Statement
October 23, 2024

ICHRP honors the life and legacy of Dante Simbulan – a founding member of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) and a hero of the Filipino people and all those who seek a peace based on social justice. ICHRP extends our deepest condolences to his wife Patti, his children, family and friends – may you find peace and strength in his legacy and impact. 

Born May 3, 1930, Dante became a captain at the Philippine Army and taught at the Philippine Military Academy, where he hosted a lecture of Prof. Jose Maria Sison on the mercenary tradition of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. He left the PMA and resigned his commission as a colonel. 

In 1974, he was imprisoned without charges in Camp Bonifacio and Camp Crame, while various groups including Amnesty International campaigned for his release as a prisoner of conscience. 

After his release, he sought asylum in the US, where he lived in the political center of the US, Washington DC. While in exile, he campaigned against the Marcos dictatorship, pointing out the regime’s accountability for the human rights and international humanitarian law violations and the billions of public funds stolen by the Marcoses and their cronies. He served as the Executive Director of the Church Coalition on Human Rights in the Philippines. 

Dante continued to campaign for human rights in the Philippines in the area surrounding Washington DC for the rest of his life. He helped found Katarungan DC under the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo regime and became a founding member of ICHRP at its first assembly in 2013. He testified at the 2015 International People’s Tribunal in Washington DC.

Dante contributed to the movement for just peace in the Philippines through his prolific writing. In 2010, he published “The Modern Principalia: The Historical Evolution of the Philippine Ruling Oligarchy” and published his memoirs in 2016, “Whose Side Are We On?,” which outlines the historical context of his work as a soldier-turned-activist. In 2018, he published his masteral thesis on the socialist movement in the Philippines, “When the Rains Come, Will the Grass not Grow Again.” 

Dante’s life serves as a shining example of selflessness and courage; his decisiveness to leave his military post at the risk of his own safety demonstrates a kind of bravery that can only come from a clear understanding of the depth and seriousness of Filipino people’s struggle for just and lasting peace. ICHRP calls upon people across the world to take inspiration from Dante: to learn and take to heart the real situation of exploited and oppressed classes in the Philippines; to abandon what is comfortable and easy, or brings personal prestige; and to persevere, with patience and dedication, to advance the Filipino people’s struggle for just peace. 

Statement
October 21, 2024

On October 21st, peasants all over the Philippines mobilized in a nationwide day of action to promote the call for genuine land reform and oppose the attacks of the US-backed Marcos Jr. Regime against the peasant movement. 

On this day of action, ICHRP extends our solidarity to peasants struggling for land in Hacienda Luisita, Hacienda Tinang, Araneta Estates; to peasants facing land use changes in Hacienda Roxas, Lupang Tartaria, Lupang Ramos and Southern Tagalog; to peasants facing eviction and land disputes in Cagayan Valley, Bicol and Panay; to peasants facing land reclassification in Negros, as well as those facing destructive mining and megadam projects in Cordillera; and everywhere in the Philippines where the people clamor for genuine land reform and freedom from militarization, land-grabbling, and land monopolization.

October 21 marks the 52nd anniversary of dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s Presidential Decree 27, a sham land reform which removed protective measures from the food market and made it easier for predatory foreign corporations to take business away from peasants. The decree also incorporated loans from the World Bank, which made farm equipment available for loan with the caveat that the market determined the interest rates. This resulted in predatory loans for peasants with interest rates becoming as high as 38%. Poverty rates increased in the countryside from 33% to 73%.

Today, 52 years after Marcos Sr’s sham land reform program, peasants continue to suffer intense poverty on top of terrorist land-grabbing by big land monopolies and foreign corporations. As indicated in the International People’s Tribunal verdict  and the documentation and reportage of  human rights organizations like Karapatan, peasants also face the brunt of state violence and brutal militarization. Just this week, 7 private security “goons” and 4 members of the Philippine National Police arrested 17 elderly and 12 minors of the Mangyan Iraya, indigenous people and residents of Hacienda Almeda. Hacienda Almeda is part of the 31 hectares of ancestral land of the Irayas that is continuously being taken from them through extortion, militarization, and fraud by armed private goons and state agents. 

Meanwhile, the  US continues to lead and finance efforts to further militarize the Philippines, making the countryside more dangerous for peasants. This week, the US kicked off the Kamandag exercises, military drills which occur yearly in the Philippines. This year 2,351 troops from the US, Japan, Australia, South Korea, and the United Kingdom participate in the training while France, Thailand, and Indonesia also sent observers. These troops train with the Armed Forces of the Philippines and enable the killings of peasants in the countryside. 

Militarization of the countryside and the continuing wide scale displacement of peasants and farmers who cannot own land remains at the core of the decades long state of unpeace, armed conflict, and human rights crises throughout the Philippines. The continuous plunder and sell-out of Philippine agricultural lands, natural and mineral resources for the minority few and global monopoly capital is at the heart of the Filipino people’s misery and prevents economic and industrial development in the country.

ICHRP members stand in solidarity with the peasants, and rural communities of the Philippines and support their struggle for genuine land reform. We must oppose all support for the Marcos Jr. regime that bombs, kills and tortures peasant and indigenous communities  while it strips them of their right to food, land and self-determination. 

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

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!