APCHRP: The Mabinay 6 are free at last! Release all remaining political prisoners
After seven long years, six Filipino youth activists – collectively known as the “Mabinay 6” – finally walk free after the trumped-up charges against them were dismissed by a trial court. Myles Albasin, Bernard Guillen, Joey Valloces, Carlo Ybañez, Randel Hermino and Joemar Indico were arrested by elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) while immersing with the peasant community in Mabinay, Negros Oriental. The charge allegedly was that the six are armed combatants with the New People’s Army (NPA) – an accusation that had overwhelming evidence refuting it from the start.
The official narrative of the Philippine Army was that the six had fired shots at them, instigating an armed encounter between the two sides that resulted in the youth activists surrendering. The issue with that claim is that all six youths tested negative in paraffin tests conducted after their abduction. Neighbouring residents also testified to either hearing “only four or five shots”, or none at all, making claims of a full-blown armed encounter implausible. A far more credible account of what happened is that told by the six detainees themselves: that they went to Mabinay to organize a farmers’ forum; stayed in an abandoned house in the hinterlands of the municipality, where they were sleeping before armed soldiers barged into their house and held them in custody. They were all charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives, again despite the negative paraffin test and absence of independent witnesses who can corroborate the military’s version of events.
Adding to their suffering, the full trial did not begin until November 2021 – almost four years after the six youth activists were arrested. This means that the six detainees spent years behind bars despite never having been convicted of any crime. State forces also inflicted hardship on the families of the Mabinay 6, obstructing their ability to visit and see their detained family members. It is not enough to blame these experiences on an inept or incompetent corrections bureaucracy, rather these were designed to psychologically harass the families whose only “crime” was that they invoked their democratic right to organise and dissent. These tactics are not foreign to activists who have been persecuted by the state; particularly during the Duterte regime, when the Mabinay 6 were arrested, peaceful activists were systematically red-tagged and deemed “enemies of the state” – accused of taking up arms despite only engaging in peaceful activism.
The dismissal of all charges by the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 42 in Dumaguete City is a victory for the truth and human rights. The APCHRP applauds the judge for seeingthrough the propaganda and psy-war spun by the Philippine military and insisting on seeing the merits of the case. At the same time, the APCHRP also calls for the release of all remaining political prisoners in the Philippines today. Activism is a human right. It is not terrorism or a crime and should not be confronted with fabricated charges and other forms of harassment.
Mabuhay ang #Mabinay6!
Free all political activists!
