APHR condemns charges against Philippine Rep. Carlos Zarate

JAKARTA – ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) today expressed concern over criminal charges filed against Philippine Congressman Carlos Isagani Zarate, an APHR member, for allegedly leading a protest on 13 November against the visit of US President Donald Trump to the Philippines. The collective of regional lawmakers urged authorities to drop the charges, calling them politically motivated.

Rep. Zarate, along with four others, was charged on 30 January with conducting a rally without a permit under Section 13(a) of the Public Assembly Act, and with direct assault with physical injury and resistance and disobedience to a person in authority under Articles 148 and 158 of the Revised Penal Code.

“Going after Rep. Zarate and his colleagues for this appears to be a politically motivated action and a violation of their rights to freely express themselves in a public manner,” said APHR Chair Charles Santiago, a member of the Malaysian Parliament.

“Requiring a permit to hold a demonstration is little more than a way for the authorities to deny the right to freedom of assembly. Furthermore, holding organizers accountable for violence at demonstrations without any proof that they were, in fact, inciting violence amounts to a serious threat to their fundamental rights,” Santiago said.

APHR also said that several elements of the case against Zarate raised red flags, especially in a context of increasingly frequent judicial harassment against members of the opposition in the Philippines.

“The fact that the case was filed months after the alleged incident took place contributes to further doubts about the validity of the charges. If Rep. Zarate and his colleagues were indeed responsible for inciting violence against the authorities, why wouldn’t these charges have been filed right after the incident?” Santiago asked.

The charges against Zarate come on the heels of judicial harassment against other opposition lawmakers in the Philippines in the past year, APHR noted. Most prominently, Senator Leila de Lima – a chief critic of President Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs” – has been in pre-trial detention for nearly a year on politically motivated drug trafficking charges. Another senator and prominent administration critic, Risa Hontiveros, faced dubious wiretapping charges last October. These cases also reflect a wider regional pattern, with opposition leaders currently in prison in Cambodia and Malaysia.

“Amidst the wider context of opposition lawmakers targeted with trumped-up charges in the Philippines – and regionally – it is all the more important that we look carefully at the case against Rep. Zarate and ensure that the legal tools of the state are not weaponized against its critics,” Santiago added.