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ICHRP Day of Action on International Human Rights Day: Call on the International Criminal Court to Move Forward with its Investigation!

ICHRP Secretariat
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Dear Friends,

Following the disappointing news that the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague will temporarily suspend its investigation of the Duterte government for its crimes against humanity, the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) is requesting that all persons and organizations who are concerned about the worsening human rights situation in the Philippines write to the ICC on December 10th (International Human Rights Day) to urge them to continue the investigation.

A draft letter to ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan can be found here, in Word Doc or Google Doc format.

The suspension of the investigation was based on a November 10th request from the Philippine government, that the ICC stop its investigation. The Philippines has posited two rationales for the request for suspension:

  • that the Philippines is conducting its own investigation of these crimes and the intervention of the court is not required.  
  • that in most instance the police were defending themselves while apprehending suspects and that the killings are considered just.

Our recent Independent International Investigation into the ongoing killings and human rights violations (Investigate PH) was presented with clear forensic evidence that is contrary to government claims that police were defending themselves. Victims were executed in some instance after being bound. Victims showed defensive wounds where their hands were in the air at the time of their execution by police. A sample of forensic cases demonstrated that the victims were not fighting back, they were usually asleep at the time of the police raids and were killed subsequent to their apprehension.

On the question of the Philippines conducting its own investigations, when the former Prosecutor, Ms Fatou Bensouda recommended the investigation in June 2021, the Philippine Department of Justice was trying to investigate 53 cases of police killings during anti-drug operations. The Secretary of Justice had been promising this in 5,655 cases since June 2020, without result. In fact, the police have reduced the number of files they are willing to share with the Dept of Justice by one, to 52. This request to the ICC to stop the investigation is a ploy designed for the domestic Philippine audience during the current election campaign season, and the ICC should not be distracted by it.

The Philippine government claim that it is actually investigating these alleged crimes also assumes an impartial and fully functioning judiciary. The Second Report of Investigate PH on the three wars showed how the Police, the Ombudsman, and the Courts have blocked all but one complaint in relation to deaths in police anti-drug operations. As well, this report showed that some judges supported police actions through issuing bogus warrants in the War on Dissent. The courts have been weaponized by the Duterte regime in its whole-of-nation approach to quell dissent and support deadly police and military action against Filipino citizens. There are no domestic remedies—the brave individuals who filed cases with the ICC did so because their complaints in the Philippines ran into a brick wall.

The killings of tens of thousands of Filipinos by police under Duterte are no accident—they are state policy. The War on Drugs in particular has been state strategy since the inauguration of Duterte on June 30, 2016. He clearly articulated an objective of ridding the country of its drug problem through murder. Time and again he promised police and military immunity from prosecution for waging war on drug suspect and dissenters. He has admitted that he and his government are guilty of extrajudicial killings. The Philippines had gone so far as to withdraw from the ICC to evade prosecution for any crimes committed after March 17th 2019.

To participate in the action, please add your name to the draft letter to ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, and send your letter on December 10th via email, phone, or physical mail to:

Information and Evidence Unit
Office of the Prosecutor
Post Office Box 19519
2500 CM The Hague
The Netherlands
otp.informationdesk@icc-cpi.int
Tel: +31 (0)70 515 8304
Fax: +31 70 515 8555

In Peace and Solidarity

Peter Murphy
Chairperson of ICHRP

Biden’s Summit for Democracy: A Showcase for Populist Autocrats and Human Rights Violators

ICHRP Secretariat
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Biden’s Summit for Democracy: A Showcase for Populist Autocrats and Human Rights Violators

December 9, 2021

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) condemns US President Joe Biden’s invitation to ruthless tyrant Rodrigo Duterte to attend his so-called Summit for Democracy scheduled for Dec. 9 to 10. According to ICHRP Chairperson Peter Murphy, Biden’s remark that “he looks forward to welcoming Duterte and hearing his ideas on how we can foster a more democratic, equitable, inclusive and sustainable world” is a sick joke. Murphy added, “Duterte’s reign of terror and mass murder, which have provoked an ICC investigation of crimes against humanity, would seem to disqualify him from providing advice on anything except fascist populism, repression and human rights violations.”

