Development workers from the Community Empowerment Resource Network (CERNET) Inc. and activists in Cebu filed criminal and administrative cases against Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors on July 30 at the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas. The groups aim to hold government officials accountable for weaponizing the law for harassment of development workers and other progressives.
The complaint asserts the prosecutors’ improper handling of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Visayas Command’s (AFP Viscom) “terrorism financing” case filed against the so-called “CERNET 27.” The complaint included Senior Deputy State Prosecutor Peter Ong, leader of the Task Force on Counter-Terrorism and Terrorism Financing, along with other DOJ prosecutors.
In May 2023, the AFP filed a complaint with the DOJ regarding “terrorism financing” against the CERNET 27. The victims include four doctors, two lawyers, priests, and development workers. The case also implicates AMA Sugbo-KMU president and CERNET affiliate Jaime Paglinawan, one individual unknown to the group and three who have already passed away.
CERNET first learned of the case in August 2023, when its office received a subpoena from the DOJ. The AFP presented former CERNET staff member Bernabe Nieves as a “witness” and basis for the case. The organization had long ago dismissed Nieves due to grave misconduct and its code of ethics violations.
Nieves’s statement claims that CERNET gave ₱135,000 to the New People’s Army (NPA)-South East Negros in Dumaguete City in September 2012.
Ong’s task force ruled in favor of the AFP complaint on May 8, 2024, and filed it with a local court in Cebu which issued a warrant of arrest against the CERNET 27 on May 13, 2024.
The CERNET 27 immediately objected to the court’s order for their arrest, since the group’s lawyers asserted that the DOJ provided no resolution to the preliminary investigation the agency conducted in September 2023. The filing of the case in court actually surprised the group.
For provisional release in May 2024, 23 of the 27 accused posted a court mandated bail of ₱200,000 per individual, despite the DOJ’s recommendation to prohibit posting bail.
The Cebu City Regional Trial Court-Branch 74’s dismissal of the “terrorism financing” case filed by the DOJ and AFP against Geraldine Labradores and Msgr. Merlin Logronio, two of the CERNET 27, on June 24, 2024 further demonstrated the case’s lack of merit. Both individuals were already deceased when the case was filed.
CERNET 27 also received widespread support from development worker organizations, human rights groups, and international groups and institutions. They call to dismiss the fabricated case against the victims.
Some members of the CERNET 27 filed the criminal and administrative cases as a step toward seeking justice and accountability.
