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No Christmas reunion for families of 4 trade union organizers arrested on Human Rights Day despite posting bail

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Mike Navallo, ABS-CBN News

<figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xK-DFrPXilk?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div><p>MANILA — Relatives and families of four trade union organizers arrested on Human Rights Day expressed disappointment Thursday after learning their much-awaited reunion on Christmas Eve won’t be happening despite going to great lengths to raise the bail amount needed.</p><p>Dennise Velasco, Jaymie Gregorio, Jr., Romina Astudillo and Mark Ryan Cruz — part of the “Human Rights Day 7” — were arrested on December 10 in two separate occasions, and accused of harboring illegal firearms and explosives.</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Trade Union organizers Dennise Velasco, Jaymie Gregorio, Jr., Romina Astudillo and Mark Ryan Cruz—part of HR7—won’t be home for Christmas despite posting bail after police expanded charges vs them to include non-bailable offense of illegal possession of explosives. <a href="https://t.co/VbDAZjddhv">pic.twitter.com/VbDAZjddhv</a></p>— Mike Navallo (@mikenavallo) <a href="https://twitter.com/mikenavallo/status/1342057122578632705?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 24, 2020</a></blockquote><div><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charSet="utf-8" type="text/javascript"></script></div><p>But Quezon City prosecutors only found probable cause to charge them with the bailable offense of illegal possession of firearms, noting that the grenade and other firearms not listed in the search warrant will have to be further probed “to determine if they were discovered in plain view,” or simply, if they were validly recovered.</p><p>Velasco immediately posted bail amounting to P350,000, while Gregorio, Astudillo and Cruz posted P200,000 bail each for illegal possession of firearms. </p><p>But just as their lawyers were showing release orders from the court Wednesday, the Philippine National Police (PNP) Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) filed a motion for reconsideration which persuaded prosecutors to also lodge the non-bailable offense of illegal possession of explosives. </p><p>It is not immediately clear if the new criminal case was actually filed in court considering that courts closed at 2 p.m. Wednesday.</p><p>Kristina Conti from the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), the lawyer for the trade union organizers, tried to argue that the amended resolution was not a lawful basis to continue detaining the four accused as a “court’s release order should take precedence over the prosecutor’s belated amended order” but the PNP-CIDG rejected her grounds.</p><p>Atty. Kathy Panguban, also from NUPL, said they were not informed nor given a copy of the PNP-CIDG’s motion.</p><p>“Hindi kami nabigyan ng kopya nito… hindi na-notify &#x27;yung client namin. Basically hindi namin nasagot kung ano &#x27;yung nilalaman nung motion for reconsideration na ito. And the deputy city prosecutor resolved now, resolved this motion for reconsideration nila without us knowing kung ano &#x27;yung laman nung motion for reconsideration na &#x27;yun and without giving an opportunity para kwestiyunin sana kung ano &#x27;yung result,” she said in a press conference Thursday.</p><p>The amended resolutions from the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office dashed hopes the four activists could be released soon. A non-bailable offense requires a hearing to determine if evidence is not strong to warrant grant of bail.</p><p>The development came as a shock and a source of grief for the families.</p><p>“Could you imagine the mental anguish that you gave us? Our family. Na pinaasa niyo na makakasama namin ang mga mahal sa buhay, na walang kasalanan, na alam niyong tinaniman niyo lang ng ebidensiya at kinulong dahil sa ginagawa nila,” Diane Zapata, Velasco’s wife, said in a tearful statement during the press conference.</p><p>Ella Durana, wife of Cruz, echoed her sentiments: “Hindi katanggap-tanggap na merong maniobra, sa kabila nang nagsikap kami, kung saan-saan kami nanghiram ng pera para makapagbail po. Nakailang surety agency para mai-post po &#x27;yung bail kasi &#x27;di naman po namin kaya &#x27;yung sa apat sa kanila.”</p><p>But PNP-NCR’s Col. Randy Glenn Silvio said they are merely implementing the law.</p><p>“Because of the amended resolution, the CIDG cannot release the 7 respondents because they were indicted for a no-bail offense. The CIDG understands the comment of the respondents but we are assuring them that we were acting in accordance with the law,” he said in a statement.</p><p>Instead, he advised those aggrieved to file the necessary complaint.</p><p>“If they think there were such laws violated, they can file their concern in the proper forum and we will answer them,” he said.</p><p>Velasco and another trade union organizer Joel Demate, also part of HRD7, had questioned their arrests before the Supreme Court, challenging what they call a warrant factory coming from the same judge — Cecilyn Burgos-Villavert, the executive judge of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court who had also issued search warrants last year which led to the arrest of almost 60 individuals in Manila and Bacolod.</p><p>They also questioned how they were arrested — search warrants served at dawn with authorities spending time inside their houses to allegedly plant evidence before declaring the start of the actual search.</p><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pkvuO9QOisw?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

<p>Relatives and families of 4 trade union organizers arrested on Human Rights Day expressed disappointment Thursday after learning their much-awaited reunion on Christmas eve won’t be happening despite going to great lengths to raise the bail amount needed.<br /> </p>

Relatives and families of 4 trade union organizers arrested on Human Rights Day expressed disappointment Thursday after learning their much-awaited reunion on Christmas eve won’t be happening despite going to great lengths to raise the bail amount needed.

No Christmas reunion for families of 4 trade union organizers arrested on Human Rights Day despite posting bail

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No Christmas reunion for families of 4 trade union organizers arrested on Human Rights Day despite posting bail

Mike Navallo,

ABS-CBN News

Published Dec 24, 2020 09:07 PM PHT

|

Updated Dec 24, 2020 09:44 PM PHT

Read More:

HRD7

bail

Quezon City Prosecutors’ Office

NUPL

Dennise Velasco

Jaymie Gregorio

Jr.

Romina Astudillo

Mark Ryan Cruz

Atty Kathy Panguban

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