Gross human rights violations under Marcos Jr should not be rewarded
Press Statement
June 3, 2026
The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) today welcomes the rejection by the United Nations General Assembly of the Marcos Jr administration bid for one of the non-permanent seats on the council.
ICHRP recognizes the role of people’s organizations which advocated and launched rallies against the Marcos bid for a seat. Marcos Jr is indeed the opposite of a peacemaker and instead a “pathfinder to disaster for his country and the region.”
The Philippines lost the bid to Kyrgyzstan, which won 142 votes in the fourth round of voting compared to the Philippines’ 49. The Philippines formerly held a Security Council seat in 1980-81, under Marcos Sr. during the notorious Martial Law period; and in 2004-05, during the bloodthirsty administration of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
“When the Philippine bid was launched in December 2023, the Philippine Ambassador to the UN claimed that his government was a ‘partner, pathfinder and peacemaker’, but the UN General Assembly should know now that President Marcos Jr’s government is at war with its civilians, at war with the Duterte family, and drowning in corruption scandals,” said Peter Murphy, ICHRP Chairperson.
“The loss of this bid shows the failure of Marcos Jr to sanitize his family’s bad reputation as well as that of his own administration. This poor reputation follows the notoriety of his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, now committed to trial for the crime against humanity of murder at the International Criminal Court (ICC),” said Murphy.
“ICHRP is particularly angered by the massacre of 19 Filipino people by the Armed Forces of the Philippines at Toboso, Negros Occidental, on April 19 this year. Nine of those killed were civilians,” said Murphy.
“Evidence from independent missions and autopsies reveals disturbing instances of body mishandling and violations of the laws of war, where victims were left to bleed to death. We commend the international community for refusing to reward gross violations of International Humanitarian Law like this.”
According to data from the human rights alliance Karapatan, from the beginning of the Marcos Jr presidency up to the end of December 2025, there were 135 cases of extrajudicial killing, 16 cases of enforced disappearances, 826 cases of arbitrary arrest, and a total of 699 political prisoners, of whom 125 were arrested under Marcos Jr. The Philippines is one of the most repressive regimes in the Southeast Asia region.
ICHRP also emphasized that a government like that of Marcos which covers up civilian deaths and suppresses dissent should not be rewarded with a seat on the UN Security Council. Such a position risks emboldening the Marcos administration to intensify its war of suppression against the poor and Filipinos who advocate for their rights.
Besides this terrible domestic record of the Marcos Jr administration, its international initiatives include ever larger and almost permanent military exercises in the Philippines with US, Australian and Japanese troops, to prepare for a US war against China.
“Marcos Jr is the opposite of a peacemaker, and he is a pathfinder to disaster for his country and the region,” said Murphy.
The UN General Assembly elects five non-permanent members to the 15-member UN Security Council each year for two-year terms. Alongside the council’s five permanent members, currently China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the elected seats are distributed by region to ensure geographical balance.
Under UN rules, member states seeking election are also assessed based on their contributions to international peace and security, as well as their support for the broader purposes and principles of the United Nations.
“The Marcos government would not be an independent actor at the UN Security Council. Its growing dependence on US military, economic, and diplomatic support means that a Philippine seat would, in practice, function as a de facto extension of Washington’s influence, giving the United States not just one vote, but an echo vote inside the Council to justify its war crimes,” Murphy argues.
“The Philippines today is a rogue state in the international community and should never be treated as if it is upholding its international obligations and its own constitutional commitments to the rule of law. ICHRP calls for the international community to be critical of both Marcos and US maneuvers in the UNSC, given Trump-Marcos atrocities and complicity in wars of aggression and in the Philippine human rights crisis,” concluded Murphy.
