For cooking adobo, civilian charged with financing terrorism

By RAYMUND B. VILLANUEVA
Bulatlat.com

MANILA – Anti-terrorism cases against civilians are getting weirder and weirder, with another civilian charged with financing terrorism for cooking the favorite Filipino dish adobo.

Southern Tagalog civilian Alaiza Mari Lemita had been charged before the Department of Justice with violating Republic Act 11479 or the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 2020, Republic Act 10168 or the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012, along with alleged multiple attempted murder charges.

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An Armed Forces of the Philippines 2Lt. Frederick Malagat Jr. filed the ATA complaint, presenting alleged rebel returnees Ronie Gutierrez and Alfred Manalo as witnesses.

Both witnesses claimed Lemita delivered cooked rice and adobo contained in two sacks to the New People’s Army at Barangay Banilad, Nasugbu, Batangas as well as handing a bundle of money estimated to be amounting to P50,000 ($865.70).

The case stemmed from a March 10, 2017 gunfight between the New People’s Army and government soldiers in Sitio Masapiit, Barangay Toong, Tuy, Batangas, five years before the filing of charges last May 24 and three years before the passage of the controversial ATA.

The Batangas Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation Group, represented by a PSSG. Reynante Malvar, meanwhile, filed the anti-terror financing charge. Both Gutierrez and Manalo also act as witnesses.
A case brief by human rights lawyers obtained by Kodao said Malagat and his witnesses claimed that Lemita was part of the NPA the military fought against.

The case brief said the cases are not the first time that criminal cases have been filed against Lemita and her family.

“In fact, other criminal cases avr been previously filed against Alaiza and her family before and for being utterly false, none of which have resulted in any indictment,” it said.

The brief also noted that Lemita lost Ana Maris Lemita Evangelista and her husband Ariel Evangelista in the infamous Bloody Sunday Killings of March 7, 2021 that killed nine activists and arrested six others throughout the Southern Tagalog Region.

READ: 4 other victims of #BloodySunday killings identified

“The filing of this case is a continuation of the harassment and intimidation directed against Aliaza and her family,” the case brief said. (RVO)