Urgent Action Response Alert
April 14, 2022

Following intense red tagging, Aldeem Yañez of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) was arrested in an early morning raid at his home in Cagayan de Oro on Palm Sunday, April 10, 2022. The arresting officers claimed to have found a pistol, a grenade, rifle grenades and “subversive documents” to substantiate the continued detention of Aldeem Yañez, the standard tactics used against activists and critics of the Rodrigo Duterte government.

Yañez is presently detained at the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group Office in Camp Evangelista, Barangay Patag, awaiting court inquest for alleged offenses against the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act, which are bailable.

IFI Supreme Bishop Rhee Timbang deplored the arrest of Yañez in his house in Barangay Iponan on alleged trumped-up charges as another attempt to link his church and members to the ongoing communist rebellion in the country.

Timbang said Yañez is a good-standing IFI member who served as a volunteer to the IFI Visayas-Mindanao Regional Office for Development (VIMROD) and the Philippine Ecumenical Peace Platform, a network that seeks the resumption of the peace talks between the government and the National Democratic Front.

In 2018, Yañez had been arrested after the police in General Santos City tagged him and 12 other human rights workers and leaders of progressive groups as alleged members of the New People’s Army (NPA). A local court later released Yañez and his co-accused, who became known as “the GenSan 13,” dismissing the frustrated murder and murder cases filed against them.

Yañez and 17 other activists were arrested again and brought to Sibagat town in Agusan del Sur in 2020. They were among the 555 persons charged with alleged involvement in an NPA attack on a CAFGU patrol base in Sibagat town on December 19, 2018. Judge Fernando Fudalan of the Bayugan City Regional Trial Court later quashed the arrest warrants against Yañez and 533 other activists.

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) commends the daily indignation rallies staged by the IFI at 5:30 p.m. at the IFI National Cathedral along Taft Avenue in Manila.

ICHRP condemns the wrongful arrest and detention of Aldeem Yañez as a violation of his civil and political rights, and a violation of the collective right of the Filipino people to a fair democratic election process. It is clear that Yañez and others in Mindanao have been persecuted by the NTF-ELCAC in recent years and this arrest is part of a pattern of absurd fake charges. We call for his immediate release and an immediate and impartial investigation to identify the perpetrators who should then be prosecuted. 

April 11, 2022

At 8pm on April 8, 2022, at least 30 officers of the Philippine National Police arrested Isabelo ‘Tang Buting’ Adviento while he was eating in a Jollibee restaurant in Bayambong, the capital of Nueva Vizcaya Province. He is the latest activist to be arrested a few months before the elections.

Karapatan, the national alliance for people’s rights, said that Isabelo Adviento was taken to the Bayombong police station for temporary custody before he was turned over to the police in Tuguegarao City.

The Bayombong municipal police confirmed that he is charged with alleged illegal possession of firearms and explosives seized during an illegal raid of his house in Cagayan in December 2020. A warrant was issued in June 2021. 

According to the Bayombong Police, Adviento was arrested for alleged violation of Republic Act No. 10591 or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act, and Republic Act No. 9516 or the act amending the presidential decree on the possession of and other prohibited acts on firearms.

Adviento is the chairperson of Danggayan iti Mannalon iti Cagayan Valley, the local chapter of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), and Anakpawis-Cagayan Valley regional coordinator. The charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives are the standard allegation against activists and critics of the Rodrigo Duterte government. Adviento’s organizations said the police planted guns and explosives in his house in December 2020 and pointed out that no search or arrest warrant was presented during the raid. 

The peasant leader was then leading a relief mission for survivors of Typhoon Ulysses elsewhere in the region at the time of the raid. In a statement after the raid, Adviento asked the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the Department of Justice to “investigate and junk the trumped-up charges filed against innocent farmers” like himself and for CHR, church institutions, and local officials to assist those who are being persecuted. Adviento has been the subject of non-stop red-tagging, harassment, and surveillance by state forces for years but that has not stopped him from promoting human rights and handling farmers’ concerns.

We condemn the wrongful arrest of Isabelo Adviento as a violation of his civil and political rights, and a violation of the collective right of the Filipino people to a fair democratic election process. We call for his immediate release and an immediate and impartial investigation to identify the perpetrators who should then be prosecuted.

