A human rights group on Monday, Aug. 16, lauded a trial court decision that dismissed the charges against a pastor who was suspected to be a member of the outlawed New People’s Army (NPA).
Welcomed by Karapatan was the decision of Legaspi City regional trial court (RTC) Judge Maria Theresa San Juan-Loquillano who granted the motion of United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) Pastor Dan Balucio “to quash and to suppress alleged evidence, dismissing the trumped-up charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives against him.”
“The Albay court’s decision follows similar decisions by courts in Mandaluyong City, Batangas, Laguna, Bacolod City and Capiz, essentially questioning the issuances of search warrants of other courts and upholding the basic right to due process of the activists arrested in these communities,” Karapatan Secretary General Christina Palabay said.
“The pattern of the police’s use of search warrants, planting evidence and effecting the arbitrary arrests and detention of individuals like Pastor Dan Balucio is a glaring form of weaponization of the judiciary against activists and dissenters,” she said.
Balucio was released from the Albay Provincial jail last Aug. 13.
He was arrested by operatives of the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (PNP-CIDG) last May 2 in Sto. Domingo, Albay.
In dismissing the charges against the pastor, Karapatan said the trial court “cited numerous questions, inconsistencies, incredible allegations and the police-applicants’ lack of personal knowledge on the existence, material allegations and proof of Balucio’s supposed crime.”