Statement
November 29, 2023

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) today called for the dropping of the fake murder charge against the esteemed pastor of the United Methodist Church, Rev Golfie Baluntong, following the collapse of similar cases against three other human rights defenders in the Southern Tagalog Region on November 20, 2023.

“Rev Golfie Baluntong, with 34 years service to her church, has been victimized by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) because she stood with the Mangyan indigenous people of Mindoro in their fight to protect the environment and uphold their rights and for offering sanctuary to those fleeing violence,” said Peter Murphy, ICHRP Chairperson. “The attempted murder charge against her is a blatant fabrication and must be withdrawn now by the prosecuting authority. The Anti-Terrorism Law (ATL) under which she has been charged is discredited and should be repealed.”

NTF-ELCAC charged Rev. Glofie with attempted murder in an incident at 3pm on March 25, 2021, but at that time she was conducting a funeral at another location.

The fake charge against Rev Golfie is the most prominent case of legal harassment of human rights defenders in the Southern Tagalog region, where 19 people faced charges under the ATL at the start of November this year. NTF-ELCAC has started charging the youngest human rights workers in an effort to demoralise them, but it is back-firing.

On November 20, 2023, charges under the Anti-Terrorism Law and the Crimes against IHL Law of attempted murder and possession of weapons and aiding a terrorist made against human rights worker Ms Hailey Pecayo, Ms Jasmin Rubia and Mr Kenneth Rementilla by soldiers of the 59^th Infantry Battalion were thrown out by the prosecutor’s office in Santa Rosa City in Laguna.

Pecayo, aged 20, is a human rights worker and the spokesperson of Tanggol Batanggan, Rubia is secretary general of Mothers and Children for the Protection of Human Rights, and Rementilla is Anakbayan Southern Tagalog coordinator.

The soldiers alleged that they encountered Pecayo in two firefights with the New People’s Army (NPA) on July 18 and 25, 2022, but the prosecutor found the soldiers failed to “correctly identify” the respondents as alleged perpetrators, even though they claimed they were just 10 to 15 metres from them during the encounter. Similar charges against 11 other people over the same incidents were also thrown out. The prosecutor also said that the affidavits of four witnesses alleging that they were former members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New Peoples’ Army-National Democratic Front and could identify Pecayo as an NPA “hold no water under the circumstances”.

Pecayo proved that she was in San Isidro Sur in Batangas on July 18-19, 2022, and she was photographed at a rally in Quezon City, Metro Manila, on July 25.

Further, the prosecutor’s office rejected the charge that Rubia and Rementilla had aided a terrorist by providing transport for Pecayo to attend the wake for Kyllene Casao. Kyllene was nine years old and tending farm animals when shot by elements of the 59^th Infantry Battalion in Batangas on July 18, 2022. Pecayo, Rubia and Rementilla were part of the Quick Reaction Team to the Casao family.

“This latest win is part of a pattern in the last three years of activists winning cases filed against them by the country’s security officials, but overall, the judiciary continues to fail to uphold the law by issuing warrants on trumped up charges and taking years to properly confront the blatant lack of evidence provided,” said Murphy.

“ICHRP emphasises the urgent need for the international community to press the Marcos Jr administration to drop the fake charge against Rev. Golfie Baluntong, end the red-tagging, abolish NTF-ELCAC, and repeal the Anti-Terrorism Law,” Murphy concluded.

Further comment: Peter Murphy, ICHRP Chairperson, +61 418 312 301

Press Release
November 27, 2023

“The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP), a global network of organizations in solidarity with the struggle for human rights in the Philippines, supports the Karapatan rejection of the November 24 so-called amnesty Proclamation 404 of the Marcos Jr. administration,” said Peter Murphy, the ICHRP Chairperson today. “It is political spin, not serious policy.

Karapatan is the national human rights alliance of the Philippines, formed in 1995.

“This proclamation shows that the Marcos Jr. administration is not interested in a just and lasting peace by addressing the roots of the ongoing armed conflict in the country. Rather it assumes the rebellion is both misguided and defeated, thus perpetuating the nation’s deep social conflicts,” said Murphy. 

