[STATEMENT] Defend Windel Bolinget and the Cordillera Defenders! Hold Red-Taggers Accountable! Junk the Anti-Terror Law!

Gawad Bayani ng Kalikasan (GBK) welcomes the recent decision of the La Trinidad Municipal Trial Court this June 2 holding former PROCOR chief R’win Pagkalinawan liable for red-tagging and ordering him to pay damages to Windel Bolinget, Chairperson for our 1st GBK Organization Category awardee in 2009, the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA). This ruling is a significant victory not only for Bolinget and the Cordillera peoples’ movement but also for all environmental defenders, indigenous peoples, and human rights advocates who continue to face vilification, harassment, and threats for their work and advocacy.

We recognize that the ruling only strengthens what we have long raised that state-sponsored red-tagging is of most dangerous practice that places lives at risk. The Commission on Human Rights, through its National Inquiry on Red-Tagging, seconded on this, highlighting that red-tagging exposes individuals to harassment, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, and even extrajudicial killings. Likewise, the Supreme Court’s landmark Deduro ruling affirmed that red-tagging threatens a person’s right to life, liberty, and security. Once more, we stand our groundon this matter: red-tagging is not harmless rhetoric, as it creates the conditions for impunity amid repression and counter-advocacy violence.

However, while we welcome this important victory, we strongly condemn the recent decision of the Baguio City Regional Trial Court last June 3, dismissing the CPA’s petition challenging its terrorist designation and questioning the constitutionality of the terrorist designation process under the Anti-Terrorism Act. We firmly attest this decision adds to the alarmingly growing list of ‘legal’ policies used to target social workers and rights activists, legitimizing criminalization without due process and nor credible evidence.

For years, the CPA have faced this concern. With decades of practice in upholding the welfare of the northern mountains and its people, they have since seen these practices be used to silence dissent, discredit legitimate advocacy, and justify attacks against those defending ancestral lands, human rights, and the environment. They have since been fighting off and gathering victories for the North, including successfully lobbying for indigenous rights and autonomy provisions in the 1987 Constitution, halting the World Bank-aligned Marcosian Chico River Basin Development Project, the closure of the Benguet Corporation’s open-pit mining in the mid-1990s, and the successful initiatives on establishing the annual Cordillera Peoples’ Day to commemorate Macli-ing Dulag’s legacy and its continuation till present days.

GBK recognizes that these attacks and abuses are nothing new to our environmental heroes; worse, many among our nominees and awardees face threats not because of criminal acts, but because of their unwavering commitment to protecting communities, ecosystems, and collective rights. The struggle for environmental justice cannot be separated from the defense of civil liberties, democratic rights, and the right of people to organize and speak out without fear of persecution.
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GBK therefore calls for greater accountability for all perpetrators of red-tagging and other forms of political harassment. We likewise reiterate our call for the abolition of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA); and the dismantling of policies and institutions that enable the targeting of activists and environmental defenders under the guise of national security.

GBK stands in solidarity with the Cordillera Peoples Alliance, indigenous communities, environmental defenders, and all those who continue to face attacks for defending the people and the environment. We remain committed to amplifying their struggles and honoring their courage in the pursuit of justice, human rights, and genuine environmental protection.