Statement

February 23, 2023

Following the Philippine Senate ratification of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) expresses a grave warning on the free trade agreement’s (FTA) possible violation of the Filipino people’s economic, social and cultural rights. The 20 senators who voted for the ratification of this unfair agreement showed their anti-people stance by dumping the poor Filipino people further into poverty.

“As a comprehensive free trade agreement covering the biggest economies in the Asia-Pacific, the RCEP puts local producers and markets in the Philippines at a disadvantage as they will be forced to compete with a flood of cheaper and high-grade imported goods from highly-industrialized countries”, said Peter Murphy, ICHRP Chairperson.

The RCEP eliminates 90 percent of tariffs among its participating economies, the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea. The RCEP covers roughly 30 percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP). It is widely perceived as China’s counterweight to the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) from which then President Donald Trump withdrew participation in January 2017.

Despite gross violation of human rights in Myanmar, China and the Philippines, the RCEP has no commitments to human rights, labor rights or environmental standards.

“The RCEP will surely mean the worsening violation of workers’ rights. Filipino workers already suffer from contractualization, low wages, unsafe working conditions and the non respect of ILO Conventions 87 and 98 on their right to associate and to collective bargaining. Peasants will face impossible competition from giant agri-corporations, and indigenous peoples (IPs) will be confronted by the expansion of destructive mega-mining projects,” continued Murphy.

“Following a neoliberal framework, it will also open up basic social services to further liberalization, privatization, and deregulation, making it more difficult for the Filipino masses to have access to desperately needed medical, education, and transportation services.”

“Instead of participating in unfair free trade agreements like RCEP, the Philippine Government should focus on improving its national economy and supporting its local producers and businesses who are already reeling from the continued rise of inflation in the country. A primary focus should be given to genuine land reform and national industrialization which would generate quality jobs and would respond to the actual needs of the Filipino people,” concluded Murphy.

Further comment: Peter Murphy, ICHRP Chairperson, +61418312301
chairperson@ichrp.net

Statement

February 21, 2023

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) calls on the Philippine Government to give priority and immediate assistance to the 248 affected Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in the recent 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Turkey and Syria. According to a statement by the Philippine Embassy in Ankara, six Filipinos, including a woman and her three children who were previously reported missing, were confirmed dead in the aftermath of the deadliest earthquake to hit Turkey this century.

“The Philippine government through its embassy in Turkey should promptly help with the repatriation of Filipino survivors and provide financial compensation and psychosocial support to the bereaved families of the Filipinos who died in this devastating calamity,” said Peter Murphy, ICHRP Chairperson.

The earthquake, which struck southeastern Turkey in the early morning of February 6, has a current death toll of over 40,000 in Turkey alone. In Hatay, one of the worst-hit provinces in the country, at least 80% of the buildings were reduced to rubble. Syria has reported a death toll of at least 6,000 people.

“ICHRP remains firm on its call to rescind labor export policies which have been a staple feature of all administrations in the post-Marcos era. President Bongbong Marcos should instead prioritize improving the Philippine economy to generate quality local jobs to stop the forced migration of millions of Filipinos every year in search of high-paying jobs abroad,” concluded Murphy.

Further comment: Peter Murphy, ICHRP Chairperson, +61418312301

chairperson@ichrp.net

“The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) is very critical of the recent announcement of the Philippine government that US troops will be approved to operate out of additional Philippine military bases,” said Peter Murphy, ICHRP Chairperson.

“The additional four bases make a total of nine which are covered by the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), which permit the stationing of US military personnel inside Philippine military bases. Given the history of human rights violations against Filipinos by members of both the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the United States Armed Forces, this development must be condemned by the international community.

“Important to understanding this recent announcement is the long history of the United States’ presence in the Philippines,” Murphy added. The US military played a key role in the violent takeover over the Philippines from the Philippine Republic which had defeated the previous colonial power, Spain. In this Philippine-American war of 1899-1902, hundreds of thousands of Filipinos died in combat and civilian massacres. For almost 50 years, the Philippines remained a colony of the US, and the violent force of the US military played an important role in maintaining this.

Since the nominal independence of the Philippines in 1946, the legal specifics of the US military presence in the Philippines have evolved, but US soldiers have remained ever-present in the country, providing support and training to members of the AFP. In 1991, the Philippine Senate rejected the proposed “RP-US Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Peace” that would have extended the presence of the US military bases at Clark and Subic by ten years. However, a different Senate voted for the VFA in 1999, allowing the US military to return in strength, trampling again the principle of national sovereignty.

“As ICHRP has reported many times,” Murphy continued, “the AFP plays a key role in the counter-insurgency operations of the Philippine government, regularly committing human rights and international humanitarian law violations against unarmed peasants, indigenous people, labor leaders, and other human rights advocates. Human rights violations against Filipinos by US soldiers have also been widely publicized, such as the 2014 murder of Jennifer Laude by US Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton.

“The continued and expanding presence of the US military in the Philippines means continued US support for and participation in the violation of civil and political rights, and violation of the right to sovereignty of the Filipino people. ICHRP supports those Filipino organizations demanding an end to EDCA, and an end to all US military aid and presence in the Philippines,” concluded Murphy.

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) condemns the arrest on January 30, 2023, of Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA) staff Jennifer Awingan. She was arrested at her home after being served a warrant on the charge of rebellion or insurrection, which are classified as “non-bailable”.

ICHRP also condemns the warrant which named eight other people also to be arrested on the same charges. The eight include CPA Regional Council member and torture survivor Steve Tauli, CPA Chairperson Windel Bolinget who was previously detained on fabricated charges in 2021, Northern Dispatch correspondent Niño Oconer, peasant leader Lourdes Jimenez and development workers Sarah Abellon and Florence Kang.

These nine individuals were denied their right to an inquest proceeding at which they could hear the particulars of the case alleged against them and have the chance to rebut them.

In January 2021, Windel Bolinget was hit with a preposterous charge of murder in a place he had never visited at the southern end of the country, and threatened with a “shoot-to-kill” order by Cordillera Police. He had to surrender to a separate police agency while lawyers established that he had no case to answer, which took until July 2021.

The CPA has been an effective community-based organisation for indigenous communities to resist massive development aggression projects on their ancestral lands. This is the underlying reason for the killings, persecution and harassment of their leaders over many years.

At the United Nations Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review of the Philippines on November 14, 2022, Just Secretary Remulla claimed that human rights in the Philippines were fully protected by an independent judiciary and well-trained police. The true picture is exposed in this latest judicial assault on the CPA leaders, with reckless charges that these unarmed civilian activists who use all available democratic processes to assert the rights of their communities are actually armed guerrilla fighters.

The warrant was issued by the Regional Trial Court in Bangued, Abra.

ICHRP urges the international community join our call for the immediate release of Jennifer Awingan, and the cancellation of the phoney arrest warrant for all nine people named.

ICHRP urges the international community to support the current investigation of the Duterte administration by the International Criminal Court, and to take more action to politically, militarily and economically isolate the Marcos Jr administration until basic human rights are genuinely upheld in the country.