CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -- Davao-based anti-aerial spraying advocates and farmers now face another legal battle, even as they have yet to recover from the Court of Appeals (CA) decision that trashed the constitutionality of the Davao ordinance they fought to be implemented.

Members of Mamamayan Ayaw sa Aerial Spraying (Citizens against Aerial Spraying) or Maas are now up against the policemen who dispersed them and arrested four of their colleagues, detaining them longer than the time allowed in any of the charges filed against them.

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Police Inspector Nerio Geroy, head of the Macabalan station, and three of his subordinates, filed seven charges against 13 members of Maas Tuesday afternoon at the City Prosecutor's office of Cagayan de Oro.

The charges are direct assault, illegal assemblies, resistance and disobedience, tumults and other disturbances, unlawful utterances, alarm and scandal and unjust vexation.

The four detained members of Maas were released Tuesday afternoon after the 18 hour detention time elapsed since City Prosecutor Fidel A. Macauyag took out the illegal assemblies charge, saying it cannot be sustained and stressed that "it is not clear on the complaint that the respondents intended to assemble themselves in order to incite treason, rebellion, insurrection, sedition, or direct assault."

"The rally was an emotional outburst to what they thought was an affront to their constitutional right to life by asking the banning of aerial spraying. The alleged assault on the apprehending officers was made only after the latter pressured them to leave the premises," Macauyag said in the disposition of the inquest proceeding.

"After taking out the illegal assembly charge in the disposition of the inquest proceeding, the direct assault offense is the only remaining offense complained of, which has the highest imposable penalty. The said offense is punishable with correctional penalty, thus respondents' detention should only be up to 18 hours from the arrest. Consequently, the time of their detention has elapsed and they should be released," Macauyag added.

Lawyer Jan Perry Eugenio of the Balaud Mindanao, the law group assisting Maas now, said apparently the charges were all designed to harass the farmer-protesters.

"Obviously the police filed every possible charge they could think of. We know all these charges would only be dismissed in the end. These charges were only meant to harass and weaken the farmer-protesters," Eugenio said.

Right now the lawyers of Maas are looking at the possibility of filing counter changes. As of Tuesday afternoon, the four Maas members remained in detention even if no appropriate charges were filed against them.

The four were bodily picked-up by police of the Macabalan station who were out to disperse the rally in front of the CA which the protesters assailed for declaring unconstitutional the Davao ordinance, in favor of the case of the Pilipino Banana Growers and Exporters Association (PBGEA).

During the dispersal last Monday, one person who identified himself as Rey Vernie Fabre, the legal counsel of Geroy, said the arrests were made because the Maas rally was illegal.

He showed the media a copy of a 1998 court order limiting protests or any similar actions within the 200-meter radius of any building that houses at least one court. Anyone caught violating this law would only be subjected to contempt of court charges and not arrest like the Macabalan Police did.

Number 6 of the en banc guidelines clearly states: "Any violation of this resolution shall be treated as contempt of court."

Asked to further comment on the arrest and the dispersal, Fabre said: "these people (Maas) have been violating the law for two months now and... we waited two months before we acted on the violations."