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.

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.