An anti-corruption protester is spending the New Year behind bars after a merciless re-arrest by the Philippine National Police just before Christmas, human rights group Karapatan revealed.
Ryan Ombrog was one of the more than 200 individuals arrested and detained during the September 21 anti-corruption protests in Manila.
The 28-year-old factory worker was released on October 2, 2025 after posting bail. Ombrog lost his job after missing work for more than a week.
He was re-arrested last December 23 by virtue of a warrant of arrest dated December 18 by Branch 182 of the Manila Regional Trial Court.
Ombrog is facing two counts of Simple Arson charges under Presidential Decree No. 1613, with bail set at ₱20,000.00. He is currently detained at the Valenzuela City Police Station.
Because he was arrested a day before the holidays, his family could only process his on January 5 when government offices reopen.
“Ombrog is no corrupt official; he is just an ordinary working class Filipino. [He spent] the New Year behind bars, because he protested against corruption,” Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said.
“How about the corrupt? How about the government officials and minions who should be the ones languishing in jail for robbing the people?” Palabay asked.
Karapatan also revealed that the Valenzuela resident was threatened by the police during his first arrest that he will never come out of jail because he will be charged with arson.
“The police definitely singled out Ombrog, and dragging him now back into detention only renews the trauma caused by police brutality and unjust arrests during the protests,” Palabay said.
Karapatan demanded the dismissal of charges against Ombrog and the hundreds of the September 21 arrestees, stressing that the cases are being used to divert public attention from the real issue of large-scale corruption in government.
“These cases deliberately deflect attention away from the real problem of entrenched, large-scale corruption under the Marcos Jr. administration,” Palabay said.
“As another year…close[d], the Filipino people are still waiting, not for the arrest of those who protest corruption, but for the arrest and detention of corrupt officials, all the way to the top,” she said. # (Raymund B.Villanueva)
