Add your signature to the statement at ichrp.net/ReleaseChantal

Organizations, networks, and individuals from the Philippines and around the world are calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Chantal Anicoche from the custody of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Her continued detention and the lack of transparent information regarding her condition constitute serious violations of her rights and place her safety at grave risk.

Chantal was reported missing following indiscriminate aerial bombings and military operations on January 1, 2026 in Barangay Cabacao, Abra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro. Reports now indicate that Chantal is being held by units under the 203rd Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army. To date, authorities have failed to fully disclose her whereabouts and condition, while restricting humanitarian and fact-finding efforts in the area. Her continued detention under these conditions is causing severe distress and anxiety for her and her family and places her at serious risk of prolonged interrogation, harassment, intimidation, or other forms of abuse by the AFP.

You can contribute by signing on to the statement at ichrp.net/ReleaseChantal.

The full list of demands is as follows:

1. The immediate and unconditional release of Chantal Anicoche and her safe return to her family.
2. Full respect for her rights, including freedom from torture, interrogation, threats, harassment, and intimidation.
3. A swift, independent, and impartial investigation by the Commission on Human Rights and other international organizations monitoring human rights and International Humanitarian Law into the Mindoro bombings, civilian deaths, and Chantal’s detention.
4. The immediate cessation of aerial bombings and military operations in civilian communities and the withdrawal of military forces from Mindoro.
5. Unhampered access for humanitarian, medical, and fact-finding missions and support to affected communities.

Urgent Alert on the Disappearance of Chantal Anicoche
January 8, 2026

Human rights organization Karapatan reported that Chantal Anicoche – a US Filipino community leader who went missing after New Years’ Day  bombings by state military in Mindoro – is alive and now in custody of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. 

We join Chantal’s friends and family and colleagues in calling for her immediate release and safe return to home. Her rights must be upheld at all times, and she should be released immediately. We demand that Chantal must not be subject to any form of torture, interrogation, threat, harassment, and intimidation from the hands of any unit of the AFP. 

Chantal’s initial disappearance came after the January 1st AFP bombing and strafing of a community in Abra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro. Performed in the guise of a military operation against the New People’s Army, the bombings killed 5 civilians – three Mangyan-Iraya indigenous children and two youth, including Jerlyn Rose Doydora, a researcher from a university in Manila. The bombs also destroyed crops, farmland, and reportedly killed two cows and three carabaos, severely affecting the livelihood of the Mangyan indigenous people. According to local government data, 769 individuals were forcibly displaced and evacuated in a local high school. 

The bombings in Mindoro constitute grave violations of international humanitarian law and amounts towar crimes. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), and its Commander and Chief, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, are responsible and must be held accountable for these egregious crimes. While the AFP may try and pose as having “found” Chantal, they are the very ones guilty of the war crimes that have caused the grave crisis in Mindoro. 

Chantal is a 25 year old Filipina from Maryland, where she has served as a leader with the Filipino American Student Association. Chantal has taken up the causes of Filipino migrants abroad and peasants and indigenous communities in the Philippines. In the US, Chantal served as a staunch advocate of the Philippine Human Rights Act, a proposed US bill which calls for the suspension of military aid to the Philippine military until human rights requirements are met and human rights perpetrators are held accountable. 

Chantal’s advocacy and experience in the US inspired her to go to the Philippines to integrate with the most exploited and oppressed classes, which brought her to Mindoro, where people are resisting the entry of mining corporations and destructive renewable energy projects on the island. 

ICHRP calls upon members and friends of ICHRP, and those who care for human rights, to take inspiration from Chantal Anicoche, who chose to give up personal comfort and aspirations in the United States to dedicate herself to the cause of the downtrodden. We call for urgent campaigning for her release, and an end to the military blockade in Abra de Ilog, Mindoro. Just like Chantal, we call for an international fight against foreign military aid to the AFP and the ongoing war crimes of the Marcos regime in the Philippines. 

STOP THE BOMBINGS IN MINDORO!
END WAR CRIMES IN THE PHILIPPINES!
RELEASE CHANTAL ANICOCHE!
END FOREIGN MILITARY AID
TO THE MARCOS REGIME!

Urgent Alert

January 5, 2026

Global human rights group International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) expresses its utmost condemnation of the aerial bombardment and strafing conducted by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in Abra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro, that resulted in the massacre of three children and two youth.

Around 6 AM on January 1, combined forces of the 76th Infantry Battalion Philippine Army (IBPA), 68th IBPA and the 5th Scout Ranger Battalion conducted “strike operations” against members of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Sitio Mamara, Brgy. Cabacao, Abra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro. The military operation allegedly resulted in three encounters between government troops and the NPA.

Afterwards, local witnesses saw four AFP attack helicopters drop a total of 12 bombs and conduct aerial strafing in the area. The bombings killed three Mangyan-Iraya children and wounded their mother. It also caused the deaths of Jerlyn Rose Doydora, a researcher from a university in Manila, and one other youth researcher who died from injuries caused by the bombings. 

