A leading human rights lawyer cautioned interior and local government secretary Jonvic Remulla from branding calls for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s resignation as “seditious.”
Reacting to a warning by the official that his agency would thoroughly investigate calls for the president’s resignation, National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) president Ephraim Cortez said Remulla is wrong and such demands are not seditious.
“Mr. Remulla should be reminded that calls for the resignation of Marcos, in light of the allegations of corruption in government, are covered by the guarantees and protections afforded by the Constitution regarding free expression, the right to peaceful assembly, and redress of grievances,” Cortez said.
In an interview with reporters on Monday, Remulla insisted that calling for the president’s resignation are “close to inciting sedition,” adding these “have no place in a civil society.”
“We will pursue truth, accountability, and justice and follow due process against anyone who needs to be held responsible,” Remulla said, obviously referring to the massive Iglesia ni Cristo rally at Rizal Park over the weekend.
He warned the organizers to stay within the legal limits in their demands as the Department of Interior and Local Government is closely monitoring.
Such kind of warning was obviously intended to discourage and prevent the people from voicing their calls for Marcos, Jr. to resign, Cortez said.
“It is intended to curtail the people’s right to express their sentiments and to seek redress. Instead of ensuring the protection for the free exercise of constitutional rights, as mandated by the Constitution, the government is threatening the people to prevent them from exercising rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution,” the lawyer said.
Cortez reminded Remulla that resignation calls amidst revelations of massive corruption are a valid call, and an expression of the discontent of the people against their government.
“It is precisely for this reason that the Constitution guarantees, not only the right to free expression, but also the right of the people for redress of grievances and to peaceful assembly,” he said.
Section 4, Article III of the 1987 Philippine Constitution guarantees freedom of expression and the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the Government for redress of grievances as fundamental rights.
Cortez added that the Supreme Court itself has repeatedly ruled that “freedom of expression enjoys an exalted place in the hierarchy of constitutional rights” because they are “fundamental for the maintenance of democratic institutions.”
The lawyer said it is futile for government officials to intimidate the people from pressing their demands.
“The people will not be cowed. In the same way that they collectively asserted their rights when they ousted the dictator Marcos in 1986, they will again rise up and assert their rights to demand accountability against the son of the dictator they ousted thirty-nine years ago,” Cortez said.
“As history has shown, the Filipino people will never ‘exalt order at the cost of liberty,’” he concluded. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
