KARAPATAN and the Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA) welcomed the dismissal of trumped up frustrated murder charges against indigenous rights advocate Myrna Cruz-Abraham.
In a five-page decision by Judge Conrado T. Tabaco of the Aparri Regional Trial Court Branch 9, the court granted Abraham’s demurrer to evidence, effectively dismissing the frustrated murder case against her involving an ambush on March 6, 2007 in Sta. Teresita, Cagayan that resulted in the wounding of a barangay captain and a policeman. Said Judge Tabaco: “The … witnesses themselves denied either knowing the accused or having supplied her name as one of the perpetrators of the alleged crime committed….”
“As in all the cases against political prisoners, the court deemed the charges against Cruz-Abraham as with ‘insufficient evidence.’ In the first place, the allegations from the so-called complainants are filled with numerous inconsistencies, that the prosecutors should not have filed the case in court and effected the arrest and detention of Cruz-Abraham,” SELDA said.
Cruz-Abraham, 69, was arrested on January 27, 2025 while grocery shopping with her daughter in San Rafael, Bulacan. She was later able to post bail.
The 2025 arrest was her second. In March 2010, she was arrested on fabricated charges of murder and violations of the election-related gun ban. She was released in December 2010 when charges against her were dismissed for lack of evidence but she had to endure nine months of unjust detention.
There are 737 political prisoners as of June 2025, according to KARAPATAN. At least 164 of them were arrested under the Marcos Jr. administration and are still in prison.
KARAPATAN Secretary General Cristina Palabay scored the use of so-called former rebels or rebel surrenderees in the trumped up case against Cruz-Abraham, citing the prevalent practice of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) of peddling the scripted testimonies of these individuals to prosecutors and the courts to harass activists and ordinary citizens.
“Aside from the obvious inconsistencies in their complaints, these individuals are known military assets in the communities, and are therefore beneficiaries of whatever monetary benefit that this entails. The credibility of these individuals are as poor as that of the NTF-ELCAC’s record, one that is established and built on fomenting fascist terrorism in the country. For the prosecution and courts to entertain these allegations means that there is a concerted scheme for political persecution of dissenters,” Palabay said.
In a statement, the family of Cruz-Abraham thanked those who assisted her during her recent arrest and detention, including National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers’ Catherine Salucon who served as her legal counsel, and called for justice. “Naghuhumiyaw ang hustisya dahil sa pagkakataong ito, nanaig ang katotohanan na hindi kriminal ang aming ina. Hindi tumigil ang aming ina at kanyang mga kasama na patunayan na hindi pagkakamali ang ipagtanggol ang naaapi. Kaya mariin pa rin naming ipapahayag na walang nagawang kasalanan si Mama dahil hindi mali ang lumaban,” Cruz-Abraham’s family said.