The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) takes exception to the NTF-ELCAC’s claim that it is distorting the truth on the reported arrest, torture, and summary execution of five NPA members in Bilar, Bohol. Among them was Hannah Cesista, a bar passer and former secretary general of the NUPL-Cebu Law Students’ chapter.

The NUPL and NUPL-Cebu statements are premised on reports, accounts, or counternarratives so far available, which precisely necessitate an independent investigation into the real facts and circumstances of Hannah’s death.

Personal choices made by members of NUPL, or any other group or organization, including the great costs and sacrifices they entail, are inherently independent decisions that we respect and acknowledge. To say that NUPL should explain why Hannah voluntarily and freely chose on her own what she chose to do is to also say that each and every personal choice of a member of NTF-ELCAC is always attributable to it. This is simply non-sequitur.

Hence, it is not incumbent on NUPL to prove what Hannah was. After all, the CPP-NPA has already publicly acknowledged her status. With our understanding of international law, however, we categorically reject her characterization as a “terrorist.”

If circumstances indeed confirm that Hannah was killed as an NPA, then her death would be attributed to her reported association with the group and not to her identity as an NUPL member wearing our logo and her law books in hand. This distinction verily underscores the insidious nature of red-tagging.

Once more, the NTF-ELCAC disregards the overwhelming disapproval by both the public and institutions such as the Supreme Court, the Office of the Ombudsman, and the House of Representatives of their incendiary practice of red-tagging. Their recent statements against NUPL only show how it has self-destructed and lost its justification for being. It comes as no surprise that relentless calls for its abolition, which have already been echoed by two UN special rapporteurs, persist unabated.#