In less than one year of the Marcos Jr. administration, Karapatan documented over 60 cases of extrajudicial killings and 28 frustrated killings nationwide, including that of the Fausto family, including children, of Negros Occidental. Over 78 cases of illegal arrest and detention were also documented, noting the sharp increase of political prisoners under Marcos Jr. 

The right to self-determination, including resistance by armed force against an oppressive and exploitative ruling system, is a people’s collective right under international law. But instead of recognizing this and working for a political solution, the Philippine government delegitimizes both the legal and underground struggle for liberation with relentless red-tagging and terrorist-branding using the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), the Anti-Terrorism Law (ATL) and its Anti-Terrorism Council.

“Instead of honoring the previous bilateral agreements of the Philippine peace process, especially the 1998 Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human RIghts and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), the Marcos Jr.government continues to ignore why the Filipino people protest or choose to take up arms in the first place, which will only fuel the armed resistance even more,” said Murphy.

For over 10 years, ICHRP has organized solidarity missions to the Philippines that have mobilized hundreds from around the world to hear directly from victims and witnesses of the Philippine military’s violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), including but not limited to aerial bombings, artillery bombardment, hamletting, and killings of civilians in the rural poor areas of the country. 

“We welcome the recent recommendation of Dr Ian Fry, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change, to abolish the NTF-ELCAC,” said Mr Murphy. “It is the main government agency established under the Duterte administration and now beefed up under Marcos Jr. to red-tag activists and people’s organizations critical of government policies as front organizations of the Communist Party of the Philippines. 

“Furthermore, the recent exposé of the NTF-ELCAC’s forced surrenderee program by abducted environmental activists Ms Jonila Castro and Ms Jhed Tamano not only puts the entire credibility of the so-called amnesty program into question, but exposes another violation of IHL in itself. 

“We condemn the Marcos Jr. administration for its systemic and egregious violations to IHL, especially the blanket targeting and repression of civilians and non-combatants, through its vicious counterinsurgency war.

“We stand with the Filipino people’s demands for the abolition of the NTF-ELCAC and ATL, and an end to the Philippine government’s counterinsurgency war. We will continue to lobby our governments to cut any and all forms of support to the Philippine government, especially military support. Without addressing the roots of the armed conflict – poverty, landlessness, high unemployment, foreign domination, landlordism, and rampant government corruption – there is no genuine path to a just and lasting peace in the country,” concluded Mr Murphy.

Press Release
November 22, 2023

“The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) welcomes the UN Special Rapporteur Ian Fry’s recommendation to the Philippine government to close down its anti-communist task force, the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC). We strongly endorse his call to stop the attacks against environment defenders including civil society and Indigenous Peoples’ organizations,” said Peter Murphy, ICHRP Chairperson, today.

“ICHRP strenuously denounces former police chief, Senator Ronald dela Rosa, and retired general Eduardo Año, the National Security Adviser, for their outright rejection of Special Rapporteur Fry’s call to shut down NTF-ELCAC. NTF-ELCAC was exposed for the abduction and psychological torture of environmental defenders Ms Jonila Castro and Ms Jhed Tamano at Bataan province during September,” said Murphy. “We condemn the continuing persecution of Ms Castro and Ms Tamano by NTF-ELCAC.

“ICHRP welcomes the long overdue agreement by the Marcos Jr administration to allow UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteurs to visit the Philippines, after six years of blocking by former President Rodrigo Duterte,” said Murphy.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Climate Change & Human Rights shared his initial findings in a media conference on November 15 following his official 10-day visit in the Philippines, when he visited Metro Manila, Leyte and Iloilo. His meetings included Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo, Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Maria Antonia Loyzaga, and Justice Secretary Jesus C Remulla.

The Special Rapporteur’s other recommendation included:

1. End government impunity for violation of human rights;
2. Repeal the Anti-Terrorism Law (ATL);
3. Implement the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women General Recommendations 39;
4. Implement major reforms to the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples; and
5. Enact the Human Rights Defenders Bill.

“ICHRP welcomes these interim recommendations and looks forward to the full report from Mr Fry in June 2024,” said Mr Murphy. “The Special Rapporteur has grasped the severity of the climate crisis for the Philippines and the even deeper crisis of harassment, vilification, kidnapping and murder of environmental defenders which ICHRP has been highlighting for many years now.

