Statement
August 12

On August 5, 2024 the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) held a press conference at Camp Aguinaldo Headquarters in Quezon City, “reaffirming” their “steadfast commitment” to human rights, and called their adherence to the promotion of International Humanitarian Law “unfailing.” 

Such a statement from the AFP is a total farce and mockery. These remarks come at a time when human rights groups in the Philippines and the international community have widely exposed the Philippine government for massive human rights and international humanitarian law violations. 

In May this year, the International People’s Tribunal established that the government of the United States of America (USA) backed the Marcos and Duterte regimes in carrying out their counterinsurgency campaign against the Filipino people. In the ongoing  armed conflict in the Philippines, there are reports that the AFP  willfully engaged in a litany of egregious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law against civilians & hors de combat. These abhorrent war crimes included the killing of civilians, intentional attacks on civilians and civilian communities, indiscriminate bombardment causing excessive injury and environmental damage, forced displacement, blocking humanitarian aid, acts of terror against civilians, extrajudicial killings, torture, desecration of the dead, abductions, and unlawful detentions among others.

This July 2024, Karapatan Human Rights Alliance released a report substantiating further the AFP’s total lack of seriousness in regards to human rights. In their January-June report, Karapatan claimed that “rank denialism and hypocrisy marked the first six months of 2024 under the Marcos Regime.” Since Marcos took office in July 2022, Karapatan has documented 105 victims of extrajudicial killings, 63,379 victims of indiscriminate firing, 44,065 victims of bombings, 7,780 victims of use of schools, medical, religious and other public places for Military purposes, and over 3.4 million victims of threats, intimidation and harassment. 

Among the millions of victims, ICHRP remembers the lives and genuine service to communities in the Philippines of those tortured, harassed and killed by state forces. 

We recognize the group of children recently abducted and interrogated by the 74th Infantry Battalion (IB) of the AFP after the targeting of their parents in Northern Samar. We remember the life of political prisoner Ernesto Jude Rimando, a labor organizer who served workers and advocated for land reform for peasants, who recently died in prison  following false charges and due to state neglect of his health condition. We remember 69-year old farmer Ramon Enseniales, who was reportedly abducted, tortured and killed by members of the 15th IB and the Philippine National Police-Special Action Force (PNP-SAF).

The AFP cannot hide the truth of their crimes behind a sanitized press conference. Neither can the billions of dollars of military aid coming from the US and its allies deceive the international community to think the AFP and PNP uphold basic human rights agreements. As democratic space in the Philippines continues to shrink, and as human rights organizations like Karapatan and its workers face increasing attacks, ICHRP calls on the international community to continue to expose and oppose the war crimes committed against the Filipino people and to stop all forms of military support to the Marcos Jr. regime.

Urgent Alert
August 2, 2024

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) condemns the illegal arrest, torture and detention of four peasant and community organizers in Pampanga, Central Luzon. At around 9:30 in the evening of July 29, 2024, Bayan Muna partylist peasant organizer and senior citizen Maria Theresa Buscayno together with other peasant and community organizers Andres Ely, Desiree Jaranilla Patuñ-og, and Oliver Millo were travelling along Jose Abad Santos Ave. approaching Sto. Domingo circle in Mexico, Pampanga, when their vehicle was reportedly stopped by two other vehicles.

Armed men wearing Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) uniforms stepped out from the two vehicles and forcefully dragged them out of the vehicle. They were forced to kneel and lie face down on the ground while being kicked and beaten violently.

The ordeal lasted for 5 hours until 2:30 in the morning. Afterwards, the perpetrators dragged and forced them to board vehicles which drove them to the detention cells of the CIDG in the province of Pampanga.

On July 31, the four victims underwent inquest proceedings at the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor in Pampanga. Similar to other state-sponsored attacks against activists, all four were charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives. They were accused of holding M16 and M14 rifles in plain view, while hand and rifle grenades were allegedly found inside their handbags. All victims deny the accusations.

As of the moment, the victims are being held in separate locations: Patuñ-og and Buscayno are currently detained at the regional CIDG detention office at Camp Olivas, San Fernando, Pampanga, while Ely and Millo are currently detained at the provincial CIDG office at Capitol Grounds in the same city.

Despite having medical conditions and being sickly, all four victims were not allowed to have medical check-ups after their arrest. They all suffered bruises, contusions, and currently experience pain in different parts of their bodies.

This incident was preceded by the illegal raid on peasant leader Ronnie Manalo’s residence last June 18 in Bulacan, also in Central Luzon.

ICHRP strongly condemns the continued harassment, torture, filing of trumped-up charges, killing and other human rights and international humanitarian law violations against peasant organizers and human rights defenders. We raise the alarm and demand an end to the continued attacks against peasant advocates, organizers, and communities. We demand an immediate release of the four organizers and that Philippine authorities uphold human rights and the principles of international humanitarian law.

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

We are collecting donations to contribute towards Typhoon Carina relief efforts by Consortium for People’s Development – Disaster Response. Donate to this campaign at ichrp.net/CarinaFundraiser

On July 24, Super Typhoon Carina brought severe winds and heavy rainfall across the Philippines. The impacts of Typhoon Carina have been harsh and deadly: roads have closed due to landslides, 600,000 are without power, tens of thousands of Filipinos been forced from their homes and fled to evacuations centers, and the death toll stands at at least 14, including a pregnant woman and three children in Batangas. 

