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ICHRP calls on UNHRC to take decisive action against human rights violations in the Philippines

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ICHRP calls on UNHRC to take decisive action against human rights violations in the Philippines
ICHRP Chairperson Peter Murphy addresses the UNHRC in a video oral intervention

In a video oral intervention submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) during its 48th Session, ICHRP Chairperson Peter Murphy called on the UNHRC to take decisive action against human rights violations in the Philippines.

The 48th Session is taking place one year after the UNHRC resolved to provide “technical assistance and capacity building” to the Duterte administration in response to High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet’s report on the human rights situation in June 2020. Murphy welcomed Bachelet’s oral update on the human rights situation, and cited damning evidence provided by three reports of Investigate PH, an independent international human rights investigation.

The full text of the video can be found below:

Madam President,

I welcome the High Commissioner’s oral update on the Philippines. Our Investigate PH project has now presented three reports to the Council which expose the Duterte government for brazen violation of the collective and individual human rights which his government claims to uphold.

The most important of these rights are to self-determination, development, and peace. But the Duterte government has reduced spending on health, education, housing, and welfare. Landlessness is a scourge, unemployment has increased, poverty has widened, inequality has deepened.

The Duterte government has increased spending on the military and police to prosecute internal wars on the poor, on dissenters, and on the Moro people in Mindanao. These wars have killed tens of thousands of Filipino civilians and internally displaced hundreds of thousands more. Women, children, and indigenous people have especially suffered.

When Filipinos protest and assert their rights, their civil and political rights are crushed by deadly force. Far more decisive action is needed by the Human Rights Council, and by the international community as a whole, to uphold the fundamental human rights of the Filipino people, which are universal rights.

SEPT 21, 2021
NEVER AGAIN!: A GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION AGAINST TYRANNY and FASCISM IN THE PHILIPPINES

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<b>SEPT 21, 2021 <br> NEVER AGAIN!: A GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION AGAINST TYRANNY and FASCISM IN THE PHILIPPINES</b>

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines is calling for A Global Day of Action Against Fascism in the Philippines as we mark the 49th year of Ferdinand Marcos’ Martial Law declaration in the Philippines.

On the 21st of September 1972, Proclamation No. 1081 suspended the Constitution and dismantled the Congress as Marcos assumed both legislative and executive powers. The martial rule lasted a 14-year period in Philippine history and is responsible for thousands of cases of killings and human rights violations, for most of which no justice was served. And 49 years later the Filipino people suffer through another nightmare of tyranny and oppression.

Under the US-Duterte regime, martial law was declared in Mindanao four years ago leading to an alarming increase in human rights violations. Hundreds of thousands of Moro people were displaced and turned into refugees by the wanton bombing and destruction of Marawi City at the hands of the Philippine Army. Indigenous people’s schools have been shuttered and their communities remain under attack and occupation by the Philippine Army. While peasants in Negros and Panay islands are being arrested and massacred as they defend their right to till and their ancestral domain. In the cities, Duterte has unleashed a war against the poor through his drug war which has now claimed more than 27,000 lives including children. Worse, the country is now one of the most dangerous places in the world for human rights defenders.

Now, ICHRP is calling all its members across the globe and appeals to other groups and individuals in the international community to join the Global Day of Action Against Fascism in the Philippines.

We appeal for your support, be it in the form of solidarity messages or activities by your organizations. Protest actions in front of the Philippine embassies and all kinds of mass assemblies will send a clear message of solidarity with the Filipino peoples’ struggle against the tyrant Duterte.

Please let us know your response/plans, send them to the Global Secretariat at ichrpglobalsecretariat@gmail.com


In solidarity,

Peter Murphy
Chairperson of the Global Council
International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines
 
Email address: peter_murphy1_au@bigpond.com

Cut off military aid to the Philippines! No support for human rights violators!
Stop the Attacks!
Stop the killings in the Philippines!
No to another dictatorship! Never again to Martial Law!

