“These soldiers accused, forced into silence and attempted to detail at will through fabricated evidence and rehearsed witnesses packaged as rebel returnees. And now, they can walk away unaccountable because the state calls it ‘procedure.’”
SAN PABLO CITY, Laguna — In the Southern Tagalog region, the road to justice is a one-way street.
Last November 19, human rights defenders and activists once again trooped to the Office of the Ombudsman to decry the junking of countercharges against perpetrators of human rights violations in the region.
They denounced in particular the decision to junk the civil and administrative cases filed against the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ 59th Infantry Battalion and 2nd Infantry Division, and a separate case against the Philippine National Police.
“Once again, justice has been denied to the victims of state violence,” said Nimfa Lanzanas, paralegal for Karapatan Southern Tagalog.
“By dismissing these countercharges, the Ombudsman shows where its loyalties lie, and it is not with the people,” she added.
Lanzanas — one of six activists arrested by the police on March 7, 2021, a date infamously known in the region as Bloody Sunday — is the complainant for the countercharge against the PNP.
The Ombudsman junked Lanzanas’ complaint in October, citing lack of evidence and the presumption of regularity of police actions.
The same office dismissed last July the civil and administrative cases filed by Hailey Pecayo, Jpeg Garcia, Ken Rementilla, and Jasmin Rubia against the AFP on similar grounds.
According to Lanzanas, the Office of the Ombudsman “continues to shield and protect” perpetrators of human rights violations, squarely laying the blame on Ombudsman Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla, who, she said, has turned the constitutional commission “into a fortress protecting the powerful, especially his political patron, President Marcos Jr.”
A pattern of impunity
The two cases reveal a disturbing pattern of victims of trumped-up charges being denied the right to seek justice against their perpetrators.
Lanzanas was arrested in March 2021 on charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives.
She would be imprisoned for over a year before all charges against her were dropped, but her release was only the beginning of an ongoing struggle to hold those accountable.
In December 2022, she filed two complaints with the Office of the Ombudsman, naming PNP Colonel Lito Patay and 10 other officers as responsible for her arrest.
She followed this with a motion calling for Patay’s preventive suspension in September 2024.
All of these complaints would be dismissed on grounds of “presumption of regularity”, a legal principle that assumes government actions are legitimate and done in good faith.
In the case of Pecayo, Garcia, Rementilla, and Rubia, they were part of a fact-finding mission in July 2022 meant to investigate the killing of nine-year-old Kyllene Casao in Taysan, Batangas province.
When the investigation found that the 59th IBPA was responsible, the military responded by charging the four with violating the Anti-Terrorism Act.
The courts would later dismiss these charges for lack of evidence. The four filed countercharges in July 2024 but these were eventually dismissed a year later, also on grounds of a lack of evidence to show irregularities in procedure.
“Dismissals like this embolden state forces to weaponize the law without fear of consequences,” Charm Maranan, spokesperson of rights group Defend ST, said.
“These soldiers accused, forced into silence and attempted to detail at will through fabricated evidence and rehearsed witnesses packaged as rebel returnees. And now, they can walk away unaccountable because the state calls it ‘procedure.’”
Systemic barriers
Despite clamor, justice for the victims of the Bloody Sunday Massacre remains elusive.
No arrests have been made against any perpetrator in the killings.
Two of those arrested, former Bayan Laguna spokesperson Mags Camoral and OLALIA-KMU Vice President Steve Mendoza, still face charges.
A third, labor leader Arnedo Lagunias, is also still in jail after his arrest on March 4, 2021.
Defend ST has pointed to Remulla as one of the reasons why, calling him “an active obstacle to justice and accountability.”
According to them, Remulla is continuing an old pattern of “protecting state agents, fostering impunity, and contributing to a climate of repression and fear” despite his official mandate of overseeing cases of corruption in the government.
“The Filipino people deserve an Ombudsman who will truly investigate wrongdoing, especially the mounting allegations of corruption against President Marcos Jr.,” said Maranan.
“Instead, we have Boying Remulla, whose loyalty to Malacañang is stronger than his loyalty to the Constitution, the rule of law, or the victims seeking justice.”
They noted that while he was justice secretary, Remulla “presided over the dismissal of multiple Bloody Sunday cases, enabling police and military officers involved in the March 7, 2021 killings and arrests to evade prosecution.”
Despite remedies like Administrative Order 35, investigations were either junked or eventually dismissed on lack of evidence of wrongdoing.
In Manny Asuncion’s case, the DOJ junked charges against the 17 police officers involved in his killing on the basis that Asuncion’s widow, Liezel, was unable to identify them.
Similarly, cases against those involved in the slay of fisherfolk organizers Chai and Ariel Evangelista were also dismissed.
Worse is that the victims’ families left in the wake have to suffer the indignity of continued harassment.
Chai Evangelista’s sister Alaiza was recently charged with violating the Anti-Terrorism Law, for allegedly cooking adobo for members of the New People’s Army.
In Rizal province, where six activists were killed, entire communities continue to suffer reprisal from the military, such as the Dumagat in Tanay where indigenous rights defenders Randy and Puroy Dela Cruz lived.
The use of trumped-up charges to arrest and detain activists also remains prevalent.
According to Karapatan, there are 164 political prisoners arrested from June 2022 to June 2025; 46 of which are detained in the Southern Tagalog region.
Karapatan Southern Tagalog reports that there are a total 95 political prisoners in the region.
Hope despite all odds
Not all hope is lost. Defend ST vows to continue organizing until “accountability is secured, impunity ends, and justice prevails for all victims of state violence.”
The tireless effort of human rights defenders and relatives of victims left in the wake has not all been in vain. Despite the odds, Liezel Asuncion and Rosenda Lemita were able to testify against the Duterte administration’s human rights abuses during the Quadcomm hearings.
The tireless work in fighting the cases in court has also resulted in some charges being dropped.
Defend ST noted that cases under anti-terrorism and financing terrorism laws usually don’t stick and are used to “intimidate and inconvenience” activists.
The group said it also hopes that the Ombudsman’s recent move to file charges against former House Speaker Martin Romualdez and former Ako-Bicol Rep. Zaldy Co translates to “actively investigating cases of human rights violations and holding all perpetrators accountable.” (RVO, JDS)
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