Statement
February 2, 2026

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) welcomes the release of Filipino activist Chantal Anicoche after the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) illegally detained her for three weeks. 

Chantal’s release is the result of a relentless, international campaign. We applaud and recognize people’s organizations in the Philippines and abroad for their tireless efforts to ensure her release. Chantal’s advocacy and dedication for the rights and welfare of her fellow Filipinos has inspired and emboldened people around the world to emulate her concerns and support the most marginalized of Philippine society, including especially impacted communities in Mindoro where she was detained by the AFP. 

Following Chantal’s reported return to the United States, we express our ongoing concern for her well being and safety. ICHRP remains vigilant in monitoring her situation and ensuring accountability for those who illegally detained her. 

“We condemn in the strongest terms the posturing of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), who are feigning concern for Chantal while the AFP held her captive,” said ICHRP Chairperson, Peter Murphy. 

“It is completely absurd that the NTF-ELCAC – a government entity internationally notorious for stoking harassment, intimidation and killings of civilians and human rights advocates – is trying to paint itself as the harbingers of truth and protectors of youth,” continued Murphy. 

Contrary to their claims of concern for Filipino youth, the NTF-ELCAC has only enabled the AFP to subject Filipino youth and human rights defenders to torture. This is well documented in the case of Jhed Tamano and Jonila Castro, who have testified to the massive cruelty and psychological torture used against them by Philippine state agents. 

“Given the human rights record of the AFP and NTF-ELCAC, statements from these entities hold no weight when they held Chantal in a military camp where all kinds of coercion could happen,” said Murphy. 

Despite the narrative of the Philippine state agencies, which are trying to divert attention from their massive violations of human rights and intimidate activists who expose the reality of the Philippine situation, ICHRP remains steadfast and dedicated to support Chantal and the Filipino people’s struggle for their comprehensive political, economic, social, cultural and collective rights. 

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Urgent Alert
January 25, 2026

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) strongly condemns the violent arrest of seven residents and community members from the people’s anti-mining barricade in Dupax Del Norte, Nueva Vizcaya on January 23.

We condemn the overkill deployment and overwhelming use of force of over 300 PNP and SWAT troops who arrested the protesters and forcibly demolished the barricade to allow the entry of mining equipment of British company Woggle Corporation. State forces and Woggle goons wantonly violated the peasant community’s right to land—with the barricade standing on titled land and private property.

The seven arrested individuals are local community leader Florentino Daynos II, and six peasant Indigenous women—Krislyn Pocday, Adela Modi, Analiza Baliao, Amelia Rabino, Janet Macario, and Sonnette Nginsayan. Two of the women fainted during the altercation and were brought to the hospital before being brought to the local precinct. Most members of the peasant community are displaced Indigenous Peoples who came from different mining sites in the Cordillera region.

Woggle aggressively wants to mine gold and copper deposits which sit on Indigenous lands in Dupax Del Norte. Its exploration permits were obtained through deceptive methods, like acquiring locals’ signatures from attendance sheets for ayuda (aid) and using it as proof of their Free, Prior, Informed Consent (FPIC)—an Indigenous right. Companies need their approval before being allowed to operate on Indigenous lands.

Woggle’s intrusion to Indigenous lands in Dupax Del Norte is proof that the colonial extractivism of centuries ago still continues today. Imperialist countries continue to amass precious metals and minerals in resource-rich countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, often through violating domestic legal processes and using police or military force. They aggressively target Nueva Vizcaya’s gold and copper deposits in the same way that they have salivated in getting access to Venezuela’s oil, Bolivia’s lithium, and Africa’s diamonds. 

This would have not been possible without the collusion of local bureaucrats, which benefit from kickbacks and bribes from foreign corporations to allow them to operate on Philippine soil. In the case of Nueva Vizcaya, politician brothers Timothy Cayton and Paolo Cayton are complicit in allowing the entry of Woggle in the locality. This is the classic playbook of bureaucrat capitalists—use their power and influence to run the government like a business.

ICHRP calls on Marcos Jr. and the local government of Dupax Del Norte to immediately release the seven arrested individuals. The international community will not stand idle and will continue to campaign to stop Woggle’s operations in Nueva Vizcaya.

Woggle out of Dupax Del Norte!

Released Arrested Land Defenders!

Press Statement
January 24, 2026

“They have been in jail for almost six years on what the court has found to be fake firearms and explosives charges, but fake testimony about financing the New People’s Army could now keep journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio and her co-accused, lay church worker Mariel Domequil, in prison for at least another six years,” said Peter Murphy, chairperson of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP). “We urge an immediate appeal to overturn these convictions.”

“Ms Cumpio and Ms Domequil should be granted bail immediately, to get them out f the Tacloban City jail,” Murphy said.

“ICHRP joins with a huge array of organisations in condemning this conviction on blatantly false evidence,” said Murphy. These organizations include the national human rights alliance KARAPATAN, the Committee to Protect Journalists Asia-Pacific, Reporters without Borders, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, the national women’s alliance Gabriela, and independent online news service Altermidya.

The continued jailing of Ms Cumpio, executive director of the community media Eastern Vista at the time of her arrest, is a vivid demonstration of the ongoing repression of the media in the Philippines, especially of journalists critical of government policies. Ms Cumpio reported on the killings of peasant leaders. Ms Domequil is a lay worker with Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP), dedicated to support projects with peasant communities in the Eastern Visayas. RMP was heavily persecuted by the Duterte administration and this continues under Marcos Jr.