While the Marcos regime brags of infrastructure and flood prevention projects, the effects of the typhoon further prove his regime’s incompetency in responding to the needs of the people. While the streets of the Philippines are flooding and the Filipino people suffer, Marcos focuses his time on pandering to US economic and military interests in the Philippines. This upcoming week, he even plans to welcome US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, to receive a $500 increase in foreign military financing and to further collude with the US on their war provocations against China. 

The Philippines should be a place where Filipinos should thrive and where the people’s right to land, health and development should be respected. Instead, Marcos, along with the regimes before him, sell out the land of the Philippines as a launching pad for US war and neglect the people amid their suffering. In this urgent time, we call on the international community to support people’s initiatives like the Consortium on Development and donate to support relief and rehabilitation efforts amid state neglect. 

Press Release
July 23, 2024

“We salute the 100 political prisoners in Negros Region jails who refused three meals yesterday to dramatise their call on President Marcos Jr to immediately release 90 sick and 102 elderly political prisoners on humanitarian grounds, to stop the repression of NGOs which assist farmers and indigenous peoples, and to re-start the peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP)”, said Mr Peter Murphy, Chairperson of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines today.

According to the national human rights alliance Karapatan and the national organisation of families of political prisoners, Kapatid, there are now 755 political prisoners held in jails across the Philippines.

The Justice Department has used the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012 to freeze the accounts of the longstanding Paghida-et sa Kauswagan Development Group (PGD) in Negros Occidental and the Community Empowerment Resource Network (CerNet) in Cebu, freezing the accounts of their officers, and issuing warrants of arrest against them.

“There is no basis for these malicious charges against PGD and CerNet, which have a long record of aiding farmers and indigenous peoples suffering from natural disasters as well as the man-made disaster of poverty,” said Murphy. “Only hearsay evidence from police officers, which appears to be concocted, has been presented to courts, which have gone ahead anyway to issue warrants on such flimsy material.

“ICHRP demands that the Justice Department end this new wave of political persecution of selfless civilian organisations,” said Murphy. “The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) is driving this new repression, which is an abuse of judicial process. NTF-ELCAC should be abolished. The US, Australia, Canada and South Korea should immediately cut military aid to this lawless regime.”

July 22 was the day for President Marcos Jr’s State of the Nation Address (SONA). It was marked by protest rallies in Manila and other cities in the Philippines, and also in Australia, Canada and the United States. The angry message from the protests and effigy burnings was that the workers, the farmers, the people are hungry and poor, while the Marcos and Duterte dynasties fight each other for plunder, and Marcos Jr allows the US military to bring the country closer to war with China.

“ICHRP salutes all the Filipino people and their organisations who took part in People’s SONA 2024 to resist the repression and persist in their demands for democracy, self-determination, justice and peace,” concluded Murphy.

For further comment: Peter Murphy +61 418 312 301, media@ichrp.net.

Media Statement
July 16, 2024

“Yesterday’s judicial finding – that teachers and others who saved school children from severe threats by an armed paramilitary group in November 2018 were in fact abusing the children – is a grotesque expression of the weaponizing of the law under Duterte and Marcos Jr,” said international human rights group spokesperson Peter Murphy. “The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) urges immediate action to cancel this decision.”

“ICHRP denounces this court decision as part of the total suppression of over 250 Lumad indigenous community schools by the Duterte administration, a policy now imposed by President Marcos Jr.”, said Murphy. “This is a gross violation of the right to self-determination of indigenous peoples, the right to education for the children, and the freedom of association and assembly by those now found guilty.”

The charges were laid in 2018 when Castro, Ocampo and others mounted a National Humanitarian Mission to Talaingod, Davao del Norte, to bring food to the students at the Lumad School there which was under a food blockade and threats of violence from the notorious Alamara paramilitary group.

At the time, the Save Our Schools Network stated: “on the 28th of November, teachers and students fled Sitio Dulyan, Barangay Palma Gil in Talaingod, Davao del Norte, because of threats of being killed by the para-military group ALAMARA at the instigation of the 56th [Infantry Battalion] of the AFP.” Castro and Ocampo rightly condemned the bias of the court and the police in their failure to investigate this serious violence aimed at the teachers and students.

On November 28, 2018, the humanitarian mission in a five-vehicle convoy of more than 70 people, including 29 schoolchildren, was stopped at a checkpoint by Talaingod police officers and soldiers from the 56th IB at Barangay Santo Niño. Eighteen of the group were arrested, including four church clergy from the United Church of Christ of the Philippines and the United Methodist Church. Fourteen of the students were handed over to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Those arrested were released three days later on bail of P80,000 (US$1,369) each.

In a 26-page decision issued on July 15, 2024, the Tagum City Regional Trial Court Branch 2 convicted Congressional Rep. France Castro, former Bayan Muna Congressional Rep Satur Ocampo and 11 others for violation of Section 10a of Republic Act 7610 or the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act.

They were all were sentenced to four to six years in prison and ordered to pay P10,000 (US$171) as civil indemnity and P10,000 as moral damages to each of the 14 minors involved.

Also found guilty are Ma. Eugenia Victoria Nolasco, Jesus Madamo, Meriro Poquita, Maricel Andagkit, Marcial Rendon, Marianie Aga, Jenevive Paraba, Nerhaya Talledo, Ma. Concepcion Ibarra, Nerfa Awing, and Wingwing Daunsay. These are eight other teachers and the administrator of Salugpungan Community Learning Center and the Community Technical College of Southeastern Mindanao, and two other teachers from the Alliance of Concerned Teachers. The accused church clerics, Edgar Ugal, Ryan Magpayo, Eller Ordeniza and Jurie Jaime, were acquitted.

For further comment: Peter Murphy, Chairperson