MEDIA ADVISORY – 10/14/2024 

CONTACT : Bren Fawson, brenfawson@gmail.com, cc ichrpus@gmail.com 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

American human rights activist barred from entering the Philippines, set to hold press conference on October 17th 

PORTLAND, OR – On Thursday October 17th, the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines US Chapter (ICHRP-US) will hold an online press conference with human rights activist Copeland Downs, who was recently barred from entering the Philippines while traveling to attend the National Congress of Philippine human rights group Karapatan.

As chairperson of the Portland Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (PCHRP), Copeland Downs arrived in Manila on October 6th but was held by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) for hours at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. His luggage was searched and his passport was held. Downs was told that he could not enter the Philippines because he is on a blacklist for “attending a political rally in 2022” in the Philippines; he was sent back on a flight to the US without further explanation. 

Downs was in the Philippines during the 2022 national elections as part of the International Observers Mission (IOM) organized by ICHRP Global, though he did not participate in any rally. While the IOM’s findings exposed corruption and violence associated with the election process in 2022 that deemed Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as the winner of the Philippine presidency, this blacklisting is clearly retaliation for Downs’ participation in this human rights advocacy work.

On Thursday 10/17, ICHRP-US will host an online press conference to draw attention to the continued repression of human rights defenders in the Philippines and from amongst the international community by the Philippine government under Ferdinand Marcos Jr. :

WHO:  Speakers include Copeland Downs, as well as Brandon Lee of ICHRP-US, Joe Iosbaker of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Atty. Maria Sol Taule of Karapatan Alliance and the National Union of People’s Lawyers, and Peter Murphy (Chairperson of ICHRP’s Global Council). 

WHAT: Global Press Conference (Online), Media Q+A 

WHEN: Thursday October 17th, 5:00 PM Pacific Standard Time, 8:00 PM Eastern Standard Time, (October 18th 8:00 AM Manila, Metro Manila Philippines) 

WHERE: Zoom registration link : https://tinyurl.com/10-17-ICHRP-PRESS 

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Urgent Alert
October 11, 2024

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) condemns the abduction of a peasant organizer in Calamba City, Laguna in Southern Tagalog last September 28. 

Fhobie Matias, a member of Katipunan ng mga Samahang Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan (KASAMA-TK), was reportedly abducted by soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Matias was in Laguna to conduct a series of consultations with farmers regarding their conditions. According to her family, Matias was brought to a military camp and on that same day sent them a message asking for help. However, her whereabouts remain unknown.

Matias’ abduction is the 18th active case of enforced disappearance under the Marcos Jr. administration. Last August, Felix Salaveria Jr., a national minority rights advocate, and James Jazmines, brother of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) peace consultant Alan Jazmines, were abducted in separate incidents.

Her disappearance happened in the midst of increasing militarization in the Southern Tagalog region. Last month, peasant communities in Lupang Ramos and Lupang Tartaria reported heightened military presence. It also adds to the long list of attacks against peasant organizers in the region. Last April 2023, Mary Joyce Lizada and Arnulfo Aumentado were abducted, tortured, and illegally detained by the 203rd Battalion in the province of Mindoro. KASAMA-TK Deputy Secretary General Jeverlyn Seguin also experienced red-tagging and harassment.

As we celebrate peasant month this October, ICHRP calls on the international community to strengthen its solidarity to the peasant struggle for land in the Philippines amidst worsening attacks by state forces. ICHRP’s vows to continue to expose and oppose the human rights and international humanitarian law violations of the Marcos Jr. government.

Surface Fhobie Matias!
Defend Southern Tagalog!

Click here to register for the Europe / Asia-Pacific session on October 15 at 9am CEST / 3pm PHT / 6pm AEDT / 8pm NZDT.

Click here to register for the North America session on October 15 at 5:30pm PDT / 8:30pm EDT.

On October 15, the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) will be holding a webinar to highlight the struggle of peasants in the Philippines for genuine land reform, and against state violence at the hands of the Marcos Jr. regime. The webinar will feature speakers from the peasant movement, as well as from the international solidarity movement. It will be held in two sessions, one for the Europe and Asia-Pacific regions, and one for North America.

The webinar will feature speakers from the peasant movement in the Philippines, including Danilo Ramos and Rafael Mariano. It is co-sponsored by the People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty and Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation.

