CPA Chairperson files complaint against PNP Officials behind bogus Tagum murder case

Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) Chairperson Windel Bolinget, along with CPA members and affiliate organizations, filed today, June 23 at the La Trinidad Municipal Court, a Complaint for Moral, Actual, and Exemplary Damages and a violation of Articles 19, 20, 21, and 32 of the Civil Code brought upon by the trumped-up murder case filed against him in 2020 at Tagum City, Davao Del Norte. This comes after the successful filing of a Petition to reverse the Court of Appeal’s decision denying the Writ of Amparo to 24 CPA leaders and members last Monday.

The defendants in the complaint are PMaj. Ruth Dizon, then Chief of Police of the Kapalong Municipal Police Station in Davao Del Norte and the complainant of the Tagum Case; Ranel Tibog Vender; and PBGen R’Win Pagkalinawan, former PROCOR Director who issued a “shoot to kill” order on January 20, 2021, against Bolinget with a bounty of Php100,000. Bolinget was subjected to heightened surveillance and manhunt which resulted to a voluntary surrender and detention of two months at the National Bureau of Investigation Cordillera.

“There should be justice from the unjust incarceration and vicious attacks against my organization, my family, and myself as result of the case,” said Bolinget, who lamented the spate of attacks despite the Tagum case’s dismissal on July 2021.

In 2018, Bolinget was included in a Department of Justice list proscribing him along with other indigenous rights defenders and activists as terrorists affiliated with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New Peoples Army. They were delisted later in 2019 and the proscription was dismissed in 2022.

Bolinget was also implicated in a rebellion case filed in January 2023 along with 6 other activists from Northern Luzon with a warrant of arrest. Their names were removed from the Case Information and the Warrant of Arrest against them was quashed.

“These State agents who are party to filing of trumped-up charges and other human rights violations should be held accountable, beyond paying for compensatory damages, should be relieved from their posts as they are violating the constitutional right to due process and other civil liberties,” Bolinget added.

“We demand a stop to the policy to weaponize the law and the filing of trumped-up charges against indigenous human rights defenders and activists. This murder case and other previous charges filed against Windel Bolinget have been dismissed, further proof that these cases are merely fabricated. Windel Bolinget has been the target of relentless attacks and multiple charges by the AFP, PNP, and other State agents that have been dismissed for lack of probable cause or evidence, further proof that these charges are fabricated and malicious. This complaint is one of the efforts of human rights defenders and peoples’ organizations to push back against the weaponization of the law by the State”, Casselle Ton of Cordillera Human Rights Alliance stated.

“The issue of impunity and accountability should be addressed. Erring state security forces who commit unlawful acts should be held accountable and the policies that lay ground for the violation of human rights should be scrapped.  The highest standard for the fulfillment of state obligations should be the highest call of the people,” Ton explained. ### (PR)

Reference:

Windel Bolinget – Cordillera Peoples Alliance

Casselle Ton – Cordillera Human Rights Alliance