Bagong Alyansang Makabayan condemns the Taguig police for filing a complaint against 8 paralegals and activists for being part of the protest against the Luzon Economic Corridor (LEC) investors forum organized by the US Embassy on September 10.
The 5 paralegals and 3 activists are scheduled to appear today at the office of the city prosecutor of Taguig to formally receive the complaint. Bayan Chair Teddy Casiño is included in the police complaint for alleged violations of the Martial Law-era Batas Pambansa 880.
The September 10 protest opposed the sell-out of the country’s patrimony through the US-led LEC and Pax Silica. These projects will intensify plunder of our resources, destruction of the environment, and the displacement of the Ayta Indigenous Peoples in Central Luzon.
The protest also condemned the Marcos Jr. government for colluding with the US in enabling land grabbing and allowing the US to establish an industrial hub in a so-called economic security zone designed to supply the war production needs of the US military in the region.
Marcos was a keynote speaker in the US-sponsored investors forum that seemingly auctioned off the country’s resources to foreign plunderers and defense contractors.
It is the Taguig police who should be held accountable for the violent dispersal of the BGC protest on September 10 and for arresting paralegals who were providing legal aid to activists. Around 27 activists were injured when they were brutally attacked by the police, who were carrying metal shields and batons.
The police complaint is malicious, baseless, and intended to intimidate activists and instill fear ahead of the ASEAN summit and the state visit of US President Donald Trump this month. But these fascist tactics will backfire, as they only embolden us to organize more protests against the subservience of Marcos and the intensifying US militarism and foreign plunder.
This is a classic Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) case meant to harass and intimidate Filipinos who are opposed to Pax Silica and its weaponization of Philippine development. We hope the public prosecutor sees through the flimsy grounds of the complaint and does not waste everyone’s time on it. Ang daming mga kriminal at korap na opisyal ang dapat kasuhan, kami pang walang kasalanan kundi bumatikos sa maling patakaran ng gobyerno ang inuuna.
Bayan is gearing up for nationwide protests to oppose the visit of war criminal, rapist, and plunderer Trump