“Ms Cumpio and Ms Domequil are political prisoners. These fabricated charges must be quashed and the prisoners liberated,” said Murphy. “There are over 695 political prisoners in the Philippines, a real scandal in Southeast Asia. All of them should be freed to enable deep going political reform.”

The two were convicted on January 22, 2026, of financing terrorism by the Regional Trial Court in Tacloban City, Leyte, a court which also acquitted them of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition. The pair was sentenced to a jail term of 12 to 18 years. They were arrested back on February 7, 2020, and the explosives charge was non-bailable.

The state had alleged that on March 29, 2019 in Catbalogan, Samar, Cumpio and Domequil allegedly delivered cash and support to the New People’s Army, in alleged violation of Republic Act No. 10168, the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act. The firearms and explosives charges were thrown out because the court found they were based on unreliable witnesses, speculative intelligence, and inconsistent narratives. But based on this unreliable evidence, security forces raided the Eastern Vista office on February 7, 2020 in Tacloban City, seizing ₱557,360.00, (USD9,430) which had been collected to aid communities hit by natural disaster or military attack.

“ICHRP calls for all seized funds to be returned to the humanitarian organizations concerned, so that they can continue their important work,” said Murphy.

“The National Taskforce to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) drives this kind of repression and gross injustice,” said Murphy. “It is long overdue that the international community press for the abolition of NTF-ELCAC and the transformation of the judiciary into an independent institution that upholds the law, especially the basic human rights of the Filipino people set out in the Constitution and in international law.”

“The Anti-Terrorism Law (RA 11479), based on Australian advice, and the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Law (RA 10168), must be repealed or fundamentally redrawn,” Murphy concluded.

Global rights group backs church calls for an end to persecution of clergy 

Press Statement
January 20, 2026

Rev Glofie G Baluntong, a United Methodist Church (UMC) District Superintendent for Mindoro, Romblon and Marinduque at the time, was arrested on attempted murder charges in 2021, following an alleged clash between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the New People’s Army (NPA). She was finally acquitted of this charge by the Regional Trial Court in Mindoro Oriental on December 8, 2025. This outcome was announced by the UMC on January 17, 2026.

“The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) joins with the UMC in celebrating this victory for Rev Baluntong, and at the same time we condemn the state prosecutors and the Philippine judiciary for the long delay to this outcome. The Duterte and Marcos Jr governments are again exposed for grave abuse of judicial process,” said ICHRP Chairperson Peter Murphy.

“ICHRP calls for the dropping of all trumped-up cases and the release of all political prisoners held by the Marcos Jr government, numbered at 696 at the end of November 2025,” said Murphy.

Rev Baluntong was able to post bail, and thus avoid detention while awaiting trial. During her trial, she was able to prove that she was officiating at a funeral service on March 25, 2021, at the time of the alleged clash between the AFP and the NPA. And the prosecutors were unable to prove that the alleged wounded soldier had ever been wounded or could identify who may have shot at him. The court found that Baluntong was charged because her name appeared in a government “order of battle.”

And why was she in the “order of battle”? The UMC said she had been targeted for providing sanctuary to Indigenous Mangyan communities resisting mining, logging and land-grabbing. 

Government support for these destructive projects means massive intensification of militarization and war crimes committed by the AFP on Mindoro. On the first day of the year, in the town of Abra de Ilog,  the AFP deployed over 1000 soldiers and further terrorized the community with indiscriminate aerial bombing and strafing from helicopters. Almost 700 residents were forced to evacuate, and the attack resulted in the deaths of five civilians, including three children.

Rev Baluntong told online journal Bulatlat in November 2022 that the harassment started after she allowed members of a fact-finding team of human rights group Karapatan-Southern Tagalog to spend the night in her church sometime in June 2019. The group was assisting families to claim the bodies of guerilla fighters killed in a clash with the military from a funeral home in the area.

On October 6, 2022, the state prosecutors withdrew an August 2021 charge against Rev Baluntong of violating the Anti-Terrorism Act, saying that they had insufficient proof to sustain the charge.

Rev Baluntong was forced to leave Mindoro because of this sustained harassment by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

ICHRP echoes the call of the UMC to the Philippine government: 

1. End the vilification and the filing of trumped-up charges against individuals and organizations, including members of the church who uphold peace in society, human rights, and environmental justice; 
2. Repeal repressive laws, especially the Anti-Terrorism Act, which has been weaponized to suppress, intimidate, and attack advocates of environmental protection and human rights; 
3. Abolish the NTF-ELCAC, a principal government agency with a long record of repression, baseless accusations, and the dissemination of falsehoods; 
4. Resume and enforce the stalled Peace Talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in order to put an end to poverty, the destruction of the country’s natural resources, and the various forms of violence regarded as causes of armed struggle.

Previously signed agreements from peace negotiations, which call for the upholding of human rights and international humanitarian law, but have been totally disregarded by the Marcos regime, must be upheld.

“ICHRP calls on the international community to treat the Philippine government as a pariah and to cease all military aid until there is genuine respect for human rights for the Filipino people,” Murphy concluded.