Printable versions of these posters are available here

October marks Peasant month in the Philippines. In rural areas of the country, the peasant masses are the primary victims of state terror and violations of human rights and international humanitarian law (IHL) by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). As they till the land, produce to feed millions, and clamor for genuine land reform, peasants are an essential part of the struggle for a just peace. Meanwhile, peasants face the brunt of IHL violations in the context of the ongoing armed conflict because their struggle for land reform is a threat to the monopoly land ownership and big foreign companies which the Armed Forces of the Philippines protects.

This month, ICHRP calls upon people all over the world to learn about the situation of peasants in the Philippines and join us in a month of solidarity and express the following calls:

Support the Filipino People’s Call for Genuine Land Reform!
Stop the Attacks Against Filipino Peasants!
Oppose State Terrorism in the Philippines!

To learn more about the peasant struggle, click here to view our info webinar on the peasant situation, which happened on October 15, 2024.

ICHRP is also collecting donations which will go directly to peasant organizers in the Philippines, who are in need of support in the midst of state attacks. Click here to access the donation form.

Urgent Alert
October 8, 2024

On October 05, 2024, Copeland Downs, an official observer to the Karapatan Human Rights Alliance Congress, was prevented from entering the Philippines. He was held by the Philippine Bureau of Immigration for hours. During this time, his luggage was searched and his passport held. He was told that he cannot enter the Philippines because he is on a blacklist for “attending a rally in 2022” in the Philippines, a factual error. Copeland safely returned to the United States.

Copeland, the Chairperson of Portland Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines and an active member of the ICHRP-US faith working group, had visited the Philippines previously to meet with peasant and urban poor communities. He was also one of 60 official delegates to the International Observers Mission that investigated the 2022 Philippine national elections. 

The denial of entry is a violation of Copeland’s rights to freedom of movement and part of the larger pattern of attacks against human rights defenders and the growing international solidarity movement for human rights in the Philippines. 

As documented in Investigate PH and this year’s International People’s Tribunal, attacks against human rights organizations have worsened under the US-designed counterinsurgency (COIN) program of the Philippine government. Threats, surveillance, red-tagging, heavy militarization and occupation of communities, alongside repressive “counter-terror” legislation have made the documentation of human rights abuses and war crimes increasingly dangerous. Under the COIN program of the Duterte and Marcos regimes, state forces do not distinguish between civilian and so-called “insurgents,” which lead to widespread attacks and violations against individuals, civilian communities and even foreign activists. 

Since the Duterte regime, ICHRP has documented 17 incidents of attacks against solidarity activists and members of ICHRP since 2018. These attacks include: surveillance of solidarity activists while visiting the Philippines, harassment via placing tarpaulins up in the Philippines  calling activists supporters of terrorist groups, red tagging ICHRP members on social media, and tagging state forces in Canada about ICHRP events. In addition, the Philippine government deported Australian activists Sister Patricia Fox and Gill Boehringer under the Duterte regime. 

The 2009 US COIN handbook not only calls for a population-centric approach that flattens the distinction between civilian and military targets, but also seeks to win the favor and support from civilian populations in the US and neighboring countries. The Philippine government’s COIN, guided by the US, seeks to clean up its human rights image and win support and military aid from abroad. It also attempts to intimidate, harass, and prevent human rights and solidarity activists from exposing the real situation in the Philippines. 

The ongoing trend of barring human rights defenders and solidarity activists from entering the Philippines raises the question: what exactly does the Philippine government, and the current Marcos Jr regime, have to hide?

If the current regime has nothing to hide, Marcos Jr should immediately lift the ban on all activists who were denied entry into the Philippines. The fact that Copeland was not able to attend and observe the Congress of Karapatan, an organization at the forefront of documentation of human rights and international humanitarian law violations against peasants, workers, and other oppressed masses in the Philippines, further proves the importance of organizations like Karapatan and ICHRP.

ICHRP will not be intimidated, but see this incident as a greater reason to strengthen our solidarity with the Filipino people. We demand the immediate lifting of the ban against activists living abroad who have been denied entry to the Philippines. We call on third party governments, especially the US, to end military aid to the Philippines until the intense attacks cease.