In Bacolod City, farmers who launched a daring lightning protest during President Arroyo’s recent visit, have been frivolously charged in court, while in Southern Tagalog, prominent activists are being tagged as “arsonists” by both the military and a telecommunications company.

The farmers are now out on bail, while the Southern Tagalog activists are fighting back, deploring the charges against them as “harassment”.

The Southern Tagalog case is a true curiosity. The activists are being accused of playing a part in an August 2 incident purportedly involving the New People’s Army which resulted in the torching of a Globe Telecom cellsite in Lemery, Batangas. I am curious whether Globe executives actually authorized the filing of charges against the activists.

One of those charged is a labor and human rights lawyer Remigio Saladero who was quoted by a GMANews.tv report as saying that:

Unable to apprehend the real culprits in the Globetel incident, they have decided to use it as a means to harass and persecute those whom they perceive as critical of the existing order. These include legitimate leaders of peoples’ organizations in Southern Tagalog (Bani Cambrero, Romeo Aguilar, Nestor San Jose, etc. ) and even lawyers like me who side with these mass leaders on the issues they articulate.

I hope that our judicial system would easily see the falsity of these charges newly concocted charges, as it has previously seen the falsity of the charges against Crispin Betran, Batasan 5, Tagaytay 5, and others.

Enough said.