Groups of environmental and human rights defenders launched a protest at the Plaridel Municipal Hall in Bulacan on September 23 to reiterate their call for the dismissal of the grave oral defamation case filed by the military against environmental activists Jonila Castro and Jhed Tamano, both victims of abduction by the military. The action was carried concurrent with the hearing of the case which was transferred from Doña R. Trinidad to the aforementioned town.

Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, Hands Off Jhed and Jonila Network and AKAP KA Manila Bay, said the case that was filed in February is a tactic to silence and suppress the two from revealing the truth about their abduction. The case is based on the Department of Justice’s own recommendation in January.

The transfer of the case to a new court prompted Castro and Tamano to again pay bail on September 24.

“The military relentlessly pursues to repress and file trumped-up charges against the two because of embarrassment and defamation when Jhed and Jonila exposed the truth of their abduction last year,” the statement of Hands of Jhed & Jonila Network said.

It has been more than a year since the 70th IB abducted, tortured and secretly detained Tamano and Castro on September 2, 2023 in Orion, Bataan. They escaped military control when they bravely exposed on September 19, 2023 what the Armed Forces of the Philippines did to them.

In the press conference itself of the military and the National Task Force-Elcac, the two revealed the abduction, detention, threats and coercion of the military to become “surrenderers.”