Support the drug war victims’ call for full investigation of ICC — ICHRP

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Support the drug war victims’ call for full investigation of ICC — ICHRP

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) strongly upholds the drug war victims’ call for the full investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into the crimes against humanity of the Duterte administration and his “war on drugs”.

In a report posted online by the ICC Registry, 192 out of 204 representations, or 94%, of the representations on behalf of 1,530 individuals and 1,050 families of victims of Duterte’s drug war want the ICC to investigate the drug war campaign.

“This is a staggering support from the victims’ families. We can no longer ignore the fact that these families want justice for their loved ones,” ICHRP Global Chairperson Peter Murphy said. Out of the 204 representations, only five did not want to proceed with the investigation due to fear of retaliation and did not want to relive their experiences.

“But this doesn’t mean that they don’t want justice,” Murphy added. “We respect their decisions, but at the same time, we still call for justice even for those who do not want to proceed with the investigation.”

The ICC Registry Report noted the following crimes against humanity in the context of the war on drugs: murder (181), attempted murder (8), imprisonment or other severe deprivation of liberty (54), rape and other forms of sexual violence (3), enforced disappearance of persons (28), and torture and other inhumane acts (103).

Most of the representations said that they also wanted the investigation to cover these crimes reported.

One of the main motivations for the representations to the ICC is the desire for a genuine investigation by an impartial international court.  

“Without the ICC, many of the families would choose not to pursue any form of justice. The prospect of an ICC investigation has rekindled their hopes of achieving justice and surfacing the truth,” one of the representations said.

This is in complete contrast to Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque’s claim on August 30 that the victim’s families can instead seek justice under Philippine laws. Furthermore, the palace spokesman even downplayed the report’s findings by saying that the ICC was only being used by staunch critics of the Duterte administration as a political tool.

But the findings of the Independent International Commission of Investigation into Human Rights Violations in the Philippines (Investigate PH) as reflected in their First and Second Reports clearly showed the flaws and failure of domestic remedies.

“ICHRP firmly believes in the impartiality of the ICC,” Murphy said. “We hope that the ICC heeds the call of these families to fully investigate the Duterte administration for these crimes against humanity so that, finally, justice may be served and impunity ended.” Murphy said.

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Reference: Peter Murphy +61 418 312 301

ICHRP Salutes Modern-day Heroes

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ICHRP Salutes Modern-day Heroes

September 1, 2021, As the Philippines celebrated National Heroes Day last August 30, 2021, the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) honors all the frontline health workers who continue to dedicate their lives for the Filipino people amid the ongoing pandemic in the Philippines.

“The COVID-19 crisis in the Philippines is worsening, with an all-time high record of 22,366 new positive cases on August 30 resulting in 148,594 active cases and more than 1,976,202 confirmed positive cases and 33,330 deaths,” said Mr Peter Murphy, ICHRP Global Chairperson. “Hospitals are at full capacity and health care workers are overworked and underpaid. We call them national heroes, but the Duterte government continues to ruthlessly disrespect and exploit them.”

And as if adding insult to injury, amidst the widespread poverty experienced by the Filipino people worsened by the pandemic, irregularities on the spending and allocation of billions of funds of different government agencies including the Department of Health (DOH) were exposed by the Commission on Audit (COA). The other government agencies in question were the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration.

With the 67B peso worth of questionable funds of DOH, in addition to the hundreds of billions allegedly plundered by Philippine Health Insurance Corporation officials, this further exhausts the already overwhelmed Philippine health sector. While billions of public funds have been spent or misspent or unspent, our modern day heroes, the health workers, are not given their hazard pay and other benefits due to them. 

ICHRP vehemently condemns the misuse of funds and the negligence of the Duterte administration in response to the alarming rise of cases of COVID-19 in the country. The funds in question could have been used to provide economic relief to affected communities, fund mass testing, and a faster and more effective vaccination roll out, properly pay for the frontline health workers, and provide more concrete support to the health care system.

“ICHRP supports the struggle of our modern-day heroes, all Filipino frontline health workers and we support the call of the Filipino people for accountability of the Duterte administration,” concluded Mr. Murphy.

