Cordillera activists ask SC to reconsider amparo plea

Twenty-four activists in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) on Monday filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to reconsider the dismissal of their plea for writ of amparo, which was upheld by the Court of Appeals.

In the petition, the members of the Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA) said they were red-tagged through social media posts and subjected to surveillance and baseless charges by state forces in the region.

“While petitioners are no strangers to threats from state forces owing to their political beliefs, the threatening acts significantly heightened during the period of the government-imposed community lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the 111-page petition for certiorari read.

According to the petitioners, the Regional Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee in CAR (RLECC-CAR) also issued a resolution that paved for the conduct of house visitations of individuals believed to be associated with communist front organizations.

The petitioners said state forces would also encamp within indigenous villages, residential houses, and occupied civilian facilities such as dap-ay and barangay hall buildings.

“It is further prayed that the Honorable Court reverse the October 24, 2022 decision and April 11, 2023 resolution of the Court of Appeals and issue a new one granting the reliefs prayed for in the amended petition,” the petitioners said.

Named respondents in the petition are the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Regional Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee in CAR (RLECC-CAR), the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA), the Philippine Army, and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

In their petition, the 24 CPA members also asked the SC to issue a writ of preliminary injunction ordering the NTF-ELCAC, the PNP, and the Philippine Army to take down all social media posts labeling them as communist terrorists.

They also asked the high court to declare the resolutions and ordinances declaring the CPA as persona non grata as void for supposedly violating their right to life, liberty, and security.

The group likewise asked the SC to direct the DILG-CAR to conduct a probe on all local government units involved in the issuance of persona non grata resolutions and ordinances and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to probe the accounts of PNP and troll accounts on Facebook.

"So 'yan ang hiniling namin na ibigay sana pero hindi 'yan pinagbigyan ng Court of Appeals kaya andito kami sa Korte Suprema na nag-aapela na sana ay tulungan kami magbigay ng protection order dahil huwag sana nilang hintayin na itong mga red-tagging, mga pag dukot ay magpapatuloy at may mangyaring mga pagpatay,” CPA chairman Windel Bolinget told reporters during the filing.

(So that’s what we were asking from the Court of Appeals but the ruling was not favorable so we are now appealing to the Supreme Court to help us through a protection order. I hope they don’t wait for the red-tagging, the abductions to continue and to lead to death.)

GMA News Online has sought comment from the respondents but none has responded as of posting time. —KBK, GMA Integrated News