MANILA, Philippines – Cordillera activists asked the Supreme Court for protection amid the perceived threat to their lives due to the red-tagging of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and other government agencies.

On Monday, June 19, 24 members of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) filed a petition for the writ of amparo with the Supreme Court for their and their family’s protection “against imminent, real and present danger on their lives, liberty, and security.”

This petition seeks to reverse the Court of Appeals’ October 2022 ruling, which denied their plea seeking a writ of amparo. The appellate court cited the “petitioners’ failure to prove their allegations by substantial evidence” in denying the earlier petition.

The petitioners, however, said in their petition with the SC that “the [CA’s] finding is not supported by the evidence adduced by the petitioners.”

“Had the court looked closer and had it conducted a summary hearing as required, it would have appreciated that petitioners’ evidence passed the ‘substantial evidence’ threshold required by the rule on the writ of amparo,” the petitioners said.

Aside from demanding protection from the Supreme Court, the petitioners also urged the High Court to issue a temporary restraining order against the respondents to prevent them from tagging CPA, their affiliate organizations, and the petitioners as communist-terrorists, New People’s Army (NPA) front organizations, and NPA recruiters.

The petitioners also asked the Supreme Court to order the NTF-ELCAC, the Philippine National Police (PNP), and the Philippine Army to take down social media posts tagging the petitioners as members of communist-terrorists.

The petitioners also sought to declare Regional Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee (RCLEC) Resolution No. 6 void for being unconstitutional.

This RCLEC resolution allowed police officers to conduct home visitation, dubbed “dumanun makitungtung“ (an Ilocano phrase translated as visiting/arriving to talk). The petitioners said this was “reminiscent of the tokhang” employed by police during former president Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs.

The petitioners also asked the High Court to declare void the resolutions and ordinances declaring the CPA as persona non grata. They said this was violative of their rights to life, liberty, and security.

Respondents in the petition are the NTF-ELCAC, the PNP, the RCLEC-Cordillera Administrative Region, the PNP Regional Office, the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, the Philippine Army, and the Department of Interior and Local Government-Cordillera Administrative Region.

Call to amend writ of amparo

Following the dismissal of the Cordillera activists’ petition for a writ of amparo before the Court of Appeals, the human rights group Karapatan said it is high time to amend the Supreme Court rules on this legal remedy. 

“There have been many occasions that the courts dismissed petitions on the writ of amparo of those who have clear threats on their life, security, and liberty,” Karapatan secretary-general Cristina Palabay said. 

“This runs counter to the objective of these legal remedies to provide protection for persons who are under threat and has suffered more than enough harassment, vilification, and red-tagging from state security forces,” Palabay added.  – Rappler.com