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.

Press Release

January 28, 2023

On 26 January 2023, the International Criminal Court (“ICC” or “Court”) announced that it had granted the Prosecutor’s request to resume investigation into the Situation of the Republic of the Philippines (“the Philippines”). The ICC indicated that “following a careful analysis of the materials provided by the Philippines, the Chamber is not satisfied that the Philippines is undertaking relevant investigations that would warrant a deferral of the Court’s investigations”.

Having examined the submissions and materials of the Philippine Government, and of the ICC Prosecutor, as well as the victims’ observations, the Chamber concluded that the various domestic initiatives and proceedings, assessed collectively, do not amount to tangible, concrete and progressive investigative steps in a way that would sufficiently mirror the Court’s investigation. 

This conclusion of the ICC mirrors the earlier findings of Investigate PH Commission of Inquiry which found that domestic measures were effectively not functioning, and there was no evidence to support the Philippine government’s contention that victims could find justice in the Philippine courts. The judicial system itself was in fact being wielded as an instrument in the Philippine government’s campaign of state terror. 

The ICC decision to continue the pursuit of justice lays bare the Marcos Administration’s culpability in shielding the Duterte regime’s policies of impunity and state terror that killed perhaps 30,000 or more, and victimized Filipinos for six long years. “We are extremely appreciative of the decision of the ICC,” said Peter Murphy, Chairperson of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP). “It offers a mechanism for victims to continue their pursuit of justice against the Duterte Regime’s brutal war on drugs, on dissent and on the Moro and all Indigenous Peoples. Justice will still be served despite the Marcos administration’s decision to keep the Philippines outside the jurisdiction of the ICC and cover-up the crimes against humanity committed by the police and the military under Duterte”.

The new Marcos-Duterte administration functions simply as a continuation of its brutal predecessor. ICHRP believes the prosecution by the ICC may not stop the Marcos-Duterte government from sheltering the perpetrators from prosecution or prevent such crimes from continuing to occur, but it can provide some constraint and a measure of justice to the victims.   

ICHRP congratulates the ICC for cutting through the fog of lies and false claims laid out by the Marcos-Duterte government that the Philippine judicial system is functioning and can address any concerns about the President, the regime and the military’s roles in these gross violations of human rights and crimes against humanity.

In November 2022 Justice Secretary Jesus Remulla reported to the United Nations Universal Periodic Review that over 17,000 cases of drug killings involving police officers had been reviewed, resulting in a small number of disciplinary actions. “There is no way that this level of inquiry – most unlikely to be genuine – amounts to an investigation of the crime against humanity of murder which the ICC was investigating,” said Murphy.

“ICHRP has full confidence in the impartiality of the ICC. We urge the ICC to vigorously pursue the full investigation of the previous Duterte administration for these crimes against humanity so that, finally, justice may be served and impunity ended,” Murphy said.

Murphy, an Australian-based human rights advocate, led Investigate PH, a recent three-part investigation by an international commission on the extrajudicial killings, illegal arrests, abductions and disappearances in the Philippines since July 1, 2016, when President Duterte came into power. ###

For comment: Peter Murphy, Chairperson, ICHRP Global Council +61 418 312 301 chairperson@ichrp.net

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines is a global network of organizations, concerned about the human rights situation in the Philippines and committed to campaigning for just and lasting peace in the country.

Statement

January 26, 2023

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) urges the International Labor Organization (ILO) to probe further the violations of labor rights of workers in the Philippines through its High Level Tripartite Mission (HLTM). The ongoing Mission started on January 23 in the Philippines and will conclude on January 27.

“The ongoing Mission of the ILO is in line with one of INVESTIGATE PH’s key recommendations in all its three reports submitted to the UN OCHR, the ICC and the ILO. It is high time that the Philippine government is made accountable for its gross violations of workers’ rights, which heightened during President Duterte’s term,” said Peter Murphy, ICHRP Chairperson.

Formalized in June 1948, the ILO Convention Nos. 87 and 98 unequivocally declares the “freedom of association and right to organize” of all workers in the world, which the Philippines ratified in 1953. These rights are also stated in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights where the Philippine government is a party to these conventions.

