Hands off Activists, Hands off Sasah Sta. Rosa

*Thumbnail by Therese Catapang | Photo Reference: Free Sasah Sta. Rosa Facebook Page*

By Gian Angnged

In the early hours of May 2, activist and Atenean student leader Sasah Sta. Rosa was arrested in her home in Naga City. As the chairperson of progressive youth group Anakbayan Naga City and the spokesperson of its regional formation Jovenes Anakbayan, Sta. Rosa is a staunch critic of the current administration. She is also the former department head of the Ateneo de Naga University-Supreme Student Government’s Department of People’s Rights and Welfare.

About 30 armed police and military elements barged into Sta. Rosa’s residence in Villa Obiedo. In an operation similar to many other raids on legal progressive groups, the police and military forcibly brought Sta. Rosa’s family out of their house without presenting a search warrant—only doing so when barangay officials arrived.

Then-Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Debold Sinas, who spearheaded a bloody crackdown on dissent, said that Sta. Rosa was arrested over illegal possession of loose firearms and explosives—a charge slapped on many other activists. These materials are believed to have been planted, Anakbayan Naga City said in a statement.

Sta. Rosa is still detained at the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group headquarters in Naga City. The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) has called for an investigation into her arrest due to the doubts about what had transpired during the operation.

To quote Karapatan, Sta. Rosa’s arrest is a “highly questionable [operation] meant to crack down on dissent on human rights defenders and social activists”. It is yet another manifestation of the State’s weaponization of the law.

Improper implementation of warrant

An initial fact-finding investigation from Karapatan found that the search warrant issued against Sta. Rosa may have been improperly implemented.

Without showing a search warrant, the police and military operatives barged into Sta. Rosa’s house, forced her family out of the residence and made them lie on the ground. The operatives then went through their belongings until two barangay kagawad arrived an hour later. Afterward, the police and military presented the warrant and conducted a search that allegedly yielded firearms and explosives.

Karapatan added that witnesses “pointed out that the police and military operatives had time and opportunity during their earlier intrusion into [Sta. Rosa’s house] to plant these so-called evidence before the local barangay officials arrived and the so-called [search was] conducted,”

“Ang modus ay pagpasok ng bahay, papadapain, pipiringan para hindi makita ‘yung nangyayari. Tapos laging may two rounds of search magba-barge in, ilang piraso muna, then very quickly dun sila magpa-plant, then paglabas nila dun nila ipapatawag ‘yung barangay to start kunwari ‘yung formal search. So in short, nakapasok na sila bago pa dumating ‘yung witnesses na taga- barangay,” said Sol Taule of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) in December, noting a modus where policemen search activists’ residences twice—the first time prior to officially serving the search warrant.

“Easy to plant [evidence]”

NUPL president Edre Olalia also pointed out in a December post that illegal possession of firearms and explosives was the usual charge filed against activists in part because these material are “easy to plant…especially if done at night and when the arrested persons are first segregated, controlled or neutralized and have no chance to prevent or witness such anomaly.”

Olalia also noted that a charge of illegal possession of explosives can keep the accused jailed, as it is normally a non-bailable offense.

Taule, in a tweet in October, also said: “We do not have [a] scientific approach of dealing with fingerprints present in firearms and explosives during trial to know if indeed, fingerprints of the alleged owners can be seen in these items.”

Erroneous search warrant

Furthermore, the address on Sta. Rosa’s warrant did not match the address of the house she was staying in at the time of her arrest. According to Section 2 of the Bill of Rights in the 1987 Constitution, search warrants must “particularly [describe] the place to be searched”. Accordingly, a search conducted in a location other than the address indicated in the warrant is unlawful.

Sta. Rosa’s arrest is not the first time such irregularities have occurred—police who carried out the March 7 “Bloody Sunday” massacre also searched the victims’ residences twice and barged into their houses without presenting a search warrant beforehand. Likewise, the search warrants issued against slain activists Chai Evangelista, Ariel Evangelista, and Manny Asuncion were also erroneous.

Red-tagged

The official police report also red-tagged Sta. Rosa, claiming without basis that she was an “alleged member of the communist underground movement”. It has become common for state forces to erase the distinction between the activists of the legal democratic movement and the armed rebels of the underground movement, often resulting in dangerous—even fatal— consequences for the former.

Latest in well-established pattern of attacks on activists

Sta. Rosa’s arrest and detention, along with the simultaneous arrest of pastor and Bagong Alyansang Bayan (BAYAN) Bicol Secretary General Dan Balucio, is the latest in an alarmingly consistent pattern of authorities using trumped-up charges to silence activists under the Duterte regime.

On the same day, police also raided the home of second-year Bicol University student and Youth Act Now Against Tyranny – Bicol Justine Mesias for firearms and explosives in Daraga, Albay.

With the passage and implementation of the draconian Anti-Terror Law, the attacks against state dissenters have only intensified. We must not allow these state-sponsored assaults on the Filipino people to continue.

It is crucial that the Ateneo community come together to call for Sta. Rosa’s immediate release from her unjust arrest and remain undaunted in pushing back against impunity and the criminalization of activism.

Activism is not terrorism! Free Sasah Sta. Rosa!

If you wish to help Sasah Sta. Rosa and her family sustain their legal assistance, you may course your monetary donations through the following channels:

Local transfers:

GCASH: 0917 590 2816

International transfers:

VENMO: @z0egabon

PAYPAL: @z0egabon

Acknowledgement thru email:

For local transfers: freesasahstarosa@gmail.com

Phone number: 0956 325 2055

For international transfers:

Acknowledgement thru email: zoesofia.fernandez@gmail.com

Phone number: (925)434-7034

SOURCES:
https://mb.com.ph/2021/05/04/ateneo-community-calls-for-release-of-sasah-sta-rosa/