Home Blog Page 14

US Military Out of the Philippines! Stand with the People Against Foreign Plunder and Domination!

ICHRP Secretariat
-
0
US Military Out of the Philippines! Stand with the People Against Foreign Plunder and Domination!

Statement on the 34th Anniversary of the Ouster of US Bases in the Philippines

Additional resource: Not Your War Game Zone: A Primer on the Violation of People’s Rights Under US-led Military Build Up in the Philippines

Today, 34 years after the Philippine Senate rejected the extension of US military bases in the country, the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) joins the call of the mass movement in the Philippines for an end to US-led military intervention. We call on all governments around the world to end military agreements and support to the fascist Marcos Jr regime, and for a diplomatic solution to the escalating political and military tensions in Southeast and East Asia.

Following the so-called “independence” of the Philippines from US rule after World War II, the various governments in Manila accepted a series of unequal treaties and agreements with the US. These allowed the continuing domination of the country by the US in economy, military, and politics, firming up the neo-colonial relationship that continues until today.

The US maintained military bases in the Philippines under the 1947 Military Bases Agreement until 1991, when the Filipino people rallied to push the Philippine Senate to reject then President Cory Aquino’s proposed extension to the agreement. Using the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the later Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), the US military has continued to operate de facto military bases in the Philippines. These US troops train, advise, and practice alongside the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and are stationed inside of Philippine bases for extended periods of time.

ICHRP condemns the increasing presence of the US military and its allies in the Philippines over the past year, which has been welcomed by the Marcos Jr regime with open arms. This year alone, a US surveillance plane carrying four personnel crashed in Mindanao during operations; more than 14,000 Philippine, American, Australian, British, and Japanese soldiers participated in full battle simulation during Balikatan 2025; and the US proposed the creation of a munitions plant in Subic Bay. In August, Australia announced a new Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA) that would allow for Australia to construct “military infrastructure” in the country. While Philippine authorities have denied the Australian DCA is based on the US EDCA, which allows US troops to base in Philippine bases, one fact is sure: the deal will increase foreign troop presence. 

Contrary to claims of disaster relief efforts or national defense, the presence of foreign troops in the Philippines only puts the Filipino people in a more precarious situation. The entry and stationing of foreign soldiers not only makes the Filipino people more likely to be collateral damage in a war against China; it also requires occupation of people’s lands and destroys the people’s crops and livelihood. Foreign military presence is a display not only of US economic dominance over the country, but also of foreign protection for Filipino landlords and corrupt politicians who are now exposed for pocketing funds meant for flood control projects for their own profit.

ICHRP calls on the international community to stand with the Filipino people in their fight for national sovereignty, and the removal of all foreign military bases.

No more delays to justice!

ICHRP Secretariat
-
0
No more delays to justice!

ICHRP statement on postponement of Duterte ICC hearing

September 9, 2025

Just weeks before the confirmation of the charges hearing of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte at the International Criminal Court (ICC), Duterte’s defense team has issued a request for indefinite adjournment of the trial, creating an immediate delay The defense issued this request on the basis that Duterte is “not fit to stand trial”.

“The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) urges the court to swiftly investigate and decide on this matter so that the trial can proceed,” said ICHRP Chairperson Peter Murphy. “Any further delays to the process are an affront to the thousands of victims of Duterte in their quest for justice and accountability.”

The hearing, originally scheduled for September 23, 2025, has been postponed indefinitely while the ICC investigates the fitness claim. Duterte was issued a warrant of arrest by the ICC earlier this year for the alleged crime against humanity of murder carried out during his bloody “war on drugs”. The hearing, which has now been postponed, would confirm these charges and begin the official trial process of the court.

“The charge and arrest of Duterte are an important step in the struggle of the Filipino people for accountability and justice,” continued Murphy. “ICHRP stands in solidarity with the victims of former president Duterte, as well as the victims of the current Marcos Jr. regime in its brutal war of so-called ‘counter-insurgency’.”