Despite having it ratified in 1953, the Philippines has a poor record of implementing the ILO Convention No. 87. Under President Duterte’s administration alone, 56 labor leaders and organizers were killed, while hundreds were victims of various cases of red-tagging, harassment, union-busting, and arrests due to trumped-up charges. Among these incidents is the Bloody Sunday Massacre on March 7, 2021, which killed 9 activists in Southern Tagalog. One of the victims was labor leader Emmanuel “Manny” Asuncion, who was then in the office of Cavite Workers’ Assistance Center, Inc. (WAC) when state armed forces forcibly entered the office, tortured and killed him. The Department of Justice in a Resolution recently dismissed the criminal complaint filed by Asuncion’s wife against Philippine National Police (PNP) personnel for “insufficiency of evidence”, concluding that there is no probable cause to prosecute them for the killing of Manny Asuncion. This further exacerbates the climate of impunity and the continued delay in giving justice for victims of state violence.

“Equally alarming is the practice of the Philippine government in repressing the right of workers to organize and form trade unions. The creation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) has aggravated the disrespect of this right by the government,” added Murphy. They red-tag, threaten, file trumped-up charges, arrest and detain, and kill union leaders and organizers. The Alliance for Industrial Peace Program formerly known as Joint Industrial Peace Concerns Office (JIPCO) sees workers’ collective action as ‘terrorism’ and makes organizing of workers into trade unions very difficult especially in export processing zone areas. 

The workers’ situation has not improved since July 2022 under Marcos Jr. The Minimum Wage in the National Capital Region (NCR) remains at a measly P570 (US$10.44) per day, while other provinces like Bicol have it significantly lower at P335 (US$6.14) per day. Meanwhile, the real wage of workers in NCR is at P488 (US$8.94) per day, a far cry from the family living wage of P1,117 (US$20.47) per day, based on August 2022 data. Coupled with the fast-rising inflation and the continued crackdown of labor rights in the country, the problems faced by Filipino workers seem to have no end in sight.

As the ILO Mission concludes on January 27, ICHRP implores the ILO to urgently come up with the necessary recommendations to put a stop to the killings and repression of workers in the Philippines. “ICHRP reiterates its call to have the Philippine government abide by international labor laws and to be held accountable for its blatant disregard and violations of workers rights,” concluded Murphy.

Further comment: Peter Murphy, ICHRP Chairperson, +61418312301

chairperson@ichrp.net

January 22, 2023

“The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) today marks the 36th anniversary of the Mendiola massacre, a brutal attack by state forces against peasant farmers on January 22, 1987,” said Peter Murphy, ICHRP Chairperson.

“In the context of the ongoing struggle for land reform under the administration of Corazon Aquino, over ten thousand farmers joined protests outside of the Department  of Agrarian Reform and demanded action on the fair distribution of land to all. They then marched toward Malacanang Palace, and thirteen were killed when soldiers opened fired at the Mendiola Bridge: Danilo Arjona, Leopoldo Alonzo, Adelfa Aribe, Dionisio Bautista, Roberto Caylao, Vicente Campomanes, Ronilo Dumanico, Dante Evangelio, Angelito Gutierrez, Rodrigo Grampan, Bernabe Laquindanum, Sonny Boy Perez, and Roberto Yumul.

“Today, more than three decades after this horrific injustice, the peasants’ demand for land reform still goes unanswered,” Murphy continued. “Millions of farmers across the Philippines remain landless, and are forced to pay exorbitant land rents to produce. The military continues to threaten and kill peasants  who defend their right to till the lands and struggle for their basic rights – peasant communities even face shelling and bombing under the guise of ‘counterinsurgency operations’.

“ICHRP amplifies the call for genuine land reform and respect for the rights of the farmer across the Philippines. We also call on the international community to support this struggle by raising political or material support for peasant organizations in the Philippines, such as the Kilusang Magbubukid sa Pilipinas. The anniversary of the Mendiola Massacre reminds us that the struggle for justice is as important as ever.”