Press Statement
November 15, 2024

At the conclusion of the “DAGIT-PA” exercises, the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) raises alarm over the DAGIT-PA exercises’ impacts on the Filipino people. 

DAGIT-PA, short for “dagat, langit, at lupa” or sea, sky, and land, took place from November 4 to 15 and involved over 3,000 troops from the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Special Operations. This year’s exercises, which gave focus to territorial defense, maritime security, and cyber defense, were held in Palawan and Northern Luzon. In addition to traditional military drills, the exercises included “information warfighting.” Civilian agencies, such as the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), also took part in the exercises. 

The inclusion of civilian agencies in military exercises is questionable and alarming. These civilian agencies should focus on implementing the programs of their specific mandate rather than move into military drills. The DFA should be helping the immediate repatriation of distressed Overseas Filipino Workers, including those languishing in jails in different countries. The DSWD should increase, expand, and give immediate relief to the several millions of Filipinos devastated by the recent series of typhoons and other calamities affecting the country.

ICHRP is also greatly concerned about the Philippine military’s attention to “information warfighting.” The track record of the current Marcos Jr. and previous Duterte regimes, as well as that of the Philippine military itself, renders dubious the stories the military will peddle to the public, both in the Philippines and internationally. 

While former President Duterte became known for his online “troll army,” current President Marcos Jr. has also garnered international notoriety for the disinformation campaign that was carried out during his election run, which sought to clean up his family’s image as massive human rights violators. Maj. Gen. Marvin Licudine, exercise director of the DAGIT-PA drills, said that the exercises also served as preparation for next year’s larger Balikatan exercises with US forces, which will unfortunately coincide with the midterm elections in the Philippines.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), meanwhile, have repeatedly twisted stories as part of their counterinsurgency operations. These include the promotion of thousands of cases of fake surrenderees, the planting of evidence on civilians targeted in military operations, and falsely alleging targets of military attacks as members of the CPP-NPA-NDF. 

Brawner Jr. and the AFP may fashion themselves as patriots defending the territories of the Filipino people. But there is much to suggest that this claim is far from the truth. In fact, the results of this year’s International People’s Tribunal and the ongoing campaigning of the Filipino people have indicated that the AFP is guilty of widespread war crimes against the Filipino people. Thus, we must be wary of the information the AFP is sharing internationally about its supposed “warfighting.” 

In this vein, ICHRP also dismisses the AFP’s claims that it will fully shift its focus to territorial defense in 2025. The AFP cannot speak of defending its territory while it carries out war against the Filipino people and commits war crimes. Whatever story or information the military puts out, exercises like DAGIT-PA remain deadly to the Filipino people, encouraging the intensification of the so-called counterinsurgency efforts victimizing the Filipino people.

###

Press Statement
November 8, 2024

Donald Trump’s election triumph means that US policy will be volatile in style. But for sure, there will be many continuities of the Biden regime’s policy with regards to its relations with the Philippine government, a policy focused on increasing US military presence and economic influence in the Philippines. Both the previous Trump and Biden administrations supported and blessed Philippine Presidents Duterte and Marcos Jr., both of whom were found guilty of war crimes during the 2024 International People’s Tribunal. 

At this moment of change from Biden to Trump, ICHRP renews our call for an end to the US-led counterinsurgency campaign in the Philippines, and a stop to its widespread indiscriminate bombing and artillery strikes in the countryside. ICHRP calls for the respect of agreements made in peace talks between the government of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), including the accord on the respect for human rights and international humanitarian law. It is essential to address the root causes of the social conflict to bring the armed conflict to a just end.

“ICHRP challenges the incoming Trump team to condemn the 105 cases of extrajudicial killings, 12 cases of enforced disappearances, and 28 cases of torture reported by the Karapatan human rights alliance under the 24 months of the Marcos Jr. administration up to June 30, 2024,” said Peter Murphy, ICHRP Chairperson. “We call for the release of the 755 political prisoners now held by Marcos Jr,” he added

“Given the strident anti-people stance of Trump, ICHRP urges all its member organizations and the wider international community to brace for a sharper and more fast-moving campaign to uphold the basic rights of the Filipino people,” Murphy said.

The key interest of both US administrations was the utility of the Philippines as the biggest base in the ‘first island chain’ for containing China’s political and military influence. As long as the Manila government remains a reliable ally against China, the US continues to turn a blind eye to the dire human rights and democracy situation.

There is the US rhetoric about a “free and prosperous Indo-Pacific”, and then there is the stark reality of the misery of landlessness and poverty, and the lawlessness suffered by the Filipino people.

“ICHRP predicts that Trump will extend his bromance from Duterte to Marcos Jr. But we also predict that Trump’s global disdain for human rights and institutions will worsen the agony of the Filipino people,” said Murphy.

“Filipino plaintiffs managed to convince the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate the Duterte administration for the crime against humanity of murder, in relation to its anti-drug operations. The US has never signed up to the ICC, but Trump in particular is militantly opposed to its operation,” said Murphy. The same applies to his attitude to the United Nations Human Rights Council and the UN system in general.