Contact: Peter Murphy, +61 418 312 301, ichrp.net/contact

33rd Anniversary of the Hague Joint Declaration: Marcos Jr. Must Remove Barriers to Just Peace

ICHRP Secretariat
-
0
33rd Anniversary of the Hague Joint Declaration: Marcos Jr. Must Remove Barriers to Just Peace

Statement
September 1st, 2025

#
September 1st marks the 33rd anniversary of the signing of the Hague Joint Declaration. The document underpinned decades of peace talks between the Government of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)

Today, the Marcos government is systematically undermining the principles set forth in the Hague Joint Declaration, which identifies Just and Lasting Peace as the common goal of the GRP and the NDFP. The negotiations are to be conducted in accordance with mutually acceptable principles – including national sovereignty, democracy, human rights, and social justice. The Declaration states that “no precondition shall be made to negate the inherent character and purpose of the peace negotiations.”

This year, the Marcos Jr. government issued its current counter-insurgency program – the National Action Plan for Peace, Unity, and Development (NAP-UPD) – which it claims is enabling “Lasting Peace and Justice.” However, the Marcos Jr. government continues to violate the mutually accepted principles of the Hague Joint Declaration.

Marcos Jr. serves US interests ahead of Philippine sovereignty. The number of US-accessible EDCA military bases has grown by four since 2022 – and military exercises with the US, Australia, and other foreign powers have intensified to the detriment of local communities. Marcos Jr. was quick to sweep his proposed “Economic Charter Change” under the rug after it was shelved in response to massive opposition by progressive and nationalist Philippine groups for its plan to open up the education, media, and other industries to 100% foreign ownership. In the name of “renewable energy,” Philippine land is being opened up to foreign corporations, dispossessing many thousands of peasants.

Peasants and workers are exploited by landlords and employers – both foreign and domestic. Land reform schemes, like SPLIT, are purely voluntary and encourage transfer from one landlord to another – or are by-passed entirely through neoliberal land conversion schemes. There is no social justice from the Marcos Jr. government.

Marcos Jr.’s government blatantly violates human rights and international humanitarian law. Labour leaders, indigenous land defenders, and peasant organizers continue to be disappeared, or arrested on trumped-up charges, or killed. In the past month, the Philippine government has dropped a record number of bombs in close proximity to rural communities – supporting a program of state terror while also violating international humanitarian law (IHL). The NTF-ELCAC partners with local elites and law enforcement to red-tag organizers and threaten communities that support progressive politicians and party-lists. Those same local elites, connected with local paramilitaries and private militia, offer threats (including arson) and bribes (like bags of rice and money) to pressure Filipinos to vote for them.

The Hague Joint Declaration clearly highlights the social goals that the peace talks aim to facilitate. Demands for bilateral ceasefire and unilateral disarmament are arbitrary preconditions that “negate the inherent character and purpose of the peace talks.” Instead of pursuing the mere silencing of guns, the Marcos Jr. government must remove the barriers it has erected to those mutually held principles of national sovereignty, democracy, human rights, and social justice. The Philippine government should then resume the peace talks using the agenda set out in the Hague Joint Declaration and implementing all agreements reached so far.
#

ICHRP marks 10th Anniversary of Lianga Massacre and War Crimes against Lumad Community

ICHRP Secretariat
-
0
ICHRP marks 10th Anniversary of Lianga Massacre and War Crimes against Lumad Community

ICHRP Statement on 10th Anniversary of the Lianga Massacre

September 1, 2025

# The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) calls for justice for the victims of the 2015 Lianga Massacre. On Sept 1, 2015 the Magahat/Bagani paramilitary elements under the protection and support of the 36th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) went into a community in Diatagon, Lianga, lined up residentsat dawn and killed three Manobo community leaders: Dionel Campos and Datu Juvello Sinzo, and ALCADEV school executive Emerito Samarca.

