UPDATE (Philippines): Human rights and political activists exonerated from murder cases face another questionable charge

Dear Friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) writes with deep concern that a labour lawyer and several other activists, who had already been released after they were exonerated from questionable charges, have been charged with another murder complaint. Had they not been informed by a colleague, they would have not known that they had also been charged and investigated for murder.

UPDATED INFORMATION:

As mentioned in our previous appeal (AHRC-UAU-068-2008), lawyer Remigio Saladero Jr. and 20 other activists had been charged with multiple murder and multiple frustrated murder in Calapan City. Though the crime took place in 3 March 2006, none of the respondents had been informed, nor knew of the charges laid against them.

When the prosecutor first resolved the case in July 2006, the names of all the respondents were described initially as John Does. However, when the prosecutor made an amendment to the complaint on September 2008 to include the names of the respondents the latter were not informed of this action. The prosecutor resolved to file the case in court in the absence of any response from the respondents. They were neither informed of the conduct of a preliminary investigation that could have given them opportunity to answer the allegations.

Thus, when the court issued orders to arrest all the respondents, none of those whom the policemen had arrested in separate incidents from October to November 2008 had any idea at all that they had already been charged for murder. In this period, apart from Remigio, five other activists, namely Arnaldo Seminiano, organizer for Ilaw-Buklod ng Manggagawa (IBM); Nestor San Jose, coordinator for the Pagkakaisa ng mga Samahan ng Tsuper at Operator Nationwide (PISTON) in Rizal; Rogelio Galit, spokesperson of Katipunan ng mga Magbubukid sa Kabite (Kamagsasaka-Ka); Crispin Zapanta, a member of political party Bayan Muna and Emmanuel Dioneda, executive director of the Labor Education Advocacy Development Response Services, Inc., were also arrested.

The other respondents were left with no choice and were forced to go in hiding, effectively preventing them from doing their activities, in order to avoid being arrested as they had to await a resolution from the court which challenged the issuance of the arrest orders on them and the irregularities in the filing of charges. In their petitions, they sought intervention for the Regional Trial Court (RTC), Branch 39 in Calapan City to recall the arrest orders and to subsequently dismiss the charges laid on them.

The court, however, had been able to resolve the petition in favor of the respondent on the 5th February 2009 which eventually led to the release of Remigio and the five other detainees mentioned earlier from jail on the same day.

In his order, RTC judge Manuel C. Luna, Jr., held that the respondents could not be charged for the multiple murder and frustrated murder of six different individuals altogether in one complaint. Also, it ruled that “each act of murder and frustrated murder should have been charged in separate information (complaint)”.

But on 11 February 2009, few days after they were released from jail, Remigio and his fellow respondents, were once again informed of another murder charge laid against them. This time, the case involves the killing of a Ricky Garmino, 37, a member of a government paramilitary group, the Civilian Auxiliary Forces Geographical Unit (CAFGU). The crime upon which they are charged took place in Rodriquez, Rizal province in 29 July 2008. It was filed on 4th August 2008.

Those who had murdered Ricky, according to the records, are members of a rebel group, the Narciso Antazo Aramil Command of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People Army (CPP-NPA) operating in Rizal province.

Except for Arnaldo, some of those charged for the 3rd March, 2006 murder incident in Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro and the burning of a cell site of a telecommunications company in Lemery, Batangas on 2 August 2008, were included as respondents. To read the names, please see our previous appeal: (AHRC-UAC-239-2008)

In a sworn statement dated on 30 July 2008, the wife of the murder victim, Adelia Garmino, claimed that she had seen her husband being tied and taken away. She claimed that the perpetrators were NPAs, numbering more or less 30 men. Some of them were wearing uniforms similar to that of soldiers, while the others were in plain clothes. They shot her husband as he was struggling to free himself.

A witness, a certain Braulio Tambong, also claimed in his statement on 1 August, 2008 that the men and women whom Adelia mentioned also happened to introduced themselves to him as soldiers shortly before they went inside the yard to kill Ricky. However, strangely although he had not seen any of the perpetrators before, he has claimed to have been able to recognize some of the perpetrators, including Remigio, since their names and physical features had already been described to him by Ricky himself prior to his death.

The victim’s brother, Ronnie Garmino, also claimed that prior to his brother’s murder, members of the same NPA command had also visited in their place three occasions; and it was on these occasions that he was able to recognize almost all of their faces. His brother too told him that he may be sentenced to death for being a CAFGU member.

In his statement, Ronnie narrated that it was around 1pm of 29 July 2008 when he had seen his brother being tied up and carried towards a stream from which he was also taking cover. He recognized the two men carrying his brother as Nestor San Jose and Romie Aguilar, and the one who shot Ricky to his left shoulder as Julio Atienza. Ronnie said Julio was together with 20 NPA rebels when they killed his brother.

Ronnie is supposed to have been able to identify 70 of the names and the alleged aliases of the respondents exactly as it was written and in the same order in the list of name as they were written in complaint of murder in Pueto Galera, Oriental Mindoro. This was the complaint upon which the respondents were exonerated. The new charged had been filed at the Rizal Provincial Prosecutor’s Office, Pasig City.

Soon after Remigio and his fellow respondents became aware of this new murder case, they noticed police patrol cars overtly watching at the office where he is working, the Prolabor Legal Assistance Center (PLACE), along at E. Rodriguez Avenue, Quezon City. Tinted vehicles without plate numbers and motorcycles were also seen there. Unknown men with suspicious movements were also seen watching the entrance portion of the office and the clients going in and out.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write letters to concerned authorities requesting their intervention to ensure that a thorough review is conducted into the new charge laid on the respondents. The charges must be withdrawn should there be no sufficient evidence to hold them for trial. Also, express your deep concern to this pattern of filing questionable charges against human rights and political activists.

The AHRC has also written letters to the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders for her appropriate intervention.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER