November 5, 2026
Statement

This past September, just days ahead of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines’ (ICHRP’s) Global General Assembly in Toronto, Canada on September 27th, US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) unjustly detained ICHRP-US Executive Committee member Gordon Mutch, denied him of his basic rights, and prevented him from entering Canada.

ICHRP is outraged at the actions of US CBP, and we vehemently condemn the increasing state repression against solidarity support for the Filipino people’s struggle for rights.

The treatment of Mutch was cruel and without due process or cause. While Mutch was en route to Canada via train in New York state, CBP boarded the train, removed Mutch from the train, handcuffed him, and held him for four hours. CBP seized his phone and laptop and also denied Mutch’s assertion of his right to a lawyer.

This incident follows Mutch’s denied entry from the Philippines in 2025, when he was prevented from entering the Philippines en route to ICHRP’s International Observers Mission of the midterm elections.

This incident with CBP also occurs in the larger context of increasing repression against overseas Filipinos and solidarity activists. Mutch has been active in a campaign to free Filipino-American political prisoner Christina Pasion, who was detained without basis while in the Philippines serving rural communities. Pasion’s family and community advocates have reported that the FBI has visited their homes and workplaces on multiple occasions since a red-tagging campaign targeting Pasion commenced over six months ago.

In April this year, two Filipino-Americans, including ICHRP-US leader Lyle Prijoles, were killed in Negros Occidental. En route to visit Negros on a fact-finding mission, newly-elected ICHRP Chairperson Sadie Stone was denied entry into the country.

Repression against overseas Filipinos and solidarity activists abroad is worsening, and the writing is on the wall: the recent targeting of Mutch, as well as Christina Pasion’s family and advocates, point to a coordinated effort of the US and Philippine government in silencing dissent.

Why deny Mutch entry to Canada to participate in the ICHRP General Assembly? Why deny Stone entry to the Philippines to investigate the killing of Prijoles and 18 others integrating with rural impoverished sugar workers?What is the US-Marcos regime covering up?

ICHRP, however, will not be intimidated. The escalating targeting of solidarity efforts only further highlights the urgent need for an international response to the worsening human rights crisis in the Philippines, and emboldens us to strengthen and build the full range of support for the Filipino people’s pursuit of their rights.

ICHRP Holds 5th General Assembly in Toronto – First in North America

Statement
November 3, 2026

On September 27, more than 300 people from around the world gathered in Toronto for the 5th General Assembly (GA) of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP). Held back-to-back with the Kapit Bisig (“Linking Arms”) Conference, this 5th GA was the first ICHRP GA to be held in North America since the founding of ICHRP in 2013.

At the GA, keynote speaker Cristina “Tinay” Palabay, Secretary General of the Philippine human rights alliance KARAPATAN, spoke about worsening conditions for ordinary Filipinos under the U.S.-backed government of Marcos Jr. Palabay honored those killed while pursuing social justice in the Philippines, especially ICHRP US member Lyle Prijoles and the Negros 19. She urged ICHRP members and supporters to travel to the Philippines on learning tours and fact-finding visits to see conditions firsthand.

Members and leaders of ICHRP reported on the major gains the coalition has made in building the Philippine solidarity movement since 2023. In the past three years, ICHRP has grown to its largest ever membership with over 90 member organizations in 16 countries. Members are actively campaigning against US-led militarization and plunder of the Philippines, and are building various kinds of solidarity support for the people’s movement in the Philippines that is fighting for just and lasting peace in the country.

The GA also served as a venue for ICHRP members to firm up their principles and future plans as a coalition united around Philippine solidarity. Members updated the coalition’s governing rules, and expanded its leadership to a new 13-member Global Council from eight countries. The assembly adopted a plan for 2026–2029 with six priorities: stronger international campaigns, closer ties between Filipinos and supporters abroad, more visits to the Philippines, doubling membership, launching new national chapters, and raising more funds.

In her closing remarks, newly elected ICHRP Chairperson Rev. Sadie Stone thanked volunteers and called on delegates to keep organizing. Rev. Stone, who was denied entry into the Philippines this year, emphasized the need for emboldened solidarity as repression against solidarity heightens: “Here in Toronto, delegates from around the world linked arms against U.S. arms of oppression,” she said. “We won’t be silenced, we won’t be denied, we will continue to organize!”

Following our successful General Assembly, ICHRP is now keenly aware of US President Donald Trumps visit to the Philippines November 16-18 and his plans to sign the Pax Silica agreement. We are also aware of the Filipino people’s efforts to oppose the ongoing plunder of their country by the Trump regime and assert their national sovereignty. At this critical juncture, we reiterate our call to “March United Towards Broader and bolder Philippine Solidarity;” we invite individuals and organizations in the to join ICHRP, and we invite the international community to join us in the fight against Trump’s agenda for increasing US war and plunder in the Philippines.

According to the latest UNICEF study (2025), there are 38.7 million children aged 17 and below in the Philippines. Each Filipino child dreams of a life and future of development, well-being, joy, security, and dignity for their communities.

Children are recognized as a vulnerable sector due to their limited level of development, but it is also their rapid development that makes children adaptable. As children go through stages of physical, social, emotional, and intellectual development, they learn quickly and have the skills to adapt and change society.

The majority of Filipino children are born to farmers in rural areas, while another large number of them are born to working class families. This means that most Filipino children are shaped by the cultural and economic realities of farmers and workers, who are the most impoverished and exploited people in the country.

Therefore children, as a vulnerable population, face the brunt of the current social and economic crisis of Philippine society. Children are forcibly trapped in the nightmare of poverty, hunger, illness, deprivation, violence, fear, and suppression under the Marcos Jr regime.