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ICHRP marks National Heroes’ Day: Duterte No Hero, Proponent of State Terror

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ICHRP marks National Heroes’ Day: Duterte No Hero, Proponent of State Terror

August 30, 2021. The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines marks National Heroes’ Day with a renewed call to investigate the crimes of the Duterte regime. Over the past six months, ICHRP has witnessed heroic acts of Filipinos who were victims of human rights atrocities, who have stepped forward to testify in front of the Investigate PH’s Independent International Commission of Investigation telling their stories of the brutality of the Duterte Regime. These are the real heroes!

Farmers, workers, women, church people, indigenous peoples, lawyers, and human rights defenders have all bravely come forward at great personal risk to testify on the criminal actions of the police, military and the wrongs committed by the Duterte Regime.  These testimonies have allowed Investigate PH to document some of the tens of thousands of tokhang-style executions of poor people in the “War on Drugs”. It was able to show the regime’s brutality and the refugee crisis created by the government attacks on the Moro people in Marawi City. It has exposed the ongoing War on Dissent whereby opponents of the regime in the media, the legal system, and other sectors who advocate for human rights  are systematically silenced. 

In the last year, the Duterte regime has extended its attacks to the aged – septuagenarians and octogenarians – targeting the frail and sickly for state- sanctioned execution.  Among the victims were Randall Echanis, 71, executed in August 2020; Agaton Topacio and Eugenia Magpantay, both 68, killed by police in their own home at 3 am on November 25, 2020. Most recently on May 30, 2021, former Roman Catholic priest and former NDFP peace consultant Fr. Rustico Luna Tan, 80 years old, was shot in the face and killed in his home on Camotes Island, Cebu, as he slept on his hammock.  As noted previously by ICHRP Chairperson Peter Murphy, “These killings are a demonstration of the brutal Duterte regime’s callous disregard for the rule of law, civility and the peace process”.

What we have learned through Investigate PH about these tokhang-style attacks is that the forensic evidence in many cases has shown the victims did not fight back, their bodies showed only defensive wounds.  Though senior police officials continue to deny there is a cover-up, they have refused to turn over case files to Dept of Justice investigators.

Duterte’s abysmal record of public service has been a disaster for the Filipino people.  Tens of thousands murdered in the “War on Drugs”, hundreds of thousands left homeless and abandoned by their government in the War on the Moro people, and a generation impacted by the ongoing attacks on democracy through his War on Dissent.  His militarization of the Covid-19 public health crisis has been another disaster for workers and the entire urban population of the Philippines, and the pandemic continues to ravage the population.  

ICHRP Chairperson Peter Murphy notes “President Duterte will go down in history as a criminal using his office to order murders on a vast scale while bragging about it, promising impunity to his henchmen, and happily comparing himself to Adolf Hitler. The international community has recoiled, but done nothing more. But Duterte will be called to account by the real heroes of the Philippines who have never stopped calling for justice and asserting their rights during these past five years and more.”

INVESTIGATE PH Commissioner Rev. Chris Ferguson, General Secretary of the World Council of Reformed Churches added: “When a tyrannical leader styles themselves as a popularist saviour and dedicates the whole apparatus of government, judiciary and state to repress dissent and demonize the defense of human right it takes an unimaginable guts and fiery courage to publicly resist and call for justice. In the ongoing process of Investigate PH I have been humbled and truly overwhelmed to experience the bravery of those who have come forward to bear witness at the risk of their life, reputation and freedom to say no to Duterte and demand justice and peace for their country and communities. I could only pray that I would have such selfless courage”.

ICHRP marks National Heroes’ Day with a shout out to the everyday heroes in Philippine society, those who stand up for justice in the face of tyranny, those who have persisted in the struggle for justice and have garnered the attention of the International Criminal Court, those who have testified before Investigate PH, providing the evidentiary foundation that further exposes the criminal nature of the Duterte Regime and its campaign of political violence and state terror against civilians in the regime’s War on Dissent.  We salute the courage of these everyday heroes.

Contact: Peter Murphy +61 418 312 301

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