Today is the last day to register for the global conference Kapit Bisig: Stop the US-led War of Suppression On the Filipino People, along with ICHRP’s 5th general assembly.
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What you need to know about the Luzon Economic Corridor Investment Forum this Sept. 10–11
What is the Luzon Economic Corridor?
The Luzon Economic Corridor (LEC) is a US-led trilateral initiative with Japan and the Philippines. It is an infrastructure and economic framework that aims to build and connect key hubs from Subic Bay and Clark in Central Luzon to Metro Manila and Batangas in Southern Tagalog.
The LEC is not merely an infrastructure plan, but a strategic platform designed to realign the Philippines’ resources, critical minerals, and supply chains away from China and directly into the U.S. sphere of interest.
What is the LEC Investment Forum?
The LEC Investment Forum brings together more than 600 foreign investors, industry leaders, and government and international stakeholders to advance investment and infrastructure projects in the Philippines. Among the key initiatives being promoted is Pax Silica, a flagship project under the LEC.
Marcos is paving the way for foreign capital while ancestral lands and farming communities are pushed aside in the name of “development.” While the LEC and Pax Silica are framed as pathways to stronger supply chains, connectivity, and economic growth, Filipino communities bear the social, economic, and environmental costs.
What is the LEC really pushing?
The LEC aims to make the Philippines more attractive to foreign investors, while securing critical minerals for the US as it prepares for war against China.
Infrastructure and natural resources are being turned into “investable” projects, from industrial zones and data centers to ports, railways, energy, and mining. For investors, this means new opportunities for profit. For communities, it can mean land conversion, displacement, state violence, and loss of livelihoods.
Making Philippine resources more accessible to imperialist interests
Under Marcos Jr., policies and laws have expanded incentives and opportunities for foreign investment, land leasing, infrastructure development, and critical-mineral extraction.
These include measures involving tax incentives, long-term land leases, right-of-way acquisition, and streamlined mining permits.
Together, they create a policy environment where foreign capital can gain greater access to Philippine land, resources, infrastructure, and markets.
Development at whose expense?
The proposed Pax Silica hub in Tarlac could affect around 1,620 hectares of agricultural and ancestral lands.
Local groups report that around 20,000 farmers and Indigenous residents face serious risks of land conversion and displacement.
For communities, it is losing more than land – it means losing livelihoods, food security, and ancestral territories.
What is at risk?
- LAND & LIVELIHOODS
- Farmers and Indigenous communities face potential displacement and loss of agricultural and ancestral lands.
- ENVIRONMENT
- Industrial and technology projects require massive amounts of water, energy, and land, raising concerns over biodiversity and agricultural production.
- INDIGENOUS PEOPLES RIGHTS
- The Ayta indigenous people have raised concerns over the lack of meaningful consultation and their right to self-determination.
- HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
- Communities have also reported experiences of military red-tagging when raising concerns about the project.
The LEC: Part of the U.S. Strategy Against China
The LEC is also part of the broader U.S. strategy to counter China in the Indo-Pacific.
The corridor will facilitate greater US military intervention in the Philippines. The US aims to use the country as a forward base and launching pad for war against its rival China, which makes Filipinos vulnerable to bear the consequences of a war they do not want.
The Filipino people are fighting back!
On August 31, Indigenous peoples, farmers, scientists, environmental advocates, students, faith leaders, and progressive organizations came together to form the Network Opposed to Pax Silica (NO to Pax Silica).
On September 10, five paralegals were arrested during a protest action condemning the LEC Invesment Forum.
Today September 11, a caravan of multisectoral groups and affected Ayta communities held a protest in Tarlac to register its opposition to Pax Silica.
REGISTER FOR KAPIT BISIG!
What the Filipino people need is genuine national industrialization, development that strengthens domestic industries, creates decent jobs, and puts local resources in the service of the Filipino people.
REJECT Pax Silica!
PH NOT FOR SALE!
The upcoming Kapit Bisig conference will bring together people from around the world to call for an end to US-led militarization and plunder of the Philippines.
Learn more and register at ichrp.net/kapitbisig
Five Paralegals Arrested, 27 Injured during Protest at Luzon Economic Corridor Investors Forum
For those who want to donate to the bail funds of the arrested individuals, please submit donations using the form on this page.
September 10, 2026
Urgent Alert
The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) calls for the immediate release of five paralegals arrested during a protest outside the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Taguig City, Metro Manila on September 10. ICHRP also condemns the unlawful use of force by the police who violently dispersed the protesters, resulting in injuries to 27 individuals.
The paralegals were assisting protesters who conducted a lightning rally to condemn the Luzon Economic Corridor (LEC) Investors Forum being held inside the hotel. The forum gathered more than 600 foreign investors to promote the US-led Luzon Economic Corridor. This economic zone includes the controversial Pax Silica initiative, which plans to build a 1,600-hectare AI data hub in Central Luzon while displacing thousands of Ayta indigenous people and plundering the Philippines’ minerals and natural resources. The rally held on September 10 was a legitimate protest by Filipinos concerned about the selling out of resources, land, and national sovereignty to foreign powers.
