Myanmar nationals bring war crimes case vs military junta to CA
Members of the Burma Solidarity Philippines (BSP) coalition, Akbayan Youth, and Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID) hold a protest at the Boy Scout Circle in Quezon City on February 1, 2025, to mark the fourth anniversary of the military coup in Myanmar. The group called on human rights, peace, and democracy movements worldwide to strengthen solidarity in efforts to help overthrow the military junta led by coup leader Min Aung Hlaing. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN NewsMANILA — Myanmar nationals, assisted by Filipino lawyers, filed a petition Tuesday for mandamus and certiorari before the Court of Appeals after their war crimes complaint against the military junta in their country was turned down by the Philippine Department of Justice.
The petitioners asked the CA to issue a writ of mandamus to order public respondents Justice Secretary Fredderick Vida and Prosecutor General Richard Anthony Fadullon to conduct a preliminary investigation on the alleged war crimes committed by private respondent Myanmar President Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing.
Gilbert Andres stressed that they are invoking Republic Act No. 9851 or the Philippine Act on Crimes Against International Humanitarian Law, Genocide, and Other Crimes Against Humanity, since Myanmar is not a member of the International Criminal Court.
“Now is the time for the Philippines to be a beacon of truth and justice for our Chin brethren, in face they are invoking the same Section 17 that was utilized by the Philippine government to arrest and surrender Mr. (Rodrigo) Duterte to the ICC,” Andres said.
Romel Bagares noted that the DOJ sent a letter to the complainants stressing that the war crimes did not happen in the Philippines.
“So there was already some sort of, some form of assessment by the DOJ that they are in fact, there were war crimes committed in Myanmar but they said without taking into consideration the IHL Act, the Philippine IHL Act, that this cannot be prosecuted because this did not happen in the Philippines,” Andres said.
Myanmar national and petitioner Ling Ling reiterated the call of his fellow nationals for action from the Philippine government as more than 10,000 people were either displaced or have perished because of the military junta.
“We have a full community behind us and people want to justice, all of us present, my colleagues here, have been affected, our hometown, we all come from the same town that was totally destroyed,” Ling Ling said.