Statement
May 15, 2024

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people on this the 76th anniversary of the 1948 Nakba (Catastrophe). The violent birth of the state of Israel forced an estimated 750,000 Palestinians from their homes, displacing the vast majority of the population, turning them into refugees in their own land. The figure represents approximately 75% of the Palestinians who had previously resided within what became Israel’s armistice lines in 1949.

The Nakba involved the forced depopulation and destruction of over 500 Palestinian villages and the subsequent geographical erasure of Palestine. This occurred through Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine, its exiling of Palestinians and forcing them to be refugees, its dispossession of Palestinian property, its destruction of Palestinian cities, towns, and villages, and its attempt to erase the existence of the Palestinian from what is Palestine.

To this day there remain some 6 million registered Palestinian refugees living in at least 58 camps located throughout Palestine and neighbouring countries. There are at least 2.3 million Palestinian refugees in Jordan, 1.5 million refugees in Gaza, 870,000 refugees in the occupied West Bank, 438,000 refugees in Syria, 480,000 refugees in Lebanon, 120,000 Palestinian refugees displaced from Syria to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt and increasingly, to Europe.

According to international law, refugees have the right to return to their homes and property from which they have been displaced. Many Palestinians still hope to return to Palestine.

The Nakba Continues

The Nakba is a continuing process of displacement that has never stopped. On the 76^th anniversary of the Nakba another catastrophe for the Palestinian People is being delivered by the Zionist State. Literally all 2.2 million citizens of Gaza have been turned for a second time into displaced persons since October 2023.

Israel has targeted Gaza’s intelligentsia – killing leading scholars, poets, doctors.

Israel has demolished and destroyed about 70% of the homes in Gaza.

Israel has demolished all 12 universities in Gaza.

Israel has destroyed most of the hospitals in Gaza.

Israel has detained and rendered missing hundreds of Palestinians.

Israel is currently engaged in a campaign to starve the Palestinian population by restricting food supplies.

Israel is now in the process of invading Rafah, where they had driven 1.2 million Palestinians from other parts of Gaza.  

The Israeli government and the IDF have committed massacre after massacre in Gaza over this period. Their war crimes so heinous that even their closest allies are coming to the conclusion they are engaged in genocide and war crimes.

ICHRP works hard to uphold the human rights of the Filipino peoples, against a culture of impunity which is tacitly supported by foreign governments, a painful situation which the Palestinian people endure every day. Our work is built on the sense of justice and struggle of ordinary people in many countries, who earnestly and relentlessly press their governments and intergovernmental bodies to take action. This is also the basis of our solidarity with the Palestinian people.

ICHRP stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people on the 76^th anniversary of the start of the Nakba.

ICHRP calls for an end to the Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people, an end to the occupation and the unwinding of all illegal settlements and the return of all properties taken from Palestinians since 1947.

From the river to the sea, Palestine must be free!

Press Release
May 4, 2024

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) vehemently condemns the arrest of six students who participated in a Labor Day protest action near the US Embassy in Manila, Philippines. 

Protesters were able to reach a few meters away from the US Embassy, and were about to start their program when police from the Manila Police District (MPD) violently hit those in the frontlines with batons and shields. Footages of the incident showed policemen pinning down a protester with brute force. The six individuals were seized in the ensuing commotion. As of this press release, the victims remain in detention.

“We utterly condemn the excessive use of force by the Manila police. It is a blatant violation of the right to peaceful assembly. It is also an insult to the toiling masses of Filipino workers who were rightfully voicing their demands including a decent living wage on Labor Day,” said Peter Murphy, ICHRP Global Chairperson.

Thousands of workers along with other sectors marched in the streets of Manila to demand for higher wages, job security, and national sovereignty but were blocked and not allowed to reach the historic Mendiola bridge. Through the National Wage Coalition, workers demanded a wage increase of not less than P150 ($2.61) a day.

Afterwards, protesters led by Kilusang Mayo Uno (May First Movement) and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (New Patriotic Alliance) marched towards the US Embassy in Manila to condemn Marcos Jr.’s charter change, the US military intervention through the ongoing Balikatan exercises, and China’s transgressions on Philippine territory in the West Philippine Sea.

“Just like the students, ICHRP stands with the Filipino workers on their just demands for a decent wage increase. We demand the immediate release of the six illegally arrested and detained students. We call on the Philippine government to respect their rights, drop the charges, and to hold accountable police officers who illegally arrested, caused physical injuries, and detained the students. We reiterate our call to stop the Balikatan exercises and end US intervention in the Philippines,” concluded Murphy.

