Around 30 members of the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, who identified themselves as environmental defenders, held a surprise picket rally outside the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters at Camp Crame, Quezon City, on Thursday morning.

The group called on the PNP and the Marcos administration to be held accountable for what they described as systematic rights violations against people defending their mountains and ancestral lands.

Some protesters who identified themselves as leaders from Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya, cited alleged police brutality and Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP) cases filed against them by North Luzon Mineral Resources Corp. following the dismantling of their barricades by the PNP in Nueva Vizcaya.

They also said peasant leaders, lay workers and human rights advocates in Cagayan Valley face financing of terrorism charges over relief operations conducted during emergencies.

“I wish to voice my grievances regarding the arrival of a large police force at our barricades. They insisted that our checkpoint was prohibited and that we had no right to set it up. Had we not done so, the mining company personnel could have freely entered and exited to destroy the land that sustains our livelihood,” Lei Jin Dugay of Kasibu Intertribal Response for Ecological Development (KIRED), one of the community members facing charges, said.

Members of the so-called Cagayan 11, including peasant leaders and community organizers facing charges under Section 8, paragraph 2 of Republic Act No. 10168, or the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012, also joined the protest.

They claimed the allegations were based entirely on testimonies from alleged former rebels who said they received goods from activists inside an alleged New People’s Army encampment in 2019.

“These fabricated charges follow a familiar pattern of criminalization, to silence resistance and protect extractive capital,” the group said.

The PNP said it observed maximum tolerance and closed the main gate of its headquarters to vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The protesters eventually dispersed after airing their grievances and attracting media attention.