September 21, 2024, marks the 52nd anniversary of the declaration of martial law by the deposed fascist dictator Philippine president, Ferdinand Marcos Sr. The dark years of martial law preceded by the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in 1971 were marked by widespread human rights abuses, including arbitrary arrests, torture, extrajudicial killings, illegal search and seizure and the suppression of media and political opposition. With full US support, Marcos Sr. justified martial law as a response to communist and separatist threats, but it was in reality Marcos Sr.’s tool for maintaining his grip on power and enriching his family and allies amidst worsening state of the economy gravely affecting the lives and livelihood of the Filipino people.

The legacy of this era continues to influence Philippine politics today, particularly under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the former dictator. Despite promises of unity and progress, Marcos Jr.’s government perpetuates authoritarian tactics through aggressive counterinsurgency programs. These programs, ostensibly aimed at combating communist insurgents, have often targeted activists, journalists, and human rights defenders.

The current administration has also been implicated in enforced disappearances of activists, a tactic reminiscent of the martial law era. These incidents, along with red-tagging (labeling individuals or groups as communist sympathizers without evidence), have created a climate of fear among civil society organizations and human rights groups.

In the countryside, reports of aerial bombardment continue affecting the lives and livelihood of peasants and indigenous peoples in those areas. Reminiscent of martial law, residents in those communities are evacuating from their homes and schooling of children are gravely affected. In one reported incident, an A-29B Super Tucano, a single engine close military support aircraft made in the USA was used in the military air strike operation. 

A stark example of the dangers activists face is the case of Brandon Lee, an American citizen and environmental activist. In 2019, during the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, Lee was shot in an assassination attempt that left him paralyzed. Despite intensive advocacy efforts of people in the Philippines and United States – Brandon Lee has received zero compensation for the attack on his life while the Marcos Jr. regime fails to take action.

These anti people actions represent a disturbing continuity with the Philippines’ authoritarian past. They point to the erosion of democratic norms, the weakening of checks and balances, and the shrinking space for dissent and civil society engagement. The increasing military support by the US and other governments emboldens the Philippine government to further crush the little democratic space that the Filipino people are clinging on to. 

The situation underscores the ongoing struggle between authoritarian tendencies and democratic aspirations of the Filipino people, with the legacy of the Marcos Sr. regime casting a long shadow over the nation’s political landscape. As the Philippines prepares for the 2025 midterm elections and the people express their will for genuine democracy, the international community must observe the human rights situation, broadly disseminate the realities of the situation and forge people to people solidarity in support of just peace. 

Statement
Sept 16, 2024

September 16th marks the anniversary of the historic day in 1991 when a mass movement in the Philippines successfully expelled the United States’ military bases from its islands. The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) celebrates this feat with the Filipino people, seeing hundreds of thousands of people rallying in the streets. ICHRP also decries the subsequent efforts of the US to reassert its military presence and neo-colonial domination over the Philippines through unequal military agreements. 

Under the 1947 Military Bases Agreement, the US seized around 108,500 hectares of land to establish at least 23 major military bases in the Philippines. These bases wrought havoc upon the lives and livelihoods of the Filipino people, resulting in large-scale environmental contamination, violence against women and children, the destruction of indigenous ancestral lands, among others. In the face of the devastating impacts of US bases on Philippine soil, the Filipino people organized themselves to expel the US military bases from their homeland. In 1991, building from the momentum of previous mass actions, the people rallied to push the Philippine Senate to reject then President Cory Aquino’s Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Security, which would have extended the stay of US military bases in the Philippines for another 10 years.

While ICHRP marks the victory of the people’s movement to shutter US military bases, we denounce the subsequent unequal military agreements which the US-GRP have signed to overcome the expulsion of 1991. The Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) was signed in 1999 allowing for the entry of an unlimited number of US troops, the indefinite presence of Special Operations Forces in Mindanao, and other provisions undermining Philippine national sovereignty. The US further entrenched its military presence in the Philippines with the Enhanced Defence Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) which was signed in 2014, permitting the construction and operation of military facilities by US troops and the constant rotation of US troops through the islands. Now, at least nine additional military bases in the country are being built through EDCA. 