Further comment: Peter Murphy +61 418 312 301 chairperson@ichrp.net 

Press release
April 4, 2022

“Former Presidential Spokesperson and now Senatorial candidate Harry Roque has turned immediately to red tagging international human rights advocates when we called him out for the deadly practice of red tagging,” said ICHRP Chairperson Peter Murphy in Sydney today in response to Roque’s outburst last Saturday.

“Roque has made the preposterous but dangerous claim that the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines is a ‘legal front’ for the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army. Sadly this is a routine red tagging applied to any Filipino who advocates for land reform, workers’ rights, environmental protection or the rights of Indigenous Peoples, and it has led to 427 political killings during Duterte’s presidency up to the end of 2021. Now it is applied to foreigners,” said Mr Murphy.

“Roque used his attack on ICHRP to red tag the Bayan-Muna Party List and the BAYAN alliance of people’s organisations, mistakenly claiming that BAYAN is a member of ICHRP. ICHRP member organizations are all based outside the Philippines, and are organizations of non-Filipino citizens, including churches, trade unions, and lawyers’ associations,” said Mr Murphy.

In June 2020, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Ms Michelle Bachelet reported to the UN Human Rights Council:

“While numerous statements by President Duterte are subsequently clarified by his spokesperson and other officials as not to be taken literally, the widespread killings, detentions, red-tagging and score-settling by State actors, including in the campaign against illegal drugs, suggest that his public comments may have incited violence and may have had the effect of encouraging, backing or even ordering human rights violations with impunity. The use of such language could amount to a violation of the prohibition against arbitrary deprivation of life in Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.” (p. 15)

As Presidential Spokesperson, Harry Roque did much ‘clarifying’ of the President’s incitements, and justified the withdrawal of the Philippines from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. In November 2021, the Philippine government nomination of Roque, a supposedly former human right lawyer, to the UN International Law Commission was rejected. 

Further comment: Peter Murphy +61 418 312 301 chairperson@ichrp.net

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Press Release
April 2, 2022

“The global civil society coalition ICHRP launched its ‘Dirty Dozen’ campaign for targeted sanctions against top Philippine government officials on March 29, 2022, and within two days Malacañang Place has responded with its characteristic allergic reaction to any international criticism,” said ICHRP Chairperson Peter Murphy in Sydney today.

“Acting presidential spokesperson Martin Andanar was right to say we are ‘naming and shaming’ but he has no excuse to claim he is ‘baffled’ or that we are ‘misusing’ the available Magnitsky laws,” said Mr Murphy.

“Our ‘Dirty Dozen’ campaign would never have been necessary if there was any credible judicial action on perpetrators of human rights violations in the Philippines,” said Mr Murphy, “and sadly the Palace claim that these massive violations have never been brought to their attention is just another case of brazen rejection of responsibility for their actions.”

INVESTIGATE PH’s three Reports in 2021 covered more than 50 emblematic cases of human rights violations that occurred largely in 2020 and 2021; … violations of civil and political rights and IHL (International Humanitarian Law) carried out by the Duterte administration since 2016; and violations of economic, social, cultural and other collective rights. The Reports draw on the testimonies of survivors and witnesses, relatives of victims, human rights advocates with direct knowledge of state violence, and expert witnesses or resource persons working with peasants, trade unions, women, churches, community organizing, economics, political advocacy and peace negotiations.

In June 2020, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Ms Michelle Bachelet reported:

“Persistent impunity for human rights violations is stark and the practical obstacles to accessing justice within the country are almost insurmountable. Human rights advocacy is routinely equated with insurgency and the focus diverted to discrediting the messengers rather than examining the substance of the message…

“Given the widespread and systematic nature of the alleged killings, and the failure of domestic mechanisms to ensure accountability thus far, there have been strong calls for an international accountability mechanism. In June 2019, a group of 11 Special Procedures mandate-holders called on the Human Rights Council to establish an independent investigation. … The High Commissioner again emphasizes the need for independent, impartial and effective investigations into the killings and stands ready to assist credible efforts towards accountability at the national and international level.”

ICHRP points to the decision of the International Criminal Court in September 2021 to investigate Philippine government officials for the crime against humanity of murder. “This demonstrates that nothing has improved, despite the claims of the Acting Presidential Spokesperson,” said Mr Murphy.

“Our ‘Dirty Dozen’ campaign will mobilize civil society to work with the parliaments and congresses of the USA, Canada, the European Union, UK, Japan and Australia to take action on these grave human rights violations, in parallel with the ICC.”

Further comment: Peter Murphy +61 418 312 301 chairperson@ichrp.net