Meanwhile, the civilian population and Mangyan-Iraya Indigenous People experienced severe trauma and distress from the bombings that lasted three hours. The bombs destroyed their crops, farmland, and reportedly killed two cows and three carabaos, severely affecting their livelihood. According to local government data, 769 individuals were forcibly displaced and evacuated in a local high school. 

A team from local human rights group Karapatan Southern Tagalog has faced intense harassment, threats, and red-tagging from the AFP, Philippine National Police (PNP), and the local government in Mindoro. They are preventing the team from conducting a fact-finding mission in the affected areas to gather information on the impacts of the bombings on the civilian population.

The massacre of five individuals in Abra de Ilog adds to the long list of war crimes and human rights violations of the AFP against the people of Mindoro. Just last December 23, former mayoral candidate of Abra de Ilog and staunch anti-corruption campaigner, Monet Alcantara, was abducted from his home and charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives by state forces. 

This followed the abduction and torture of a Mangyan-Iraya woman by the 76th IBPA on December 2, the killings of farmers Juan Sumilhig on August 1, 2025, and Hulyo Agtay on March 14, 2025, and the murder of Indigenous youth Jay-El Maligday on April 7, 2024. Even delegates of the International Solidarity Mission (ISM) team in Abra de Ilog last October 2025 who integrated with the Mangyan-Iraya Indigenous Peoples experienced harassment and intimidation by state forces.

The barbaric and overkill military operation of the AFP against a small unit of the NPA further exposes the desperation of its commander-in-chief Marcos Jr. to end the communist rebellion in the island to hasten the entry of huge mining companies and renewable energy projects. This is the reason why widespread militarization persists in Mindoro.

Below are some of the planned corporate projects, all in Abra de Ilog:
a) Mining operations of Agusan Petroleum after the government nullified the 25-year moratorium on mining in Occidental Mindoro;
b) The 375-megawatt Abra de Ilog Wind Energy Project planned to operate by 2031; and 
c) The privatization of the Luyang Baga Cave in Brgy. Cabacao for ecotourism. The cave stands on ancestral lands of the farmers and the Mangyan-Iraya Indigenous People.

ICHRP calls for justice for all victims of the bombings perpetrated by the AFP in Mindoro. We condemn the AFP and Marcos Jr. government for grave violations of international humanitarian law and for endangering the lives of hundreds of civilians. We call for an end to the militarization in the island of Mindoro.

We are also calling for donations to support the humanitarian team that is currently conducting a fact-finding mission in the affected areas. You can send financial support through this link:

https://ichrp.net/donate/

Urgent Alert 

January 2, 2025

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) strongly condemns the cold-blooded murder of farmer-leader Warlita Jimenez in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental last December 23, 2025. The killing occurred during the Christmas season in the country when Filipino families gather and hold celebrations.

According to witnesses, the 55-year old Jimenez was inside her home in Sitio Makilo, Brgy. Camansi when two armed men clad in bonnets forcibly broke inside at 11 PM. They heard Jimenez scream for help while the assailants fired four shots and quickly fled the scene. Local human rights groups suspect that the 15th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) are responsible for the killing. If proven, the murder constitutes grave violations of international humanitarian law (IHL).

Jimenez is the wife of slain peasant leader Joseph Jimenez who, along with National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) consultant Ericson Acosta, was summarily executed in 2022 by elements of the 94th and 47th IBPA in the same barangay. The Jimenez couple were both leaders of local peasant organization Paghiliusa sang mga Magagmay nga Mangunguma kag Mamumugon sa Brgy. Camansi (Unity of Small Farmers and Workers in Brgy. Camansi) or PAMMACA.

PAMMACA is currently facing a land dispute against the Sola landlord family, a struggle they share with peasants in Kabankalan since the 1940s. The Solas own vast haciendas and are known to hire armed goons to threaten and harass farmers who assert their rightful claims to about 140 hectares of lands covered by agrarian reform in the locality.

Jimenez has been subjected to relentless red-tagging, threats, and harassment by state forces since the killing of her husband in 2022. She along with other Camansi residents have been forced to surrender as members of the New People’s Army (NPA). Her strong and long-time advocacy for land rights in their barangay have put her in the crosshairs of the Marcos Jr. regime’s fascist machinery.

The killing of Jimenez further exposes that Marcos Jr.’s National Action Plan for Unity, Peace, and Development (NAP-UPD) rings hollow in its rhetoric of so-called peace. It is nothing but a regurgitated counterinsurgency plan hellbent in crushing legitimate dissent from the people through a violent all-out war, especially against civilians.  

ICHRP enjoins the international community to amplify the call for justice for the killing of Warlita Jimenez. We call on Philippine authorities to immediately launch an investigation, hold the perpetrators accountable, and put an end to the spate of peasant killings and militarization in Negros island. 

We also reiterate our call to abolish the NTF-ELCAC as the chief implementor of the Marcos Jr.’s brutal US-backed counterinsurgency program.