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

From Peter Murphy, ICHRP Global Council Chairperson
April 23, 2024

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) sends its warmest greetings of solidarity to delegates attending the 40th Anniversary of Cordillera Day on April 23 – 24, 2024. 

ICHRP joins with you to remember and celebrate the life of Macli-ing Dulag and the people’s victory against the Chico Dam project. We stand alongside you in your fight for self-determination, land and life. We salute the Cordillera Peoples Alliance and recommit to the Save Cordillera Campaign against repression by the US-Marcos Jr. regime.

On April 24, 1980, soldiers of the Philippine military under the Marcos Sr. regime assassinated Macli-ing Dulag, a tribal chieftain from the province of Kalinga renowned for his staunch opposition to the World Bank-funded Chico Dam Project. The project threatened to displace hundreds of thousands of indigenous peoples from their ancestral land in the mountainous region of northern Philippines.

The murder of Macli-ing Dulag was a watershed moment in the Cordillera peoples’ struggle for self-determination. As the mass movement against both the Chico Dam construction and Marcos Sr. dictatorship grew, the Macli-ing Memorial was held to commemorate the death of the slain tribal leader from 1981 to 1984. 

Following the founding of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) in June 1984, the commemoration’s name was changed to Cordillera Day in 1985. The mass movement broadened as it aimed to unite the struggle of indigenous peoples across different provinces in the Cordillera, while building solidarity with national and international advocates and supporters.

Since its inception, Cordillera Day has been a political solidarity event gathering thousands of indigenous peoples, advocates, supporters, and solidarity activists every year to discuss burning issues which plague not only indigenous communities but also the Filipino people at large.

The Cordillera Peoples Alliance’s international solidarity work led to a conference of indigenous leaders and advocates from different countries across the globe in November 2010, which subsequently founded the Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL), a global network committed to advancing the rights of indigenous peoples to self-determination, land and life.

As a solidarity organization committed to campaign for a just and lasting peace in the Philippines, ICHRP draws boundless inspiration from the Cordillera peoples’ valiant and historic struggle for self-determination amidst decades of attacks, discrimination, militarization, and oppression. 

We wish you every success in the two-day celebration of the 40th anniversary of Cordillera Day.

Agbiag ti Kordilyera!
Long live the Cordilleran people’s struggle for self-determination!
Long live the martyrs and heroes of Cordillera!
Long live international solidarity!

Press Statement
April 17, 2024

This past week, peasant organization KASAMA – TK announced that its Deputy General Secretary, Jeverlyn Seguin, is wanted by Task Force Ugnay under the 2nd Infantry Division of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). Since March, members of the armed unit have visited residents in Dasmariñas, Cavite, showing photos of Jeverlyn and claiming that she is a member of the New People’s Army (NPA).

“The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) strongly condemns the red-tagging and intimidation of Jeverlyn by members of the Philippine military,” said Peter Murphy, ICHRP Chairperson. “The harassment and terror-tagging of legal-democratic activists has become a standard tactic of the Marcos Jr. regime, as well as past regimes, in its all-out war of suppression against dissent in the Philippines.”

Katipunan ng mga Samahang Magbubukid sa TK (KASAMA – TK), or Union of Peasants’ Associations in Southern Tagalog, is a peasant group that organizes and mobilizes farmers in their struggle for land, rights, and basic services. Before her red-tagging, Jeverlyn had been participating in the launch of a campaign to document the effects of the El Niño weather system on farmers in the area.

The threat to Ms. Seguin is related to the recent Facebook post released by the Office of the President regarding the data of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), that red-tags the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and its members as a front of the “Communist Terrorist Group”.

“The red-tagging of peasant advocates like Ms. Seguin goes hand-in-hand with the ongoing violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL) by the AFP against peasants across the country,” Murphy continued. “Arbitrary red-tagging of activists blurs the line between the ongoing civil war between two belligerent sides—the AFP and the NPA—and the legal-democratic movement of non-combatants.”

“In the course of its US-designed ‘counter-insurgency’ war, the AFP indiscriminately targets civilian peasants through bombings, strafing, enforced disappearance, killing, and more,” said Murphy. “ICHRP condemns all forms of violations of IHL and attacks against peasant activists by the AFP. We reiterate our call to the Marcos Jr. administration to end the policy of red-tagging, and to re-commence formal peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines to resolve the armed conflict by addressing the socioeconomic roots of the conflict, rather than pursue indiscriminate military action that kills, inures and displaces civilians.”

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