MANILA, Philippines — Families and friends of the six trade union organizers and a journalist arrested last week asserted the seven used pens and laptops and not guns and grenades as they stand accused of.
Police arrested trade union organizers Denisse Velasco, Mark Ryan Cruz, Romina Astudillo, Jaymie Gregorio, Joel Demate and Rodrigo Esparago, and Manila Today editor Lady Ann Salem last week in simultaneous raids on December 10, International Human Rights Day.
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In a press conference on Monday, the families and friends of the seven arrested last Thursday voiced doubts about the illegal possession of firearms and explosives charges the seven are facing.
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"He is only doing his job because he loves the workers dearly," Diane Zapata, Velasco’s wife, said in Filipino as she stressed that her husband is a labor organizer and doesn't handle guns or explosives.
"I do not understand why you are afraid of the workers,” she added.
Laptops to document workers’ plight
Lander Esparago meanwhile said he never saw his father, trade union organizer Rodolfo, handling guns, saying he hates them. He shared that when he was younger, his father even destroyed his toy gun.
“So the accusation against him is very impossible... My father is not a criminal,” he said.
Ella Durana, wife of Mark Ryan Cruz, said her husband had just brought her to a speaking engagement when he was arrested. “It’s not true that he had a gun,” she said, adding that what her husband uses is a laptop “to write about the situation of the workers.”
Dave Rosman Cruz, Mark Ryan's brother, meanwhile said he has known his brother for the 29 years of his life. “Being a terrorist is not in our vocabulary, using violence is not our perspective. Our only wish is to live peacefully with fair rights,” he added.
Ram Penaverde said of friend and trade union organizer Jaymie Gregorio: “It is not in his personality to take up arms.”
He said the claim that Gregorio is a gun-runner was made up.
Trade organizer Romina Astudillo’s friend, Kevin Paul Aguayon, meanwhile stressed that she is not a terrorist. He said activists don't use guns nor keep them where they live.
‘To write is not a crime’
Jasma Salem meanwhile asserted her sister, Lady Ann, only kept to books when they were growing up, and when she later became a journalist.
“To write is not a crime, it is not a sin. She should not be detained,” she said, adding her sister does not even know how to hold a gun.
Police Lt. Col. Arnold Moleta of the police’s Criminal Investiation and Detection Group said in an interview with ANC last Friday that Salem had been under surveillance for at least two months before the arrest.
"[The] arrested people were linked to gun-running activities. There were a lot of times that those linked to gun-running went in an out of Salem's home. I cannot say how many times, but [this happened] repeatedly,” he said, partly in Filipino, in an ANC tweet report.
According to a CIDG press release on Thursday, the five warrants that led to the arrest of the seven were all issued by the Quezon City trial court Executive Judge Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert.
Kilusang Mayo Uno-National Capital Region Secretary Ed Cubelo said his group would approach Salem about issues faced by factory workers and other laborers, and that she would spend time interviewing and writing about them.
“It is easier for the government to make up trumped up cases, stories to criminalize labor leaders, instead of facing... legitimate demands of workers and the public,” Cubelo added in Filipino.
The National Union of Peoples' Lawyers last week said the charges of illegal possession of firearms and of explosives can be proven easily on court, as they note that activists charged with these crimes continue to rise.