These unequal military agreements have once again effectively rendered the Philippines a military outpost for the United States. Notably, the Philippines is also the top recipient of US military aid in the region, and the puppet government uses these resources and weapons to commit war crimes and human rights violations against its own people. While the names and specifics of such military agreements and forms of cooperation with the US have changed over time, their impact has stayed the same: trampling Philippines’ national sovereignty, violation of their right to self-determination and the destruction of Filipino land, life, and livelihoods in service of US interests. 

Historically, wherever and whenever the US has imposed military domination upon the Philippines, the Filipino people have fought back. The Filipino people have time and time again shown their strength through building mass movements. This includes EDSA I and EDSA II – which deposed two fascist presidents; the successful movement in the 90’s to expel US bases; and the ongoing resistance against violence by the current US-Marcos Jr. puppet regime. 

Currently, the Filipino people are facing growing US war provocations against China, placing the Philippines in the cross-hairs of the US-China conflict. 

In April 2024, the US military began deploying in the Indo-Pacific a new intermediate-range land-based missile system, known as Typhoon which includes Tomahawk cruise missiles, Supersonic Standard Missile-6 (SM-06) multipurpose interceptor missiles and the Mark 41 vertical group-based systems. This is the first time that the US has introduced offensive land- based mid-range missile systems anywhere in the world since it unilaterally withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty with Russia in 2019. The treaty had banned the deployment of such systems. 

The offensive Typhoon system of missiles currently installed in Northern Luzon has a range of 1600 kilometers, capable of reaching the east coast of China, the Taiwan strait and military bases in mainland China. The deployment of these once banned systems is a dangerous escalation in the Eastern pacific. 

Through increased military aid, joint exercises and arms transfers, the United States is making the Filipino people more vulnerable to the impacts of war with China. The vortex of increasing US military presence in the Philippines is also drawing in US allies, as Japan, Australia, Canada, France, the UK, New Zealand and most recently Germany are all developing military agreements and increasing rotational troops in the Philippines. The 33rd anniversary of this historic victory serves as a potent reminder of what can happen when people come together to assert their collective power and opposition to a foreign occupying power. As US-led militarization of the Philippines is heightened, ICHRP calls on people across the globe to join the Filipino people’s demand for self-determination and oppose US military presence and intervention in the Philippines.

Urgent Alert
September 15, 2024

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) calls for the surfacing of Andy Magno and Vladimir Maro who were abducted by suspected state forces in San Pablo, Isabela in the Cagayan Valley Region on September 11, 2024. 

Magno and Maro are both youth activists turned peasant organizers. Magno is a graduate of the Development Studies program in the University of the Philippines – Manila, a former chairperson of the youth environment organization, Minggan UP Manila, and the former coordinator for Kabataan Partylist – Cagayan Valley. Maro is an advocate for migrant workers’ rights.

ICHRP is alarmed by the recent spate of enforced disappearances under the Marcos Jr. government. In the month of August alone, environmental activist Rowena Dasig was abducted in Quezon Province, while James Jazmines and Felix Salaveria were abducted in Albay Province in separate incidents.

The rise in abductions and other human rights (HR) and international humanitarian law (IHL) violations including red-tagging, enforced disappearances, harassment, intimidation, forced surrenders, and even hamletting, strafing, and aerial bombing in the countryside point to the intensified US-backed counterinsurgency operation of the Philippine government. 

The latest annual joint military exercise dubbed Balikatan (shoulder to shoulder) that ended in May 10, 2024, also took place in Cagayan Valley Region where the recent abduction incident happened. The United States reportedly sent 11,000 American troops and also deployed its Standard Missile-6 (SM-6) guided missiles. The Balikatan exercise also involved Australia and France and several countries joined as observers. France also deployed a warship.

Of the four (4) new military bases of the US in the Philippines, three (3) are located in the Cagayan Valley Region and one (1) of the three (3) is in Isabela province where Magno and Maro were abducted. 

