What is counter-insurgency?

In response to revolutionary movements in the Global South, the US has developed over the last century techniques of warfare, economics, politics, and culture to isolate and crush people’s resistance movements to domination.

“Counter-insurgency” (COIN) is the US’ method of suppressing national liberation movements. COIN is a military solution to economic and social inequality and injustice. COIN means widespread violations of international humanitarian law and human rights abuses.

US colonization: “Pacification” campaigns (1899-1910s)

From 1899 until the 1910s, the US colonized and violently suppressed the revolutionary forces in the Philippines who were fighting for independence. Estimates suggest 1-3 million Filipinos died from attacks, famine, and disease.

The first “native” military troops, the Philippine Constabulary, were established by the US and trained at the Philippine Military Academy, modeled after Westpoint – down to the same grey wool uniforms! The AFP-PNP today are the direct descendants of the Constabulary.

Return of the US: Early days of the CIA (1940s)

At the end of WWII, the US returned to the Philippines to re-establish its rule after Japanese occupation. However, the Filipino people had just thrown out the Japanese in a campaign of resistance and guerilla war. The Huks, a communist-led guerilla army, had even established its own rule in Central Luzon among peasant communities.

In response, the newly established CIA cut its teeth in COIN operations against the Huks.

CIA agent Edward Lansdale became close with Philippine Secretary of National Defense Ramon Magsaysay. With Lansdale as his mentor, Magsaysay led the brutal suppression campaign against the Huks.

The military preyed on the superstition of the peasantry by dressing up the corpses of murdered Huks as if they had been attacked by aswang, a creature similar to a vampire. The murdered rebels would be left to hang with their blood drained near communities suspected of supporting the Huks.

Oplan Sagittarius: Martial Law (1972-1986)

Ferdinand Marcos, infamous dictator and father of Bongbong Marcos, declared Martial Law across the country as an act of brutal suppression against the people.

His reign lasted for 20 years, with thousands of killings, enforced disappearances, and other rights violations.

In this time, the revolutionary communist movement expanded nationwide as more and more people were driven to take up arms in the face of fascist repression.

Download the full primer on the War on Iran here

On February 28, 2026, the US and Israel launched an illegal and unprovoked attack on Iran. The initial bombing salvo killed Iranian Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, and triggered hundreds of retaliatory missiles and thousands of drones fired from Iran at Israel and US bases and states hosting US facilities across the Gulf region. The war has left more than 2,000 dead in Iran, Lebanon, and Israel, while over a million people are displaced in Lebanon. Subsequently, the war expanded across West Asia and the attacks triggered the closing of the Strait of Hormuz, resulting in inflation and fuel shortages across Asia.

This primer from the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines explains the war, its massive impacts on Filipinos, and the need for people’s resistance and how we can support them.

Click here to download the ICHRP 2025 Year-End Report

In 2025, the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines actively supported the Filipino people through campaigning, education, fundraising, lobbying, and more. Our members around the world mobilized in response to economic and political crisis in the country, and expanded solidarity for the most oppressed and exploited people in the Philippines. ICHRP hosted learning tours to the Philippines; organized an international ecumenical conference in Rome; disseminated widespread information and education; and fundraised to support peasants, workers, and others impacted by state violence.

The ICHRP 2025 Year-End Report outlines the highlights of our achievements last year, including our membership growth, main campaigns and activities, learning tours to the Philippines, and fundraising. If you have any questions about ICHRP or are interested in getting involved, please reach out to us at ichrp.net/contact, or by sending us a direct message on social media.

Urgent Alert
March 31, 2026

ICHRP calls for the immediate release of artist and activist Charlize Garzon, who was arrested on March 29th, 2026 by the 68th Infantry Battalion and the 203rd Infantry Brigade of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The arrest of Charlize represents an example of the ongoing attacks on land defenders in Mindoro, Philippines. ICHRP fully supports the indigenous Mangyan-Buhid people of Mindoro in calling for an end to militarization in the countryside. 

