Court frees cordillera activist from Ilocos jail

September 7, 2019 Headlines

VIGAN CITY, ILOCOS SUR (September 4, 2019)— A local court has freed an activist from almost a year at an Ilocos Sur jail after dismissing murder and frustrated murder charges filed against her by the Ilocos Surbased 81st Infantry Battalion Philippine Army.
Rachel Mariano, health program coordinator of the Baguio based non-government health group Community Health, Education, Services and Training in the Cordillera Region (CHESTCORE) voluntarily submitted herself at the Regional Trial Court (RTC) in Tagudin, Ilocos Sur on September 18, 2018 after soldiers sued her and several others in connection with an October 15, 2017 attack by New People’s Army guerillas in Patiacan, Quirino, Ilocos Sur, where a soldier was killed and another wounded.
But RTC branch 25 Judge Anacleto Bañez was unconvinced with the tales of soldiers-witnesses that they saw Mariano shooting the soldiers and even cited their inconsistencies in their accounts of what actually occurred during the said NPA attack.
”The totality of the conflicting versions of the prosecution witnesses’ account on the incident on October 15, 2017 implies this court to entertain serious doubts as to the process of identification of Rachel Mariano as one of the perpetrators of the attack”. This court is not morally convinced of her guilt, Judge Bañez added.
It would be deplorable to convict the accused of all these serious crimes charged against her upon the quality of the evidences adduced by the prosecution, he added. ”The court has found that the evidences leveled against her are insufficient and doubtful to sustain a verdict. Her acquittal is therefore imperative.”
Meanwhile, the Baguio-based Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA) and the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) both welcomed and commend the decision of Judge Bañez. ”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 don’t end in her acquittal. She is also facing 4 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 the other case with 10 counts of attempted homicide related to another AFP-NPAfire fight in Salcedo, Ilocos Sur on July 22, 2017.
Earlier, Mariano and four others voluntarily submitted themselves to the court and posted bail for the two cases granting them their temporary freedom.
 
Artemio Dumlao/ABN