This Children’s Month, while the social and economic crisis worsens in the country, we recognize the Filipino children as shapers of their society. We seek to uplift their dreams, and we call for their rights to be upheld.

Join ICHRP – along with the Foundation for Filipino Children, Salinlahi Alliance for Children’s Concerns, and the Children’s Rehabilitation Center – this month for an info series on the situation of the Filipino children and how you can also support their dreams.

We humbly ask for your financial support to help her family cover hospital expenses and the costs of her memorial service. Every contribution, no matter the size, is deeply appreciated. Donations may be sent via: https://www.ichrp.net/LevieFundraiser

October 30, 2026

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) deeply mourns the passing away of our beloved former Philippine Coordinator Levie Ebio. She is “Mamalag” to the younger comrades, a doting mother and wife, and a dearest friend to many. She died at the age of 63 last October 21 after suffering from pneumonia and other complications. 

A long-time activist and human rights defender, Levie’s political awakening began in the late 1970s as a young student in the Philippine Science High School in Quezon City. With the country still under the shadows of the Marcos Sr. dictatorship, her history teacher would talk about raging national issues at the time and invited students to integrate with urban poor communities and labor strikes. 

This piqued the interest of a young Levie, and she would eventually join mass integrations in different communities in Metro Manila. The experience opened her eyes to the realities of oppression and inequality in Philippine society, and paved the way to her life-long activism. She was witness to the atrocities of the dictatorship and the regimes that followed, including surviving the Mendiola Massacre.

Upon entering college in the University of the Philippines – Diliman in the early 1980s, she joined the anti-imperialist youth organization League of Filipino Students, established just a few years earlier in 1977. Since becoming organized as a student, Levie worked in many capacities in service of the people’s struggle for rights, organizing among the youth, peasants and workers. 

In 1995, she was a founding staff member of Karapatan. She then organized among the youth to call for genuine land reform in her work with the National Network of Agrarian Reform Advocates Youth (NNARA-Youth). In 2004, she became a staff of the Joint Monitoring Committee for the peace negotiations between the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP), a body mandated by the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) to monitor, record and report on violations of human rights and international humanitarian law (IHL) in the context of armed conflict. She became an expert in the history of the peace negotiations and the thousands of war crimes cases committed by the Philippine government.

At the height of the pandemic in 2020, she joined ICHRP and would serve as its Philippine Coordinator until 2025. Through her work, ICHRP was able to effectively coordinate its campaigns with Philippine partner organizations, project local mass struggles, amplify issues confronting the Filipino people, and expose the human rights and IHL violations under the Duterte and Marcos Jr. regimes.

As Philippine Coordinator, she was crucial to the successes of several ICHRP undertakings in the past six years—the InvestigatePH in 2020 to 2021, the International Observer Mission in 2022, the Interfaith Learning Tour and the 4th ICHRP General Assembly in 2023, the International People’s Tribunal in 2024 which ICHRP co-endorsed, the International Observer Mission in 2025, and countless other campaigns and events.

Levie dedicated more than four decades of her life fighting for the rights and interests of youth, peasants, workers, and other oppressed sectors of Philippine society. Her passing away on October 21— falling on the same day as thousands of farmers flooded the streets for genuine land reform—is a befitting culmination to a life lived in service of the Filipino masses.

ICHRP, its members, and the movement for lasting peace are beyond honored to have worked with her. We are boundlessly inspired by her courage, militance, commitment, and the role she played in building international solidarity for the Filipino people’s struggle.

We honor and pay the highest tribute to her meaningful contributions to ICHRP for the past five years. We will forever keep her memory alive by further strengthening and expanding the coalition, as we continue to campaign for a just and lasting peace in the Philippines.

Long live the memory of Levie “Mamalag” Ebio!

Long live the Filipino people! 

Long live international solidarity! 

October 19, 2026
Urgent Alert

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) strongly condemns the Philippine National Police (PNP)’s forceful dismantling of a peaceful kampuhan (campout) of peasants in Quezon City, Philippines last October 17.

More than 100 uniformed PNP personnel from the Quezon City Police Department were deployed to intimidate, harass, and surveil the campout. Police even used a LRAD (Long-Range Acoustic Device) to disperse the activists, farmers, advocates, and supporters of the campout. A LRAD is a special device that emits loud sounds which can cause permanent hearing loss. ICHRP condemns this unnecessary and overkill response from the PNP. 

Led by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), peasant organizations, mass leaders, and farmers traveled from Bicol, Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog and other regions and set up a campout in front of the National Office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on October 16. The campout was supposed to run until October 20, a day before the peasant-led protest on October 21.

Farmers chose the DENR as the campout site to call for genuine land reform and condemn the rapid construction of hundreds of “development projects” and renewable energy projects in their respective provinces and communities. These displace locals and cover thousands of hectares of agricultural lands that could have been used instead for domestic production.

The farmers also condemned the imperialist plunder of natural resources such as the controversial US-led Pax Silica initiative that disproportionately impacts farmers, drains valuable water and land resources, and forcibly displaces Indigenous Peoples in Tarlac province.

Instead of listening to their legitimate demands, the Marcos Jr. government resorts to violating the right to peaceful assembly of the peasants. This is in stark contrast to how he openly welcomed foreign investors during the Luzon Economic Corridor Investment Forum last September 10. It is clear on whose side Marcos Jr. stands— and it isn’t with the poor peasants and other oppressed sectors of Philippine society.

ICHRP stands in solidarity with the peasants who are bravely and rightfully asserting their rights and defending their lands. We fully support all activities held by different organizations in the Philippines this peasant month of October, and call on the international community to amplify the struggles of the peasantry in the country.