According to the human rights alliance Karapatan Southern Tagalog, the military arrested Charlize following an encounter with the New People’s Army, and detained her at the San Jose Municipal Police Station where she faces further investigation.

The military’s presumption of Charlize’s status as a member of the NPA rather than as a civilian, without being tested in a court of law through fair trial, is a violation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL). Signed by both the GRP and the NDFP, CARHRIHL includes protections for civilians and persons hors de combat amidst the ongoing civil war in the Philippines. These protections are both a cornerstone of IHL (the laws of war) and are flagrantly, consistently violated by the Marcos Jr. administration, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and the Philippine National Police.

Charlize was arrested on March 29th – the internationally recognized Day of the Landless – and almost two weeks after municipal courts in Abra de Ilog, Mindoro authorized Pieceland Corporation to evict the indigenous Mangyan-Iraya from their land on March 15, 2026.

Sitio Salafay, primarily composed of indigenous people from the Mangyan-Buhid ethnolinguistic group, is currently facing the threat of the Lipitan Small Reservoir Irrigation Project, which aims to construct two dams along the Kayakyan and Busuanga rivers to supposedly “develop” irrigation systems. The project, which has reportedly ignored Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) from affected indigenous communities, is expected to impact 40,000 community members.

So long as the rights of indigenous people are disregarded in Mindoro and across the Philippines, attacks by the state including arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings, and disappearances will remain in force. ICHRP calls urgently for the rights of Charlize and the Mangyan-Buhid to be upheld.

#FreeCharlizeGarzon

#UpholdIHL

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Statement
March 27, 2026

ICHRP condemns the March 15 decision of the Municipal Trial Court of Abra de Ilog, Mindoro to issue a motion for execution to allow Pieceland Corporation, a real estate developer known for recurring land-grabbing across Mindoro, to evict indigenous Mangyan-Iraya residents.

Court approval for eviction follows two years of food blockade and militarization that besieged residents. Human rights abuses worsened following the construction of a fence by Pieceland Corporation which essentially turned the area into an outdoor prison.

Pieceland Corporation’s blatant act of land-grabbing followed by violent attacks highlights an inescapable trend in Mindoro: the Philippine military, police and courts on the island have long served to protect the extraction of resources by local and national elites, at the expense of the Mangyan-Iraya and other peoples of Mindoro.

Attacks by police, military, and private militia against the Iraya span decades, particularly in service of landlords, logging companies, mining corporations, and real estate speculators.

Last October, international observers participating in the 2025 International Solidarity Mission visited the Mangyan-Iraya community in Abra de Ilog, documenting their experiences amidst constant harassment by agents linked to the military and National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). Findings of state neglect, military violence, and corporate exploitation were stark.

When the Philippine Supreme Court overturned a 25-year-old moratorium on mining in Mindoro Occidental in January 2025, projects by Agusan Petroleum and Minerals Corporation quickly sprang up on ancestral Mangyan-Iraya land without sufficient consultation. Development aggression in the form of renewable projects has been railroaded by Alternergy’s 375-MW Abra de Ilog Wind Energy Project, which plans to displace the local indigenous community to install 45-80 turbines by 2031.

On January 1, 2026, less than 24 hours into the new year, the Armed Forces of the Philippines killed three Mangyan-Iraya youth and 1 youth researcher (Jerlyn Doydura) through indiscriminate strafing and aerial bombings. Chantal Anicoche, allegedly found by the military, was then detained and disappeared until international pressure forced the AFP to surface and later repatriate her to the US.

The now court-endorsed eviction of Mangan-Iraya in Abra de Ilog is part of a pattern in the Philippines in which land grabbing and the subsequent displacement of indigenous people – perpetuated by corporate interest and intensive military operations – is backed up by the judicial system. ICHRP expresses solidarity with the Mangyan-Iraya struggle for self-determination and land. We call for the international community to support the Filipino people in their fight for justice in the face of extreme impunity and corruption.