Under Duterte, the Philippines has become a killing ground for alleged drug suspects, Moro communities, political dissidents, community organizers, indigenous peoples, and human rights advocates. The Duterte regime has institutionalized the killing of dissenters, placing human rights defenders and government critics and all those working to improve the lives of ordinary Filipinos in grave danger. As recently as this week, the regime was conducting aerial bombardment campaigns against civilian targets in Panay Island. Indiscriminate bombing of civilians constitutes a war crime and crime against humanity under Geneva conventions.

Biden would be well served to review the meticulous documentation of the crimes of the Duterte regime undertaken by Investigate PH and the UN Human Rights Council. These bodies have exposed Duterte’s bloody “War on Drugs” resulting in the extrajudicial killings of tens of thousands.

Under Duterte, the Armed Forces of the Philippines have become more emboldened in killing dissenters. Police and soldiers are now executing political dissenters in a manner similar to extrajudicial killings in police anti-drug operations.

Biden has invited heads of state and government, other government leaders, and “voices from the business and non-government sectors” to join the U.S. in “taking action to strengthen democracy.” Far from building democracy, Duterte has further institutionalized military rule with the vast majority of senior cabinet positions now occupied by ex-military and police, giving his government the pall of a military junta.

Biden’s invitation to Duterte and other populist autocrats lays bare the true purpose of the meeting. It is not to advance democracy but to gather its allies to advance an agenda of US domination and imperialism.

For comment: Peter Murphy, Chairperson, ICHRP Global Council +61 418 312 301 chairperson@ichrp.net

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY JOINS THE CALLS TO SURFACE PEASANT ORGANIZER STEVE ABUA

ICHRP Secretariat
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INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY JOINS THE CALLS TO SURFACE PEASANT ORGANIZER STEVE ABUA

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) vehemently condemns the illegal abduction of 35-year-old Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Peasant Movement of the Philippines) organizer Steve Abua by suspected elements of the state. Abua was last seen in Lubao, Pampanga, Central Luzon in the Philippines on November 6 at 2 in the afternoon. 

Abua graduated cum laude from the University of the Philippines with a degree in BS Statistics and decided to join the peasant movement in the countryside after his graduation. Instead of pursuing a life of comfort through an auspicious career, he chose to serve and be with the vulnerables sectors and organize in the peasant and indegenous people’s community.

Abua was last seen in a video call from the abductors where he was blindfolded, tied up, and gagged, according to his wife Johanna Abua. “May tumawag sa akin at sinabing hawak nila yung asawa ko. Kailangan daw na magbagong buhay na si Steve. Ano bang ginawang masama ng asawa ko para dukutin nyo? ‘Pag tumulong ka ba sa magsasaka, sa mga inaapi, nawawala ba yung karapatan natin? [I received a call and they said that my husband was with them. According to them, my husband needed to change his lifestyle. What did my husband do wrong for them to abduct him? If we help the farmers and the vulnerable sector, do our rights disappear?]” Johanna said during the Surface Steve Press Conference last November 12.

“The abduction of Steve Abua is yet another addition to the long list of crimes against humanity of the Duterte administration. This is yet another attack on civilians resulting in the violation of the right to life, right to liberty, and right to security,” ICHRP Global Chairperson Peter Murphy said. 

According to the Investigate PH Second Report, “These attacks are not something the Duterte government even tries to hide, instead it openly admits to using these tactics through the counterinsurgency program.”

Under the Duterte regime, Abua is the third desaparecido in Central Luzon, all of whom are peasant rights advocates. Diodicto Minoza is a farmer leader in Aurora while Joey Torres is a Bayan Muna organizer in Nueva Ecija.

“ICHRP is in solidarity with the call to surface Steve Abua and all other desaparecidos safely and immediately and to stop the attacks on peasant rights defenders.” Murphy added.

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ICHRP calls for ICC INVESTIGATION OF Duterte’s CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY to proceed without delay

ICHRP Secretariat
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ICHRP calls for ICC INVESTIGATION OF Duterte’s CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY to proceed without delay

November 20, 2021

‘Temporary Suspension of ICC investigation rewards Duterte and further victimizes those who gave evidence in support of ICC probe ’global coalition on human rights. 