“ICHRP and our partners in the Philippines, Karapatan Alliance for Human Rights, EcuVoice, and the National Union of Peoples Lawyers, have long been calling for the abolition of the NTF-ELCAC,” said Mr Murphy. “The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples has been used to override indigenous communities when they defend their ancestral domains, and has even denigrated their cultures, on behalf of logging, mining and plantation project investors.”

ICHRP strongly supports the call from the Indigenous Peoples Movement Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL) for all governments to respond to Special Rapporteur Fry’s findings which highlight the alarming trend of criminalization, terrorist-tagging and attacks against Indigenous Peoples worldwide. “We support IPMSDL’s demand that world leaders take serious action to uphold Indigenous Peoples’ right to defend their right to land, waters, resources and territories. Their exercise of their right to self-determination is not a criminal nor a terrorist act but ultimately a key climate solution,” concluded Mr Murphy.

Further comment: Peter Murphy, Chairperson, ICHRP Global Council +61 418 312 301

Statement
November 15, 2023

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) joins in the celebration of the release on bail of Senator Leila de Lima, who has suffered six years and eight months as a political prisoner at the hands of the Duterte and Marcos Jr administrations. 

“We share the joy and relief that Senator de Lima herself displayed on her release last Monday,” said Peter Murphy, recently re-elected ICHRP Chairperson. “Senator de Lima’s case has been emblematic of the failure of the Philippines’ judiciary to uphold basic standards of due process and respect for the rule of law under Duterte and now Marcos Jr. 

“As of November 2023, there are 791 political prisoners languishing in Philippine jails on blatantly trumped-up charges. We call for the Marcos Jr administration to be consistent with the release of Senator de Lima and junk the fake charge remaining against her, and all the trumped-up charges against all these freedom-loving political activists. They must be freed now,” said Mr Murphy.

Senator de Lima, who was arrested at the Senate in February 2017, had been very critical of the implementation of Mayor Duterte’s drug war campaign in Davao City while she was Justice Secretary under the previous administration of President Benigno Aquino III. She continued to criticize the nationwide anti-poor drug war campaign that President Duterte launched in July 2016, by initiating an investigation in the Justice and Human Rights Committee in the Philippine Senate of the purported Duterte “death squads” in Davao City.

The Justice Department, then led by Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, countered by accusing the Senator of using drug money from the prison system for her election campaign in 2016.

De Lima was removed from her Senate leadership positions. The Philippine House of Representatives then launched an investigation where convicted drug personalities gave testimony that they allegedly paid off the Senator, leading to her arrest on three drug trafficking charges on February 24, 2017.

Her arrest and detention, and the increase in red-tagging cases, whose targets were subsequently detained or killed, instilled a climate of fear and intimidation among politicians and public figures.

Senator de Lima was subjected to a massive and persistent vilification and disinformation campaign. No less than President Duterte, presidential spokespersons Harry Roque and Sal Panelo, and their political allies, along with operators and Duterte fanatics in mainstream and social media, targeted her with utterly foul, misogynistic and nonsensical remarks and tirades. Fake news, videos, and other sources of false information were circulated without let-up.

Courts dismissed these false charges against her one after the other. In April 2022, Kerwin Espinosa, a prime witness against de Lima, recanted his statement, saying he was coerced by death threats against his family. His father, Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr, was murdered on November 15, 2016, just prior to the crucial Senate hearing arranged by de Lima. The third charge against Senator de Lima is still pending.

The release of Senator de Lima on bail may be part of a pattern of decisions by the Marcos Jr administration to distance itself from the toxic reputation of the Duterte administration. 

“We urge President Marcos Jr to make a clear break with his predecessor by re-joining the International Criminal Court. We further urge the Philippine President to rescind anti-people policies and laws including the 2017 Memorandum Order 32 which put Negros, Bicol and Samar under virtual martial law, Executive Order 70 which set up the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) that drives the red-tagging and subsequent political killings nation-wide, and the 2020 Anti-Terrorism Law, which gives free rein to Executive violation of human rights and international humanitarian law,” concluded Mr Murphy.

Further comment: Peter Murphy, Chairperson, ICHRP Global Council`+61 418 312 301