Statement
June 12, 2026

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) honors the revolutionary spirit and sacrifice of the Katipuneros of 1896, but condemns the ongoing selling out of Philippine sovereignty since the so-called “independence” of the country in 1946. Until now, the Philippines remains utterly subject to US economic and military interests.

Since the Philippines was declared an independent republic in 1946, various unequal agreements have solidified its semicolonial relationship with the US. Treaty, basing, and access arrangements such as the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty oblige “mutual defense”. The 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement and the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) give US forces rotational access, prepositioning rights and construction and use of agreed sites on Philippine bases. The latter two agreements restore a significant US operational footprint without permanent bases, after the closing of US bases in the Philippines in 1992.

U.S. security assistance and funding for EDCA site improvements (for coast guard/navy capability) create local economic inputs while tying Philippine defense modernization to U.S. suppliers and contractors. Expanded EDCA sites (including new northern Luzon and Palawan locations), larger Balikatan and other joint exercises, and prepositioned equipment increase U.S. ability to project force, conduct surveillance, and respond in the South China Sea–Taiwan theater.

Deeper and further integration is implicit in recent developments with the US-led Luzon Economic Corridor and Pax Silica initiatives. These initiatives will displace farmers and indigenous people while further establishing the Philippines as the largest aircraft carrier of the US military. Pax Silica is set to establish a special economic zone in New Clark City, carved out of the former US Military base, as well as the ancestral lands of the Aeta indigenous people and Filipino farmers.

The US is already a major trade partner and investor in the Philippines that receives preferential market access. The ongoing business ties create economic dependence that shapes Philippine policy choices.

Pax Silica is packaged as technological progress and economic security, yet it advances a deeper form of foreign domination—placing vast tracts of Philippine land through the Luzon Economic Corridor, critical mineral industries, and national policy at the service of U.S. geopolitical and military interests.

Pax Silica reorganizes the Philippine economy around the demands of U.S. semiconductor, artificial intelligence, and strategic mineral supply chains while intensifying neocolonial subordination, land dispossession, ecological destruction, and militarization. This is the pattern of US-imposed neoliberal economic policy on the Philippines, which has declining agricultural and industrial output, but ever increasing export of contract workers and profound widespread poverty and landlessness.

Israel, known as one of the most egregious violators of human rights in the world, is also seeking to capitalize on Pax Silica, accessing critical minerals in the Philippines used for weapons and developing an AI hub, a technology that has been broadly used in its war crimes against the Palestinian people.

This is all happening while US forces in the Philippines are rapidly preparing for war against China, marked by the largest Balikatan exercises ever and recently the Salaknib exercises—joint training and operations between Australian, NZ, US, Japanese, and Philippines forces. While Balikatan has largely dealt with war preparations against China, Salaknib exercises focus on counterinsurgency operations and jungle warfare, highlighting foreign participation in the ever-intensifying COIN operations that continue to result in massive war crimes, such as the April 19 Toboso Massacre in Negros.

Overall, the Pax Silica strengthens the US First Island Chain Strategy against China but also ties Philippine security choices to US strategic priorities and draws the Philippines further into great power confrontations. Economically, the Pax Silica Declaration accelerates integration of Philippine industry, regulation, infrastructure, and security arrangements into a U.S.-centered tech and supplychain ecosystem/ This creates material economic dependencies, aligning technical and legal standards with U.S. policy, and increasing U.S. military and security involvement to protect those strategic assets.

ICHRP supports the call of the Filipino People for genuine Independence and a decoupling from the reckless militarism of a decaying US empire.

ICHRP supports the Filipino people in their call to Shut Down Pax Silica and remove US and foreign troops from the Philippines as major affronts to Philippine sovereignty.

Find more information and register at ichrp.net/KapitBisig!

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP), in partnership with the Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle (FFPS), will be holding a conference titled Kapit Bisig: Linking Arms Across the World Against the US War of Suppression on the Filipino People on September 25 to 26. Afterwards on September 27, ICHRP will hold its 5th General Assembly. The events will feature guest speakers and workshops on the struggle for human rights in the Philippines, cultural performances, and strategic planning for the future of ICHRP.

