Sept. 21 rallyists deny sedition raps

LEADERS of youth and activist groups, along with their lawyers, denied sedition and related charges on Wednesday, saying complaints tied to the Sept. 21 anti-corruption protest last year are baseless and intended to discourage public participation ahead of upcoming rallies.

In a counter-affidavit filing at the Department of Justice, Renato M. Reyes, Jr., president of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, said allegations made by police were “made up, baseless, and without truth,” adding that it was “public knowledge” that his group did not instigate the unrest during protests in various parts of Manila.

“This, we believe, is harassment — pure intimidation — especially with Feb. 25 approaching, when various groups will once again gather. Such cases are clearly intended to intimidate and discourage the public from engaging in just and reasonable protests,” Mr. Reyes told reporters in Filipino.

“We are confident that our defense will be strong and that these fabricated charges brought by the police will be dismissed,” he added.

The Sept. 21 protest saw tens of thousands rally against corruption in flood control and infrastructure projects, with clashes in Manila resulting in injuries, arrests, and warnings of potential charges — targeting youth and university students.

The Public Interest Law Center said it is assisting six youth respondents facing sedition and inciting-to-sedition charges linked to the same assembly and added that there is no prima facie evidence tying them to the alleged crimes.

Maria Kristina C. Conti, secretary-general of the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers-National Capital Region, said the sedition case recently filed by the police is the second set of charges stemming from the Sept. 21 events, the first involving illegal assembly, assault on authorities, and related offenses. She said the new charges carry penalties of up to 12 years of imprisonment.

“From a legal point of view, these sedition charges are rubbish, basically a ‘repeat’ of the previous charges,” Ms. Conti told reporters.

“The funny thing here is that the names seem to have been filed randomly, and the statements don’t even match… It is a waste of government resources to pursue these additional cases when the proper focus should be on investigating corruption,” she added.

Ms. Conti is representing eight clients in the case, which lists about 38 respondents in total.

“With the filing of our counter-affidavits today, the complaint has been deemed submitted for resolution. We very much expect this complaint and other similar ones to be dropped by the prosecutors for utter lack of merit,” Ms. Conti said. — Erika Mae P. Sinaking