Environmental activists Jonila Castro and Jhed Tamano on Tuesday, Nov. 7, refuted the perjury complaint filed against them by the military on their public statement that they did not surrender but were abducted by soldiers last Sept. 2 in Orion, Bataan.
Their joint counter-affidavit ad cautelam (with caution) was filed for them by their legal counsel Dino De Leon.
The perjury complaint arose from the Sept. 19 press conference of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) which presented the two activists as the latest members of the New People’s Army (NPA) to have surrendered to the government.
Instead of affirming that they surrendered to the 70th Infantry Battalion in Dona Remedios, Bulacan, Castro and Tamano declared during the press conference that they were abducted by the military in Orion, Bataan last Sept. 2.
The public declaration by the two activists prompted the military to file a perjury complaint against them before the Department of Justice (DOJ). A panel of prosecutors has started investigating the complaint.
“Malinaw naman na ang sinabi sa counter-affidavit ay totoo naman iyong abduction na nangyari sa Orion, Bataan (The counter-affidavit clearly stated that what really happened was they got abducted in Orion, Bataan),” De Leon said.
He said that Castro and Tamano have expressed dismay that they got charged instead of getting help.
“Nakakalungkot din na imbes na magkaroon ng imbestigasyon ang AFP to check whether there was really an abduction and to check their own ranks especially their own erring officials, officers, ang knee jerk reaction ay kasuhan ang nagsasabi ng katotohan (It’s sad that, instead of the Armed Forces of the Philippines investigating their own ranks, their knee jerk reaction was file a case against those who are telling the truth),” he said.
He also lamented that DOJ Secretary Jesus Crispin C. Remulla seemed to have prejudged the case against Castro and Tamano.
Thus, he said, what was filed before the DOJ was a joint counter-affidavit ad cautelam that also questioned the impartiality of Remulla and the National Prosecution Service (NPS) in conducting the preliminary investigation of the perjury case.
He also said the next hearing on the complaint is set on Nov. 14.
“Doon ay ineexpect namin magkakaroon ng ng reply affidavit ang AFP at NTF-ELCAC (There we expect that a reply affidavit will be filed by the AFP and the NTF-ELCAC),” he said.