In the context of instability, intensifying inter-imperialist conflict, and the escalating attacks on political, social, and economic rights of the Filipino people, the imperative for solidarity and resistance grows. The path toward peace, human rights, and justice, long established by the Filipino people, continues to garner the support of the international community. The conference and 5th General Assembly is an opportunity to seize the moment to collectively educate ourselves on the changing global context and forge stronger unity against the worsening US war of suppression on the Filipino people.

Find more information and register at ichrp.net/KapitBisig!

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.

Global rights group asks: What is Marcos Jr hiding?

Press Statement
May 19, 2026

On Tuesday, May 12, Reverend Sadie Stone—a United Methodist Pastor, a member of the Global Council of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP), and a law student at the University of San Francisco School of Law—was prevented from entering the Philippines at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila.

After she landed in Manila, Philippine officials informed Stone that she was not allowed to enter the country. Officials at the airport inquired about her participation in the activities of ICHRP and the campaign for Justice for Brandon Lee, a Chinese-American activist from San Francisco who was shot four times—but survived—in the Philippines in August 2019.

The denial of entry came when Stone was en route to participate in a fact finding mission on the recent massacre in Negros Occidental, central Philippines. Human rights groups and the international community have decried the massacre, which killed 19, including farmer advocates, an elected student leader, a journalist, and two Filipino-Americans. 

“What really is there to fear about Rev Sadie Stone? This appears to be another attempt of the Marcos Jr regime to hide its war crimes from international eyes,” said ICHRP Chairperson Peter Murphy. 

One of the two US citizens who were killed in Toboso, Lyle Prijoles, was a leader in the US chapter of ICHRP. Prijoles was a beloved community member from the San Francisco Bay Area who had been doing humanitarian and human rights work for the Philippines for decades.

The Fact Finding Mission to Negros—which Stone was prevented from attending—confirmed that six of the nineteen individuals killed, including Prijoles, were unarmed civilians. The Mission also found evidence of intimidation and harassment of the community by the AFP. While claiming to look for the NPA before the massacre, the military subjected the community to drone surveillance, house to house visits, and even accosted and illegally detained a 14 year old boy and mother. 

“While covering up its own war crimes in Negros, this regime also continues to protect former President Duterte and his cronies, who were in charge when troops attempted to assassinate Brandon Lee,” said Murphy. “Marcos Jr and the Dutertes are in a deadly conflict, but they are still united in deadly repression of the people who are hungry for land to till.

“The war crimes and impunity of the AFP highlight why Rev Stone needed to go to the Philippines in the first place” continued Murphy. “Unfortunately, Marcos Jr. seems much more keen to welcome foreign military troops into the country than human rights advocates.” 

The prevention of foreigners from entering the Philippines, often known as blacklisting, has been an increasing trend under the Marcos Jr. administration. Since the beginning of this regime, three US-based human rights activists – Copeland Downs, Gordon Mutch, and Julia Jamora – have also been prevented from entering the country. 

The trend of blacklisting is especially disturbing given the rapid increase in foreign military aid, weapons transfers and military agreements with the Philippines. Foreign nationals are becoming more and more concerned with how their countries are spending on military engagement in the Philippines, yet when they go to investigate what is happening there, they are prevented from entry. 

Reverend Stone first visited the Philippines in 2016, and was elected to the Global Council of ICHRP in 2019. Over the past decade, as part of the California Nevada Task Force in the United Methodist Church, Stone has visited the Philippines on multiple occasions. She has served as a staunch advocate in the campaign for Justice for Brandon Lee and for the passage of the Philippine Human Rights Act in the US Congress, which calls for the suspension of aid to the Philippine military and police until certain human rights standards are upheld in the country.  

ICHRP Peter Murphy and Rev. Sadie Stone are both available for interview upon request: please send a request to ichrp.net/contact

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