PRESS RELEASE
October 24, 2023
Environmental Defenders Demand End to ‘Unjust Legal Persecution’ of two Anti-Reclamation Activists
Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, along with the country’s only coalition of environmental defenders, Environmental Defenders Congress, have called for an immediate halt to the “unjust legal persecution” of environmental defenders Jhed Tamano and Jonila Castro, arguing that the perjury case filed against the two young anti-reclamation activists on October 5 amounts to “nothing more than judicial harassment aimed to stop them from their crucial work.”
“We strongly demand an end to the unjust legal persecution of the two activists,” said Dr. Jean Lindo, spokesperson of the Environmental Defenders Congress, noting that such legal harassment jeopardizes the two women’s crucial efforts to continue their work of organizing coastal communities around the Manila Bay in order to protect its marine ecosystems from a slew of planned and ongoing reclamation projects.
Lindo made her remarks on October 24, the same day that her group joined other environmentalists, marine scientists, human rights advocates, church members, fisherfolk, and other representatives of civil society groups who gathered in front of the Department of Justice (DOJ) in Padre Faura, Manila, to show support for Tamano and Castro who are undergoing the first preliminary investigation of the perjury case filed against them.
Lindo stated that the perjury case, filed by Lt. Col. Ronnel B. De la Cruz, the battalion commander of the Philippine Army’s 70th Infantry Battalion, seemed retaliatory, especially since it came after the two women had surprised everyone, at a press conference held to present them as rebel surrenderees, by revealing that they had truly been abducted by soldiers. “These circumstances leads all 26 environmental groups in the ENVIDEFCON coalition to firmly believe that this case serves as a clear act of harassment aimed at disseminating false information.”
“The sole purpose of the case is to obscure the reality that our fellow environmental defenders were forcibly taken on September 2, 2023. This was substantiated by witnesses from the local community in Orion, Bataan, who were interviewed by civil society groups that held an independent fact-finding mission to the area,” the ENVIDEFCON officer said. She also said that the evidence was further reinforced by numerous social media posts from the area on the night of September 2, confirming a violent abduction. The haphazard police investigation process and their refusal to sign or file reports required under the Anti-Enforced Disappearances Law (Republic Act 10353), also serve to bolster the claim of the two defenders that they were abducted.
The ENVIDEFCON spokesperson also called for the abolition of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict. “The NTF-ELCAC should be abolished – especially now that the case of Jhed and Jonila has highlighted the fact that this agency’s sole raison d’être is to silence environmental defenders,” she said. “Since it was created in 2018, the NTF-ELCAC has consistently employed tactics of red-tagging, public vilification, and relentless persecution against dedicated activists and environmental defenders who tirelessly safeguard our environment from exploitation and harm,” she decried.
“Instead of using public resources to abduct environmental defenders then file harassment cases against them when they reveal the truth, we challenge the Marcos Jr. government to join us in our advocacy of rehabilitating Manila Bay, she said.
The other protesters also supported Kalikasan PNE and ENVIDEFCON in this call for comprehensive efforts to rehabilitate Manila Bay. Noting Manila Bay’s profound ecological and cultural importance, Lindo and her co-protestors said that instead of reclamation projects, “we need to work together on ecological restoration. This should encompass pollution mitigation and sustainable development with community involvement, all to ensure the enduring health and vibrancy of this critical ecosystem.”
Aside from Kalikasan PNE and ENVIDEFCON, the other protesters were from Advocates of Science and Technology for the People (Agham), Karapatan, Promotion of Church People’s Response, Bagong Alyansa Makabayan and AKAP Ka Manila Bay, Jhed and Jonila’s group. ###
Contact:
Jon Bonifacio / National Coordinator, Kalikasan PNE
secretariat@kalikasan.net / 0939 913 6943
