Ilocos court junks murder charges vs Baguio activist

TAGUDIN, Ilocos Sur – The Regional Trial Court here has freed an activist after almost a year at an Ilocos Sur jail on murder and frustrated murder charges filed by the Ilocos Sur-based 81st Infantry Battalion.

Rachel Mariano, health program coordinator of the Baguio-based Community Health, Education, Services and Training in the Cordillera Region (CHESTCORE), submitted herself to the  Tagudin, Ilocos Sur RTC on Sept. 18, 2018.

“Wherefore, premises considered this court hereby renders a verdict of acquittal in favor of accused Rachel Mariano in all these cases based on reasonable doubt,” wrote Judge Mario Anacleto Bañez of Branch 25 of the Regional Trial Court in Tagudin, Ilocos Sur in his decision signed on August 16 and promulgated Sept. 4.

The court said it is “not morally convinced” of Mariano’s guilt and “found that evidences leveled against her are insufficient and doubtful to sustain a guilty verdict.”

Soldiers sued her and several others in connection with an Oct. 15, 2017 attack by New People's Army guerrillas in Quirino, Ilocos Sur, where a soldier was killed and another wounded.

But Judge Bañez was unconvinced by testimony from soldiers that they saw Mariano shooting their comrades. 

He even cited inconsistencies in their accounts of the attack.   

"The totality of the conflicting versions of the prosecution witnesses' account on the incident on Oct. 15, 2017 impels this court to entertain serious doubts as to the process of identification of Rachel Mariano as one of the perpetrators of the attack," the court said.

"This court is not morally convinced of her guilt," Judge Bañez added, saying "it would be deplorable to convict the accused of all these serious crimes charged against her upon the quality of the evidence adduced by the prosecution."

He said that evidence against Mariano was "insufficient and doubtful to sustain a verdict." 

The Baguio-based Cordillera Human Rights Alliance and the Cordillera Peoples' Alliance both welcomed and commended the court's decision.

"This further proves that the lies peddled by the state forces against activists and development workers who serve the marginalized and neglected indigenous communities are baseless and are meant only to strike fear, intimidate and quell our people's longing for real change," they said in a joint statement.

But Mariano’s problems do not end with her acquittal on these charges. 

She is also facing four counts of attempted and frustrated homicide related to an alleged armed clash between soldiers and rebels in Sigay, Ilocos Sur on August 4, 2017 and another case with 10 counts of attempted homicide related to another AFP-NPA firefight in Salcedo, Ilocos Sur on July 22, 2017.

Mariano and four others voluntarily submitted themselves to the court and posted bail for the two cases, granting them their temporary freedom.

The 81st IB accused Mariano with several others of being among New People’s Army (NPA) rebels who attacked and killed their soldiers in Patiacan, Quirino, Ilocos Sur on Oct. 15, 2017. The army presented soldiers who survived the attack as witnesses, saying they saw Mariano firing at them.  

However, Bañez noted, in his decision, the inconsistent testimonies of the army witnesses.

He said one of the prosecution’s witnesses, Sgt. Ronnie Lontoc failed to mention a female assailant in his earlier affidavit and only added Mariano months after the incident.

“From the procession witnesses’ account, even the number of the persons who fired at them was not established. This court submits that if the number of those persons who shot at them was not even establish with relative certainty, the process of identification of those persons would even be more unreliable,” the judge said.

The judge said retraction of the statement of witnesses’ on the participation of a certain Hector Wandas, which the army personnel accused in their earlier affidavits as being one of the perpetrators compounded the “unreliability of identification of accused Rachel Mariano.”

Bañez acknowledged that pieces of evidence provided by the defense proved her work as an “activist working on the field of health as one of man’s basic rights.”

However, he pointed out that this does not make Mariano a member of the NPA.

“Her being an activist may have subjected her to suspicions of involvement in some subversive activities. But it has been a long-standing principle that suspicions, however strong, cannot equate with the quantum of proof required by law to support a conviction,” said the decision.

On a Facebook post, the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) and the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA) commended the court’s decision. The groups said the acquittal of Mariano manifested the legitimacy of the work of activists and development workers. They also reiterated their call to release all political prisoners and dismiss the trumped-up cases filed against activists.

After Mariano submitted herself to court on Sept. 18, 2018, she was committed to the Ilocos Sur Provincial Jail in Bantay town while the hearing of her case was ongoing.

Before her incarceration, Mariano has been working for appropriate, accessible and free health services for all. She also actively campaigned to end the rampant large-scale mining in Cordillera.

For lawyer Charlie Juloya, legal counsel of Mariano, the decision practically implied that “the witnesses were lying.”

“We were telling the truth so indeed the truth shall set you free,” he said.

According to him, what happened to Mariano is part of the campaign to suppress dissent.

He also expressed concern on the possibility that attacks against activists will further escalate to other and more violent means “now that attackers are losing the legal battle.”

Juloya also raised the alarm of the present human right situation in the north.

“The attacks against farmers in Cagayan Valley, the filing of false charges and arrests here in Ilocos, the situation here in the north is alarming and even comparable to what is happening in Mindanao and Visayas,” he said.

A veteran human rights lawyer, Juloya handled fabricated charges against activists and noted the similarity that subjects of such ordeal are the visible and outspoken activists because they are easier to identify and profile. However, unlike before, where the military just files charges and never shows up in court, now the military participates in court proceedings even bring their witnesses.

Juloya said that while the law is being used against the people, the people can still maximize the law. He said that Mariano could opt to file civil cases for damages against the witnesses.

Before this case, the 81st IB implicated and filed charges against Mariano for two gun battles between its troops and communist rebels. 

These are the 10 counts of attempted homicide related to a firefight that occurred in Salcedo, Ilocos Sur on July 22, 2017, and 4 counts of attempted and frustrated homicide related to the August 4, 2017 clash in Sigay, Ilocos Sur. The Alfredo Cezar, Jr. Command-NPA Ilocos Sur denied that any of their units figured in a firefight in Sigay.

According to a factsheet provided by CHRA, Mariano and four of her co-accused voluntarily submitted themselves and posted bail for the two cases on February 9, 2018, granting them their temporary freedom.

The hearing of the case for the Salcedo clash finally started on May 25 this year after several postponements. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has yet to decide on the motion to transfer the venue of the hearing filed by the defense before the case can proceed.

Included in the cases are women activists Sarah Alikes-Abellon, Sherry Mae Soledad, Joanne Villanueva, and Asia Gepte. Except for Gepte, who is from the National Capital Region, the other accused are all members and staff of Baguio-based people’s organizations and non-government institutions. --  With a report from Kimberlie Ngabit Quitasol /nordis.net