Some 2000 residents of the community and nearby villages, including teachers and students of alternative schools for indigenous children, were forced to evacuate to a sports arena in Tandag City, after members of the paramilitary groups and soldiers threatened to kill them all. 

Ten years on and there has been no justice for these killings because the known perpetrators were under the protection of the Philippine government.  The people of Lianga have been continually harassed by the AFP and its militias for the past decade around mineral resources and development issues. After Martial Law in Mindanao was declared in 2017, the community suffered through military food blockades, and another four evacuations involving upwards of 1,500 people. “The clear concern here is that the military itself has been conducting an endless campaign of terror against the community and it is time they were removed from the equation and sent back to their barracks,” said ICHRP Chairperson Peter Murphy.

The Duterte government launched a war on the Indigenous school system, occupying, burning, destroying and closing all Lumad schools in Mindanao, a war crime and gross violation of International Humanitarian Law. At one-point, former president and ICC-accused war criminal Rodrigo Duterte threatened to bomb the Lumad schools, which eventually led to the shutting down of over 200 Lumad schools in Mindanao. According to 2024 data gathered by the Save Our Schools (SOS) Network, an estimate of 10,000 indigenous students have been affected by these attacks.

Under the Marcos government, the struggle for justice for indigenous people and advocates continues. 

The Talaingod 13 still face fabricated charges of “kidnapping” Lumad children in the Philippine court system. They are thirteen community advocates who rescued Lumad children facing a military food blockade and threats from the notorious Alamara paramilitary group in Talaingod, Davao Del Norte. In another case, Michelle Campos, the daughter of massacre victim Dionel Campos has been harassed for her advocacy work. At the age of 17, Michelle Campos along with other community members had witnessed the execution of her father and the two other leaders.  Since her youth she has worked tirelessly advocating for indigenous rights and the protection of ancestral lands. On March 2, 2025, she was arrested without warrant with other members of the Manobo tribe and has since been held in military custody.  .

This continuing conflict between the Philippine government and Indigenous communities in Lianga and across Mindanao is largely a struggle around resource development. Indigenous communities, as a result of government-sponsored settlement programs, have been displaced and forced onto increasingly marginal lands, primarily in the mineral rich mountainous areas of Mindanao. International mining companies now covet the Lumad Ancestral Domain, and would like to push the communities off these mineral rich lands.  

ICHRP remembers Dionel Campos, Datu Juvello Sinzo, and Emerito Samarca, and condemns the ongoing persecution of the Manobo community saying that no amount of lies by the government can whitewash the criminal liability of state forces for these war crimes in Lianga.

This strategic whitewashing of the Philippines crimes under International Humanitarian Law (IHL) has been ongoing under the Marcos Jr. regime as is the ongoing civil war and counterinsurgency policy that is intensifying in many areas of the country.  ICHRP Chair Peter Murphy notes, “If the Marcos government were serious about IHL, they would investigate crimes such as the Lianga massacre, they would stop protecting the perpetrators of rights violations, they would stop the of bombing of civilians and schools, the occupation of schools and the ongoing murder of civilian non-combatants.”

ICHRP since its inception in 2013 has opposed all violations of IHL and the ongoing militarization of Philippine society for the purposes of counter-insurgency under the US COIN Doctrine. Today, we continue to call for international support for the Lumad, indigenous people, and their right to development and self-determination. 

We call for an end to the military attacks on all Indigenous Communities.

We call for perpetrators of the Lianga Massacre to be held to account.

We call for the release of Michelle Campos and Justice the Reversal of Charges Against the Talaingod 13. 

