritz and Adrian’s liberty and security are imperilled, since the anti-terrorism court may issue a warrant for their arrest at any time, if it has not done so already.

To date, more than a hundred human rights defenders, political activists and other dissenters have been unjustly and arbitrarily accused, indicted or charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act and the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act. Those charged under the ATA include a well-known leader of a progressive political party and a leader of a militant labor center. Those accused of terrorist financing include several development NGOs whose accounts have been frozen, with some now subject to civil forfeiture proceedings. The most adversely affected by these acts are the development NGOs’ beneficiaries in the most impoverished and marginalized communities in the country who have now been deprived of much-needed projects and services.

Leading the charge in weaponizing anti-terror legislation against human rights defenders and political activists is the DOJ, the same government agency that co-chairs Malacañang’s newly created Human Rights Coordinating Council, a “super body” that will supposedly ensure adherence to human rights norms.

The hypocrisy is painfully obvious. It is the equivalent of ordering an attack dog to protect its victim. Marcos Jr. reeks of duplicity in assigning conflicting roles to the DOJ. It is a glaring indicator of his gross contempt for human rights and international humanitarian law, making the perpetuation of injustice a certainty.

The IPT, a peoples-initiated tribunal presided over by a panel of international jurors and legal experts, held the first day of hearings on charges of international humanitarian law violations against the Duterte and Marcos Jr. regimes in the course of counter-insurgency operations. Hailey Pecayo, one of the victims of these IHL violations, served as a witness.#