HUMAN rights lawyers and legal workers are denouncing the supposed worsening harassment and human rights abuses perpetrated by state agents against rights defenders and activists across Mindanao.
The Union of Peoples' Lawyers in Mindanao (UPLM) rang the alarm bells over the "growing trend of abridging or subverting legal procedures, imputing fabricated criminal charges against activists, community leaders and ordinary citizens and issuing void warrants of arrest."
"They all equate to a crackdown on civil and political rights. State agents are arrogating upon themselves arbitrary prosecutorial powers of arrest and seizure and are habituated at circumventing the basic right to due process,"the UPLM said in a statement.
The group cited the case of the "GenSan13", the leaders of various progressive groups who were 'illegally' arrested and detained in General Santos City last July 4, during a religious-related activity.
They claimed that around 70 fully armed state agents wearing bonnets, to conceal their identities, barged into the venue, armed with arrest warrants containing names that do not belong to any of the participants.
The UPLM said the warrants did not bear the signature of the issuing judge.
"The case of GenSan13 and the wholesale fabrication of false criminal charges on citizens is reminiscent of the Martial Law years of the Marcoses. Under the Marcos dictatorship, peoples' lawyers refused to cower and were not easily waylaid by the nationwide imposition of Martial Law,"the UPLM said.
Human rights group, Karapatan, recorded cases of trumped up charges filed against at least 700 individuals, mostly lumad and farmers within the two years of the Duterte administration.
Karaptan also documented at least 986 victims of illegal arrests in Mindanao since military rule was imposed last May 23, 2017 to June 30, this year.
The group said at least 95 were detained, where majority were peasants and members of the Indigenous Peoples.
The UPLM added that the marginalized sector of the society and those who work for the betterment of the poor in the community are often the "target of of state violence and terrorism by way of demonization and vilification of political dissent."
"This act of violence is an act of silencing dissent,"The UPLM said.
"Those who have less in life should have more in law. Now more than any other day must we lawyers stand ground on our oath. While the oppressed and deprived are being harassed, attacked and killed, we must leave the comfort of our offices and serve the people,"the group added.