Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 19) – Baguio-based activists from Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA) and its affiliates filed an appeal on Monday urging the Supreme Court to issue a writ of amparo against government agencies and the police who allegedly engage in red-tagging.
They named as respondents the Department of the Interior and Local Government- Cordillera Administrative Region, National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, Armed Forces of the Philippines, National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, Philippine National Police, and the Regional Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee-Cordillera Administrative Region.
The petition for a writ of amparo is a remedy available to any person whose right to life, liberty and security is violated or threatened.
The petition was raised to the higher court after the Court of Appeals (CA) dismissed the appeal on Oct. 24 last year due to “lack of substantial evidence.”
The motion for reconsideration was also denied last April 11 by the CA, which noted that the petion failed to state “the name and personal circumstances of the persons responsible for the threat, act or omission” and the actions taken by the petitioners to determine their identity.
The 24 petitioners also urged the SC to issue a temporary restraining order “enjoining the respondents from committing acts of initiating social media posts and other forms of publication directed at branding and declaring the Cordillera Peoples Alliance, their affiliate organizations and the herein petitioners as communist terrorists, NPA (New Peoples Army) front organizations, NPA recruiters and others of similar content.”
The petition also asked that the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) be disqualified from representing the respondents.
“Utilizing jurisprudence, the OSG argues why the petitioners are not entitled to protection by way of the writ of amparo,” the 111-page petition read. “The OSG says that there is no law prohibiting red tagging, implying that only a specific legislation is what bars hate speech and slanderous content.
The activists also called for the issuance of a writ of preliminary mandatory injunction that will direct the NTF-ELCAC, PNP and AFP to take down existing social media posts that associate the activists with the NPA.
They also asked the SC to void resolutions and ordinances which declare the CPA as persona non grata, and to direct the National Bureau of Investigation to probe the PNP’s and trolls’ Facebook accounts.
There was no immediate statement from government agencies on the activists’ petition.
