Maria Salomo-Ujano, the current national coordinator of Philippines Against Child Trafficking (PACT), was arrested in 2005 on the basis of a fabricated case of rebellion. Ujano is also one of the Marcos dictatorship’s victims.
She was arrested by officers in civilian clothing without a court summons prior to her arrest. The Central Luzon Police Regional Office justified her arrest, saying that she has been in hiding for 15 years from an arrest during a manhunt operation. The warrant of her arrest for rebellion was issued on June 28, 2006 by Virgilio Alfajora, the presiding judge of Regional Trial Court Branch 59 in Lucena.
Crisostomo-Ujano’s daughter, Karla, countered the state’s claim and stated her 64-year old mother had never been in hiding. Crisostomo-Ujano was executive director of the Women’s Crisis Center where she actively worked from 1990 until 2007 before moving on to her current position in PACT in2008.
In a statement from PACT, they stated how their national coordinator has been in the public eye protecting children and women from human trafficking for the last three decades.
Christina Palabay, secretary general of Karapatan added to this, saying that her work in various NGOs should be enough to vouch for her innocence. “The PNP is making an utter lie to justify her unjust arrest.” she further stated.
Crisostomo-Ujano’s arrest follows the disappearance of Steve Abua, an activist and full-time peasant organizer who has been missing since November 6.
Kabataan party-list representative Sarah Elago asserts to “step up our campaign to stop political persecution, judicial harassment, and all forms of attacks against HRDs.”
On November 15, Monday, the Human Rights Defenders bill was approved by the Committee of Human Rights in congress. It will proceed to the Second Reading of the bill which involves the Period of Sponsorship and Debate in the plenary. This was done despite the multiple attempts of government agencies to block its passage as well as the blatant red-tagging towards the Makabayan bloc during the hearing itself.
House Bill (HB) 240 was first filed by the Makabayan Bloc due to the rising cases of human rights violations against human rights defenders (HRDs) who face threats such as detainment, death threats, abductions, and extrajudicial killings in the Philippines.
Human rights group Karapatan has reported 18 cases of enforced disappearances under the Duterte administration.
This act was also urged forward by a UN expert, Mary Lawlor, on March 21, 2021 who encouraged the immediate implementation of legislation protecting human rights defenders at the national level and called upon the entirety of Congress to get behind the initiative.
However, spokespersons for the National Task Force to End Local Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) countered that the bill is “unnecessary” and “unconstitutional”, noting that the law will only serve to protect organizations the current administration deems as “terrorists”. Included in the red-tagged organizations are Karapatan, NUPL, Kabataan Partylist and other activist groups who seek to protect the rights of the marginalized.
“Human rights defender is not a job title,” said NTF-ELCAC Undersecretary Severo Catura states that human rights defender is not a job title. He furthered that the police and military are the defenders of human rights.
From July 2016 to July 2021, Karapatan reported 68 cases of politically motivated killings, 842 cases of illegal arrest and 42, 894 cases of threat, harassment and intimidation against human rights defenders in the Philippines. This does not include the cases of harassment and threats against national minorities such as the urban poor, farmers and indigenous peoples.
“Let’s continue to raise our voices: Stop the attacks against human rights defenders! Protect democratic and civic spaces for meaningful participation in upholding human rights, ensuring accountability, and ending impunity,” Rep. Elago said in closing as a response to the approval of the bill in congress.
Featured image by Inquirer