Stop killing Lumads! #

Contact: Peter Murphy +61 418 312 301

Open Letter to International Committee of Red Cross on Asia Pacific IHL Conference in Philippines

ICHRP Secretariat
-
0
Open Letter to International Committee of Red Cross on Asia Pacific IHL Conference in Philippines

Johannes Bruwer
Head of Delegation
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Philippines
17th Floor of Nex Tower, 6786 Ayala Ave
Makati City, 1229, Philippines

Mirjana Spoljaric
President
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
19 Ave De La Paix
1202 Geneva
Switzerland

Subject: Concern Over Marcos Jr. Government’s IHL Violations 

Dear Mr. Bruwer & Mrs. Spoljaric,

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines expresses serious concern about the ICRC’s decision to situate an Asia-Pacific regional conference on International Humanitarian Law (IHL) in the Philippines. Through co-convening the event, the Philippine government was granted a platform to present itself as a leader in IHL.

ICHRP welcomes international discussion of IHL violations, but the Philippine government’s “challenges that they have faced in relation to IHL” are self-inflicted. Red-tagging, military occupation of communities, bombings, torture, enforced disappearances, forced surrenderees, and active intimidation against civilians are not only systemic examples of military and police impunity, but deliberate state policy through the NTF-ELCAC and “Whole of Nation” approach to counter-insurgency. These issues were documented in a 2024 International People’s Tribunal, which found the current Marcos regime, along with the previous Duterte regime, guilty of widespread violations of IHL. 

In Mrs. Spoljaric’s visit to Marawi City on August 23rd, she highlighted the need for institutions, legislation, training, and national strategy to be aligned. The Philippine Inter-Agency Committee on IHL does not overcome the Philippine state’s institutional reliance on IHL violations at all levels of its “counter-insurgency” program – particularly when the NTF-ELCAC remains chaired by Marcos Jr. himself. The Anti-Terror Law (ATL), passed in 2020, encourages a military culture of impunity and attacks on civilian populations and community organizers.

This August, civil society groups in the Philippines have reported numerous violations of IHL. These cases include the August 1st killing of civilian and farmer Juan Sumilhig in Occidental Mindoro, aerial bombings and ground assaults in Quezon disrupting farming and causing fear among civilians, as well as bombings and artillery fire in Panay, forcing households to evacuate. Other cases of aerial bombardment have also been documented in Cordillera and Negros this month.

These violations happen in the context of the ongoing civil war between the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Philippines. Despite agreements made between the two parties in peace negotiations to uphold IHL, the Philippine government actively violates the terms of the agreements it has signed. Although the Marcos Jr regime recently claimed the Philippines to be insurgency-free, its counterinsurgency operations under Marcos National Action Plan – Unity, Peace & Development (NAP-UPD) continue, and NDFP peace consultants are still held in prison despite a longstanding Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees. 

In the enduring human rights crisis in the Philippines, domestic remedies have failed to address the IHL violations committed by state forces. Former President Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in 2019, and Marcos Jr.’s Administration has ignored calls to rejoin the International Criminal Court. Therefore, there is an urgent need for more international attention and accountability in regards to war crimes in the Philippines. 

We agree with Mrs. Spoljaric that IHL offers “a pathway to peace,” but Marcos Jr.’s counterinsurgency program is not laying the groundwork for respecting IHL nor addressing the root causes of conflict. The NAP-UPD will not produce a Just and Lasting Peace.

We ask the ICRC to:

  1. Investigate the recent IHL violations listed above, including the killing of farmer Juan Sumilhig and the increase in aerial bombings in the month of August. 
  1. Deepen collaboration with Philippine civil society organizations (CSOs), people’s organizations, and grassroots fora that seek accountability for Philippine state violations of International Humanitarian Law.

ICHRP would like to arrange a meeting with Mr. Bruwer, Mrs. Spoljaric, or another representative of the ICRC to discuss our concerns, which are the concerns of the victims of ongoing IHL violations by the Philippine government.

Peter Murphy
Chaiperson
International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP)
Whatsapp +61 418 312 301
secretariat@ichrp.net

1...131415...259Page 14 of 259