ICHRP calls on the international community to amplify the calls to surface the increasing number of activists abducted in the Philippines, and for the Marcos Jr. government to be held accountable for its continuing HR and IHL violations against the Filipino people.

We also call on  the freedom-loving people of the world to call on your governments to stop supporting the Philippine government to further commit brazen HR and IHL violations against the struggling Filipino people who are exercising their right to self-determination in seeking a just and lasting peace.

Stop Enforced Disappearances! Surface all Desaparecidos!
Uphold Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law!
Support the Filipino People’s Right to Self-Determination!

Further comment: Peter Murphy, ICHRP Chairperson. WhatsApp: +61 418312301. Email: media@ichrp.net.

Urgent Alert
September 13, 2024

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) is alarmed by successive reports of heightened militarization and police presence in peasant communities in the province of Cavite, Southern Tagalog, including the use of US manufactured V150 Tanks. 

Lupang Ramos, Dasmariñas, Cavite

On September 10, around 50 personnel from combined forces of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Police (PNP), PNP-SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics),  Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) and representatives of Dasmariñas local government forcibly entered Lupang Ramos, under the guise of “inspection” for ASF (African Swine Fever) and encircled the community. Lupang Ramos is a 372-hectare farming community of peasants asserting ownership to the land.   

The military also threatened to set up a checkpoint or a military encampment in the peasant community allegedly for a gun ban enforcement in preparation for the upcoming 2025 midterm elections. The overkill deployment of military and police personnel caused widespread fear and apprehension among the residents.

The residents of Lupang Ramos through the leadership of the community peasant organization Kasama-LR (Katipunan ng mga Lehitimong Magsasaka at Mamamayan sa Lupang Ramos or Association of Legitimate Farmers and Citizens in Lupang Ramos) stood up and have set up a barricade (“barikadahan”) to prevent the PNP and AFP to build a checkpoint and/or military encampment in their community.

Lupang Tartaria, Silang, Cavite

On the same day in an adjacent town, peasants of Lupang Tartaria in Silang, Cavite reported heavy military and police presence. Two (2) police vehicles of PNP-SAF (Special Action Force), three (3) V150 armor tanks, and one (1) military truck were sighted near their community. 

The Samahan ng Magsasaka at Mamamayan ng Tartaria (SAMATA, Association of Peasants and Citizens in Tartaria), the organization of peasants in the said community have long been fighting for their rights to livelihood and to their land.

These incidents follow a long pattern of attacks against the communities of Lupang Ramos and Lupang Tartaria. Peasants in both communities have had a long history of struggle for land against big corporations and landowning clans such as the Ramos and the Aguinaldo families who are hellbent on acquiring these lands to pave the way for big businesses and real estate projects. Entire peasant communities continue to suffer from red-tagging, harassment, intimidation, and other human rights and international humanitarian law violations from state forces. 

The attacks against peasant communities coincide with an increase in cases of enforced disappearances under the Marcos Jr. government. Just weeks ago, Rowena Dasig, James Jazmines and Felix Salaveria were all reportedly abducted in separate incidents by suspected state forces. They all remain missing. 

These attacks are in line with the Philippine government’s US-inspired counterinsurgency drive which has committed massive and widespread human rights and international humanitarian law violations. The AFP’s use of V150 tanks, originally engineered for the US during the Vietnam war, serve as an example of the way the Armed Forces of the Philippine relies on and uses US weapons committing human rights and international humanitarian law violations. 

As the Armed Forces of the Philippines continue to use US military aid and US manufactured weapons against poor and marginalized communities in the Philippines, it is critical the international community raise our level of opposition to US-led militarization in the Philippines. ICHRP calls on its chapters, member organizations, and solidarity allies worldwide to conduct mass actions in protest of the increased militarization, attacks against peasant communities, and enforced disappearances in the Philippines.

Defend Southern Tagalog!
Stop Enforced Disappearances!
Uphold Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law!
End US Support for War Crimes in the Philippines!
End Impunity!

Further comment: Peter Murphy, ICHRP Chairperson. WhatsApp: +61 418312301. Email: media@ichrp.net.