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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

July 4, 2024
Press Release

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) condemns the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in its recent Wage Order No. NCR-25 providing a P35 (USD 0.60) wage hike for private sector workers in the National Capital Region (NCR) of the Philippines. “The wage hike is not even enough to buy a kilo of rice,” said Peter Murphy, ICHRP Global Council Chairperson.

“The measly wage hike signed by the RTWPB is a grave insult to the hardworking workers who have chronically suffered from low wages amid skyrocketing prices of basic commodities in the country,” added Murphy. “A living wage for workers is a basic human right.”

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) announced that the wage hike will take effect on July 17, or 15 days after the publication of the wage order. This increases the daily minimum wage in the NCR from P610 (USD 10.37) to P645 (USD 10.96) for workers in the non-agriculture sector, and from P573 (USD 9.74) to P608 (USD 10.33) for workers in agriculture, service, and retail businesses employing 15 or fewer workers, and for manufacturing businesses regularly employing less than 10 workers.

“Not only is the P35 wage hike lower than the P40 wage hike previously implemented last year, it is also extremely inadequate in achieving a livable wage. The workers’ petition for a P1,207  minimum wage in the NCR was totally junked. This just proves that President Marcos Jr. is not sincere in uplifting the standard of living and welfare of Filipino workers,” continued Murphy.

“ICHRP supports the call of labor groups for the Philippine government to abolish the Regional Wage Boards and implement a law which will provide a national across-the-board minimum wage increase for all workers in the private sector. It calls on the Marcos Jr. administration to uphold and respect the socio-economic rights of the broad masses of Filipino workers”, concluded Murphy.

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