Court orders arrest of 2 environmental activists

• Municipal Trial Court (MTC) in Bulacan issues arrest warrants for environmental activists Jhed Tamano and Jonila Castro, directing law enforcement to bring them before the court to face grave oral defamation charges.
• Judge Jonna Veridiano stipulates the use of body-worn cameras and alternative recording devices during the execution of the arrest warrants, in compliance with Supreme Court rules.
• Tamano and Castro, volunteers for AKAP KA Manila Bay, allegedly declared during a press conference that they were abducted by the military, contrary to the narrative presented by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

A municipal trial court in Bulacan has ordered the arrest of environmental activists Jhed Tamano and Jonila Castro.

Municipal Trial Court (MTC) Presiding Judge Jonna Veridiano of Dona Remedios Trinidad has issued arrest warrants that directed any law enforcement officer to bring the two women “before me to be dealt with according to law.”

The judge instructed law enforcement that they are required to use “at least one body-worn camera and one alternative recording device” during the service of the arrest warrant pursuant to the rules set by the Supreme Court (SC).

The magistrate said the two women may each post a bail bond of P18,000 for their provisional freedom.

Tamano and Castro are facing grave oral defamation charges before the court.

The case stemmed from the Sept. 19, 2023 press conference of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) where the two activists were presented as rebel returnees who surrendered to the 70th Infantry Battalion in Bulacan.

However, instead of affirming the NTF-ELCAC, the two young women, both volunteers for the Alyansa para sa Pagtatanggol sa Kabuhayan, Paninirahan, at Kalikasan ng Manila Bay (AKAP KA Manila Bay), declared during the press conference that they were abducted by the military.

Meanwhile, the two activists have secured from the SC writs of amparo and habeas data as well as a temporary protection order that directed those in government named as respondents in their petition “from entering within a radius of one (1) kilometer from the persons, places of residence, school, work, or present locations, of petitioners, as well as those of their immediate families.”