By Armand M. Galang CABANATUAN CITY – Act Teachers Partylist Rep. France Castro and other progressive former legislators on Friday renewed calls for the junking of the Anti-Terrorism Act as they accompanied lawyer Ephraim Cortez in submitting counter affidavit in behalf of Bayan Muna secretary general Nathanael Santiago et al before the Nueva Ecija Provincial Prosecutor’s Office here.
Santiago, and co-respondents Rosario Brenda Gonzalez, Anselma San Gabriel, and Servillano Luna did not personally appear.
They were charged of violations of Sec 4 a. (causing death or bodily injury), and d (possession of weapons of mass destruction) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, attempted murder, murder, and attack on civilians under RA 9851 or the domestic law on the International Humanitarian Law (IHL) in connection with a supposed encounter between soldiers from the Army’s 84th Infantry Battalion and suspected Kilusang Larangang Gerilya-Sierra Madre (KLG-SM) rebels in Barangay San Fernando, Laur, Nueva Ecija on Oct. 8, 2023.
A certain 1Lt. Michael Regalario filed the charges that were docketed NPS Docket No. III-99-INV-23J-02750-54.
Santiago and the three militant leaders were named as among 20 people whom the soldiers allegedly identified during the encounter.
Castro said they submitted the affidavit to belie charges against Santiago and the three other respondents.
“Para patunayan na ang aming secretary general sa Makabayan coalition ay hindi totoo yung mga ibinibintang doon sa mga gawa-gawang kaso,” Castro said. “Kapag kayo ay nagsasalita against sa gobyerno o against sa mga polisiya ay itinuturing ka na ng estado ngayon na terorista.”
Former Rep. Carlos Zarate said Santiago was in a meeting the day the encounter occurred. It reportedly happened at night time.
Cortez of the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), assailed allegations that the complainant saw Santiago’s and his three other clients’ faces during the gun battle and was able to identify them because they were shown photographs of alleged KLG-SM members in the area prior to the operation.
“Sabi nila ang encounter ay nangyari sa matalahiban at malayo yung distansiya nila. Pero imposible yan at marami nang desisyon ang Supreme Court na sinasabi na imposible yung ganung klaseng identification, sa isang konteksto ng ambush o ng military encounter” Cortez said. “Dahil sa military encounter, ang unang bibigyan ng pansin ay paano iilag sa bala at paano magpaputok.”
Also with Castro was former Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casniño.
It appeared that on Jan. 19, the investigating prosecutor already recommended the indictment of all the respondents for ATA and the dismissal of attempted murder and murder on the ground that the complainants failed to ascribe the acts to any of the respondents, and that they failed to establish conspiracy.
The prosecutor has also recommended dismissal of IHL charges for alleged failure of the complainants to establish the act as violation of IHL, according to a case briefer from the group.
But Cortez said the respondents were not even informed of their cases then as summons were addressed somewhere in Aurora province while his clients are living in Metro Manila.
This prompted them to file a petition for reinvestigation thus they were allowed to file counter-affidavit Friday.