Confirmed among those arrested are Kenneth Castro of the University of the Philippines Office of the Student Regent; and Jona Yang, former Secretary General of AGHAM Advocates of Science and Technology for the People. Two more paralegals, Daya Juliano of human rights monitor Karapatan and RC Placido of peasant organization Tanggol Magsasaka, were subsequently arrested at the Taguig City Hall while assisting the three earlier detained.
While President Marcos Jr. delivered his keynote speech inside the hotel, videos captured by local media show the police violently shoving, manhandling, and hitting the protesters with batons and riot shields. Protesters left the scene with visible physical injuries. The stark difference between the safety of those attending the forum versus the brutality against the protestors undoubtedly shows whose interests the Philippine National Police serve. They are the ruling elite’s main instrument in silencing legitimate demands from the Filipino people.
ICHRP raises the alarm on the recent spree of arrests and increasing state harassment during protests in the Philippines. It is indicative of the growing fascist character of Marcos Jr. in his desperate bid to curb the intensifying resistance of the people’s movement.
ICHRP stands in firm solidarity with the protesters and fully supports their demand to shut down Pax Silica and other forms of US-led imperialist plunder.
Release the LEC Forum 5!
No to Pax Silica!
5 DAYS LEFT TO REGISTER FOR THE KAPIT BISIG CONFERENCE!
Join the monumental gathering of solidarity voices for the Filipino people’s struggle this September 25-26 in Toronto, Canada.
Stand alongside activists and people’s organizations from around the globe, learn from speakers on the frontlines of the struggle against US-led plunder and war, and help build the solidarity movement for the Filipino people’s struggle!
🗓️ Deadline to register: August 15
➡️ For more information and to register, visit: ichrp.net/KapitBisig
Sara Duterte finally charged over ‘grave threats’
Impunity dissolving around VP, says international human rights group
Media Statement
September 8, 2026
“The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) welcomes the long overdue charging of Vice President Duterte for her 2024 threats to kill political opponents. This is another important step towards ending the culture of impunity which is rampant in Filipino society,” said Peter Murphy, ICHRP Chairperson.
On September 4, a Quezon City court issued a warrant of arrest against Duterte. The Vice-President faced court on September 5, failed in her bid to have the warrant of arrest withdrawn or delayed, and instead paid bail (US$1,915 on each charge), was fingerprinted and then released. This development came almost two years after Vice President Sara Duterte’s brazen statement during a live press conference.
VP Duterte is also charged over these alleged grave threats in the ongoing impeachment trial in the Senate. There, the penalty, if found guilty, would be blockage in the 2028 presidential election. In a criminal trial, a guilty verdict would mean up to six months imprisonment on each of the three charges of grave threat.
“While it remains to be seen if she will be convicted of the crime, there is no doubt that effective legal accountability for Sara Duterte is vital to democracy in the Philippines,” added Murphy.
Her November 2024 outburst was after midnight and outside a detention facility at the House of Representatives, where her Chief of Staff, Ms Zuleika Lopez, was being held for contempt. Lopez had written to the Commission of Audit to tell them not to comply with a subpoena issued by the House Committee on Good Governance and Public Accountability. This committee was investigating the spending of discretionary and intelligence funds by Sara Duterte as Secretary of the Department of Education and as Vice-President. The total under investigation was P612.5 million (US$9.77 million).
Whether the Vice-President was infuriated or rattled by the sudden detention of her Chief of Staff, she reacted with death threats against those she believed were behind this detention.
At the impeachment trial, the prosecution has slowly unraveled the story of those P612.5 million in relation to the charge of misuse, misappropriation and irregular liquidation of public funds. Only Sara Duterte and a Colonel Raymund Lachica know how the P500 million of her funds as Vice-President were spent, and Gina Acosta and Edward Fajarda were given the P112.5 million in cash to disburse. The Commission on Audit had directed that P200 million of these funds not be disbursed, and none of the spending was documented according to law.
But Marcos Jr himself deserves condemnation for enabling the crimes of Sara Duterte. Prior to the bitter breakup of their dynastic team up in 2024, Duterte and Marcos Jr formed the so-called “Uniteam” alliance for the 2022 Philippine elections, where they won the two highest posts in the government.
“Just as the International Criminal Court trial of former President Rodrigo Duterte – set to open on November 30 – is a warning to incumbent President Marcos Jr and other senior officials, the impeachment in the Senate and now these criminal charges against Sara Duterte are also a warning to the Marcos family that they are not immune from accountability for their own alleged plunder and violations of human rights,” concluded Murphy.