PinoyAbrod.net

Rights group Hustisya called for the acquittal of trade union activist Marklen Maojo Maga, who is set to face judgment on charges of illegal possession of firearms on June 3. 

In a picket protest held infront of the Department of Justice today, Hustisya chairperson Evangeline Hernandez said that the courts should see the injustice against Maga, from his arrest up to his detention for more than a year. 

”We plead to the courts to free Maga, and let him be reunited with his son. We wish that they put an end to this madness of planting evidence to enable the filing of trumped-up charges against activists and ordinary persons,” said Hernandez. 

Maga was arrested on the morning of February 22, 2018, while playing basketball in their neighborhood in San Mateo, Rizal. He just came back from sending his son to school that morning, when police arrested him and allegedly found a .45 caliber gun in his bag. They took a photo of the bag, marked it as evidence, but there was no photo of the gun. The firearm and ammunition allegedly in his possession were already in Camp Crame where he was first brought to and integorrated. 

“How are we supposed to believe that Maga is carrying a gun that morning? Playing basketball was his usual morning routine after sending his son to school. It is downright absurd for Maga to carry a gun to his son’s school, then in the community where he is a known resident,” said Hernandez. 

SELDA, organization of former political prisoners, called for the dismissal of trumped-up charges of murder against Maga, filed in Agusan del Norte, where he has never gone to.

“Maga is a trade union activist, an organizer of workers in Metro Manila and Central Luzon. In a made-up world by spin doctors and professional liars in the police, they maliciously included Maga’s name in a case thousands of kilometers away from Manila, in a dire attempt to press more charges against him and keep him in jail,” SELDA secretary general Sally Bacarra said.

Maga is currently detained at the Metro Manila District Jail in Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan, Taguig City. Since then, Maga has only seen his 9-year old son through jail visits. 

“Maga should be freed for his son, who has to travel with his mother all the way from Rizal to Taguig City to see his father. His son’s only wish is our wish too, that his father be released from prison, so that he may send him to school again as classes begin next week,” said Hernandez.  

They reiterated the call to release the 532 political prisoners currently detained under the Duterte government. 

“The Duterte government, like other regimes, has employed the dirtiest tactics against activists, critics and ordinary citizens. Its armed forces and police use the law against the people, not to uphold ther rights but to suppress voices that cry out the injustice that beset our land,” Bacarra ended. ###

Reference: Evangeline Hernandez. Hustisya chairperson, 0946-0177211

On May 28, 2019, the House of Representatives (HOR) is expected to convene to tackle the proposed amendments to the Human Security Act (HSA) of 2007, or the Anti-Terror Law. Karapatan has continuously expressed its opposition to the passage of proposed amendments to the HSA, as its draconian provisions are tantamount to the deliberate crippling and infringement of the people’s civil and political rights. “This will bring us one step closer to a full-fledged dictatorship,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay.

Karapatan maintains its position that the said amendments will enable the wholesale violation of people’s civil liberties and political rights, including the right to freedom of expression and to due process, the right to hold political beliefs and to legitimate exercise of dissent, the right against illegal or arbitrary arrests and detention, and the right to privacy, among others.

“This is a clear manifestation of the country’s complete shift towards militarism, justified by the Duterte government’s widespread fear mongering. This will further endanger communities and human rights defenders, rendering them even more vulnerable to a myriad of attacks that will now be classified as “legal” under the rubric of the anti-terror law. The anti-terror law already has extensive ramifications on the exercise of people’s rights; its amendments will take this danger to an unprecedented degree. The HSA and its proposed amendments is a roadblock to the exercise of our democratic rights, and it will reinforce the structure of impunity in the country,” said Palabay, citing that provisions to exact accountability form state forces, such as the PhP500,000 per day penalty to be paid by authorities for individuals later acquitted, have been surreptitiously removed.

Palabay further reiterated that the HSA and its amendments will “open a Pandora’s box of another vicious cycle of state-perpetrated violations.” She added that under the amended HSA, state forces can legally detain suspected individuals for 14 days, making them vulnerable to all forms of rights violations, including torture. “Moreover, the proposed measure will give full military powers to the most notorious human rights violators such as the AFP and PNP. This is nothing short of martial law,” Palabay expressed.

“As the HOR convenes, we enjoin everyone to be vigilant against the railroading of the amended HSA, at the expense of people’s basic democratic rights. We likewise call on all sectors, advocates and organizations to register their opposition against this blatant attempt to implement unchecked military rule masquerading under the guise of an arbitrary interpretation of “national security.” Such militarist policies have failed to solve the fundamental problems of our society in the past, and the passage of the amended HSA will amount to the same failure. Instead, it will merely heighten repression,” concluded Palabay.