Military officials skip hearing on NUPL’s bid for protection

Military and defense officials tagged by the National Union of Peoples' Lawyers (NUPL) in its bid for protection against alleged attacks by state forces failed to attend a hearing on the case at the Court of Appeals (CA) Thursday.

The seven generals named as respondents in the NUPL's petition for a writ of amparo did not show up for reasons that are "not clear," Rachel Pastores, the group's lawyer, told reporters after the hearing.

"It turns out—the records would show this anyway—that they have different reasons, conflicting reasons why they were not present," said NUPL president Edre Olalia, who took the witness stand at the proceeding.

President Rodrigo Duterte—as the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP)—National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon, Jr., Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, AFP Chief of Staff Benjamin Madrigal, Jr., AFP Deputy Commander for Intelligence Brigadier General Fernando Trinidad, AFP Intelligence Service Chief Major General Erwin Bernard Neri, Army Commanding General Lieutenant General Macairog Alberto, and AFP Deputy Chief of Staff for Civil Military Operations Major General Antonio Parlade were named as respondents in the NUPL's petition.

Olalia said there was a "back and forth" between the justices of the Special 15th Division and lawyers from the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) regarding the reason for the absence. "It took a long time before they let it slide," he said.

The justices required the generals to attend the hearing on July 11, Pastores said. She said Duterte was not required to show up and that it was his choice whether or not to appear.

Command responsibility

The Supreme Court issued a writ of amparo in favor of the NUPL last month, an issuance that came with an order for the CA to hear and resolve the case.

The NUPL had claimed that its members have been red-tagged, or linked to communist rebels, and in some cases been killed in the line of duty.

For one, the NUPL alleged that Parlade, one of the respondents, claimed "without any credible, competent or admissible proof" that the NUPL is part of an international network of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People's Army.

In response, the government argued the lawyers' group failed to specify particular illegal acts or threats that were performed by the president and the other respondents themselves, a line of reasoning that apparently continued during Tuesday's hearing.

Pastores said OSG lawyers focused their questions on legal matters that were not the subject of the hearing. She said the NUPL is standing on the principle of command responsibility.

"Even though there's no specific acts mentioned in the petition, considering that they are high-ranking officers with subordinates and they made the policies, then they can be liable pursuant to the principle of command responsibility. That is our position," she said.

Olalia said acts of red-tagging—one of the allegations the NUPL made in its petition —have worsened and become "more vicious, malicious, and unrelenting" during the Duterte administration.

"They don't even show up, they don't have the audacity to even show up and stand on their ground," Olalia said, referring to the military and defense officials. "We are all here. Why don't they just face us and tell us right in front of our faces what they have been telling everybody else?"

"You bully us behind our backs then when the time comes, you're nowhere to be found," he said. — BM, GMA News