“These international institutions, based on treaties between nations, are one expression of the international community’s desire for human rights. Those like Duterte and Trump who directly undermine these institutions make the work of all human rights advocates harder. This will be felt in the Philippines and the freedom loving Filipino people will surely stand and defend their inherent right,” concluded Murphy.

Statement
November 5, 2024

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) denounces the non-respect of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) to their ongoing peace process with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). The recent series of arrests of NDFP peace consultants Simeon Naogsan, Porferio Tuna, and Wigberto Villarico by  the Marcos Jr. government is part of their longstanding campaign to undermine the peace process with the NDFP. We call for their immediate release.

The three peace consultants are holders of the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG), an agreement between the GRP and the NDFP. They have a long track record of working alongside impoverished and militarized rural communities on the struggle and program for genuine land reform. 

“The arbitrary arrests and detentions of these consultants are blatant violations by the GRP of the JASIG, signed to assure the safety and immunity of those involved in the peace process against threat, harassment, arrest, detention, or killing. Such attacks on peace consultants further exemplify the Marcos Jr. regime’s insincerity to resolve the root causes of the armed conflict to attain just and lasting peace,” said ICHRP Chairperson Peter Murphy. 

“The Philippine government’s long history of targeting NDFP peace consultants demonstrates its deceitfulness in pursuing just peace. Resolving the roots of the armed conflict in the country includes addressing the issue of landlessness for the majority. NDFP peace consultants are entrenched with the rural poor in the militarized countryside, working with peasants, farm workers, fisherfolk, and indigenous peoples on grassroots campaigns against land-grabbing by big foreign corporations and big landlords,” Murphy stated.

At least 14 peace consultants have been murdered by the Philippine government since it withdrew from peace talks with the NDFP in 2017. These violations of International Humanitarian Law continue to occur under the Marcos Jr. regime. This past September 11, 2024, another NDFP Consultant, Ariel Arbitrario, was killed in the northern Philippines while in the custody of the 502nd Brigade, 5th Infantry Division of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). He was captured and reportedly subjected to torture. These are clear violations of International Humanitarian Law.

Another NDFP peace consultant, Rogelio Posadas, was arrested and summarily executed by state agents on April 20, 2023. The killing of Posadas came just days after the announcement of the deaths of Benito and Wilma Tiamzon, NDFP negotiating panel member and consultant. They were reportedly captured with eight others in August 2022, tortured, killed, and their bodies placed in a boat which was later blown up by the military.

Other recent victims in the killing spree against peace consultants rendered hors de combat by the AFP include Ericson Acosta, poet, songwriter, and cultural worker; and peasant organizer Joseph Jimenez, both arrested and then executed in Negros Occidental, on November 30, 2022. Pedro Codaste was abducted on January 19, 2022, in Bukidnon, Mindanao, and falsely declared killed in an encounter. “These cases of abduction, torture and execution by the AFP represent clear violations of International Humanitarian Law. These incidents are another affirmation of the verdict of the International People’s Tribunal 2024, which found the US government, and the Marcos Jr. and Duterte regimes, guilty of war crimes,” said Murphy. 

Peasants all over the country continue to struggle under intense poverty and landlessness while the Marcos Jr. regime neglects the implementation of genuine agrarian reform and opens up the Philippines to more investment that favors foreign profit. Indigenous peoples suffer intense military pressure to give up control of their remaining ancestral domains to logging, mining and plantation corporations. Food prices continue to increase while living wages remain paltry. Instead of addressing these problems, the Marcos Jr. regime commits widespread violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, including red-tagging, bombing, strafing, military encampment, and various forms of threats and harassment against poor activists and human rights defenders. This militarist approach attempts to vilify dissent while doing nothing to develop a substantial response to the social and economic problems of the Filipino people. 

“ICHRP remains deeply concerned about the intensifying level of oppression and repression. The Marcos Jr. government seems to be more interested in creating roadblocks than  negotiating for a peaceful resolution to the civil war. The Filipino people are also determined to pursue their cause and exercise their right to self determination. As such, the armed conflict will continue to persist.

“We want to let President Marcos Jr. know that the international community is concerned about the ongoing state of terror in the Philippines. We will continue to expose the blatant violation of human rights and international humanitarian law by the Philippine government as we expand our support for the demands of peasants, workers, and other oppressed people in the Philippines,” concluded Murphy. 

ICHRP calls on the Marcos government to:

• Stop the attacks on peace consultants and end all violations of International Humanitarian Law. Uphold human rights and the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and its Additional Protocols of 1977.
• Address the urgent concerns of the Filipino people and the root causes of the armed conflict. Implement Genuine Land Reform!
• Rejoin the International Criminal Court and allow it to conduct investigations in the Philippines related to the alleged crime against humanity of murder and other violations of International Humanitarian Law by the Duterte government.
• Respect all previously signed peace agreements between the GRP and the NDFP.  
• Release the 791 political prisoners who remain in detention.

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