Photo from X/@johnpeterangelo
September 4, 2023
Karapatan denounces the vicious weaponization of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), particularly against young activists and human rights defenders in Southern Tagalog.
The latest victim is John Peter Angelo “Jpeg” Garcia, a nominee for University Student Regent from the University of the Philippines-Los Baños (UPLB) and current chair of the Youth Advocates for Peace and Justice (YAPJUST) in UPLB. In the belatedly filed reply affidavits of of individuals in the complaint against Southern Tagalog human rights worker Hailey Pecayo, two so-called witnesses alleged that Garcia’s supposed alias is “Tango.” The said alias is among those named as respondents, together with Pecayo, in the trumped up charges against her on violations of the Anti-Terrorism Act and the domestic legislation on International Humanitarian Law.
This patently false imputation of Garcia’s identity is feared to have dangerous implications on his life and security. In the complaint by Sgt. Jean Claude Bajaro of the 59th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army, he said that “Tango” is among the NPA members engaging in terrorist acts.
In July and August 2022, these four activists joined several other human rights defenders in fact-finding missions to look into the killing by 59th IBPA soldiers of 9-year-old Kyllene Casao in Taysan, Batangas. The members of the fact-finding team were harassed every step of the way by the 59th IBPA, prompting Jasmin Rubia and Ken Rementilla to later file a complaint with the Commission on Human Rights.
Since then, the 59th IBPA, through its attack dog Sergeant Bajaro, has relentlessly hounded members of the fact-finding team, especially Rubia, Rementilla, Pecayo and now Garcia, who are known youth leaders in Southern Tagalog.
That the trumped up charges and false allegations these young activists are facing all stem from their participation in a fact-finding mission shows the real intent of the barrage of ATA cases Southern Tagalog human rights defenders have been slapped with — it is to suppress efforts to expose the brutality of the Marcos Jr. regime’s counter-insurgency war and the fact that it has been victimizing growing numbers of civilians, including children like Kyllene Casao, in violation of International Humanitarian Law.
We stand in solidarity with the region’s beleaguered human rights defenders in their fight for justice. Karapatan and the rest of the human rights community here and abroad will not relent in the struggle to junk the Anti-Terrorism Act and other repressive laws like the Anti-Terrorism Financing Act that State forces have been brandishing against human rights defenders, activists and other dissenters.
Cristina Palabay
Karapatan Secretary General
ERRATUM: Through this updated statement, we are correcting our previously released statement regarding complaints/charges against Garcia.