ICHRP Chairperson Peter Murphy expressed the organization’s “extreme disappointment with the ICC decision to temporarily suspend their investigation into the Duterte government’s alleged crimes especially after the Prosecutor found credible evidence that crimes against humanity had occurred.  Any suspension or delay is an absolute betrayal of those brave individuals who came forward at great personal risk to provide evidence and testimony regarding these alleged crimes.”

The ICC has suspended its investigation after a November 10th request by the Philippine government which stated that it has begun its own review of 52 cases where police killed suspects during anti-drug operations.

“The findings of the First and Second Reports of the Independent International Commission of Investigation into Human Rights Violations in the Philippines (Investigate PH) clearly showed the flaws and failure of the domestic remedies now claimed to be operating,” said Murphy.

The Investigation demonstrated that the Philippine courts had managed to convict two police officers for the 2017 murder of 17-year-old Kian Delos Santos – one case in the 6,011 officially recorded up to the end of 2020. This case only succeeded because the Barangay Captain had failed to switch off the CCTV which recorded the police abduction of Kian.

Investigate PH also dispelled the Philippine government claims that the thousands of victims of the war on drugs were killed by police in self-defence.  It presented forensic evidence to the ICC of victims with defensive wounds, of victims who had been bound before being killed. But there are probably over 30,000 cases of these police killings in anti-drug operations, based on statistics of “Deaths Under Investigation”. And now the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency no longer reports deaths in anti-drug operations, on their Real Numbers PH webpage.

“This kind of review – of 5,655 cases – was first promised by the Secretary of Justice to the UN Human Rights Council in June 2020,” said Murphy.

In February 2021 Secretary Guevarra reported that just 328 cases had been reviewed, revealing no proper crime scene investigation in more than half the cases. In May 2021, he reported that the PNP had given access to files on 61 cases, but by June 1, 2021, the police had cut this number to 53. It seems this number has been reduced to 52. This is well below 1 per cent of deaths in police anti-drug operations. “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.

“The ICC needs to re-start its investigation of all the evidence it has before it and give justice to the tens of thousands of Filipinos murdered at President Duterte’s repeated incitement.

“ICHRP has full confidence in the impartiality of the ICC. We reiterate that the ICC should heed 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.

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 2016 when President Duterte came into power. #

For comment: Peter Murphy, Chairperson, ICHRP Global Council +61 418 312 301 chairperson@ichrp.net

PARLADE PRESIDENTIAL BID AND REDUCTION OF NTF-ELCAC BUDGET

ICHRP Secretariat
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PARLADE PRESIDENTIAL BID AND REDUCTION OF NTF-ELCAC BUDGET

November 18, 2021

‘PH is a plaything of competing dictators’ – global coalition on human rights on Parlade’s presidential bid

The late substitution of Retired Lieutenant General Antonio Parlade Jr for the presidential nomination of Antonio Valdez “deepens the perception that the Philippines is a plaything for competing dictators,” Peter Murphy, chairperson of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) 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 2016 when President Duterte came into power. One of the key findings of Investigate PH was the crucial role of President Duterte’s Executive Order No. 70 which created the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict to which Parlade was the spokesperson.

“Gen. Parlade is notorious for the Bloody Sunday massacre on March 7 this year, and for the enormous damage done by his red-tagging campaign and application of ‘tokhang’ to repression of political critics,” said Murphy.

With Parlade joining the frenzy 2022 national elections, Murphy said the Philippines have three ‘strong men’ characters vying for the presidency – the late dictator’s son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, Senator Panfilo Lacson, and Gen. Parlade.

“These flagrant violators of human rights and recklessly divisive hate-speakers are not trying to develop a peaceful and prosperous society, but rather scramble for the ill-gotten spoils of office,” said Murphy.

Meanwhile, Murphy welcomes the massive budget cut on the NTF-ELCAC which now stands at P6.3 billion from a high of P16.4 billion, following calls of local and international human rights community for its abolition.

“We in ICHRP hope that the Filipino people will have a real choice of unifying, peace-making candidates for President, Senators and House Representatives who respect democratic processes and uphold all human rights, and that their votes will be counted without cheating,” said Murphy.#

For comment: Peter Murphy, Chairperson, ICHRP Global Council +61 418 312 301 chairperson@ichrp.net

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