Urgent Alert

February 13, 2026

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) expresses utmost condemnation on the arrest of 21 peasants and residents of Sitio Veinte-Veinte Cuatro, Barangay Casile, Cabuyao in the Southern Tagalog province of Laguna. 

At 11 PM on February 7, guards of the Laguna Estates Development Corporation (LEDC) and armed goons of Emirate Security Services violently dispersed the peaceful encampment of peasants in Casile. The guards reportedly fired guns repeatedly to intimidate the residents. 

Afterwards, 21 peasants and residents were arrested and brought to the Cabuyao Police Station by the Philippine National Police (PNP) on trumped-up charges of “squatting” and trespassing. ICHRP condemns the complicity of the PNP, LEDC, and the Emirates Security Services in the violent arrest of the residents. We also denounce the inaction of Cabuyao Mayor Dennis Hain on the incident.

Among the arrested were five senior citizens, three women, one individual suffering from diabetes, and one individual with a mental health problem. They were released and their charges were dismissed after almost 48 hours in detention. 

The LEDC is owned by the influential Yulo landlord clan. It plans to construct an extension of the Cavite-Laguna Expressway (CALAX), condominiums, and subdivisions (gated villages) on peasant lands in the localities of Laguna. The incident on February 7 follows the illegal fencing of the Yulo-owned Sta. Rosa Realty Development Corporation (SRRDC) on 24 hectares of peasant lands in Casile in 2024, which reintensified the conflict between residents and the Yulos.

Barangay Casile is part of the 7,100-hectare Hacienda Yulo. Since 2020, peasants and residents in the area have been receiving eviction threats. A sitio inside the hacienda was reportedly burned down by armed goons in 2021.

The Yulos’ intrusion into peasant lands goes way back in the 1970s when they built a summer house in Casile and oversaw successive demolitions. This was the beginning of their decades-long systematic landgrabbing through companies LEDC and SRRDC.

The systematic and ceaseless attacks against peasant communities and continued landgrabbing of peasant lands in the country are symptomatic of the utter failure of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) of the Philippine government in distributing lands to farmers. It exposes a government run by political dynasties, landlords, and bureaucrats that strongly favor corporate interest and sham “development” over the welfare of millions of toiling, neglected, and landless peasants. 

ICHRP supports the call for genuine land reform, strong state support for farmers and the  agriculture sector, and calls for an end to attacks against peasant communities in the country.

Statement
February 2, 2026

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) welcomes the release of Filipino activist Chantal Anicoche after the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) illegally detained her for three weeks. 

Chantal’s release is the result of a relentless, international campaign. We applaud and recognize people’s organizations in the Philippines and abroad for their tireless efforts to ensure her release. Chantal’s advocacy and dedication for the rights and welfare of her fellow Filipinos has inspired and emboldened people around the world to emulate her concerns and support the most marginalized of Philippine society, including especially impacted communities in Mindoro where she was detained by the AFP. 

Following Chantal’s reported return to the United States, we express our ongoing concern for her well being and safety. ICHRP remains vigilant in monitoring her situation and ensuring accountability for those who illegally detained her. 

“We condemn in the strongest terms the posturing of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), who are feigning concern for Chantal while the AFP held her captive,” said ICHRP Chairperson, Peter Murphy. 

“It is completely absurd that the NTF-ELCAC – a government entity internationally notorious for stoking harassment, intimidation and killings of civilians and human rights advocates – is trying to paint itself as the harbingers of truth and protectors of youth,” continued Murphy. 

Contrary to their claims of concern for Filipino youth, the NTF-ELCAC has only enabled the AFP to subject Filipino youth and human rights defenders to torture. This is well documented in the case of Jhed Tamano and Jonila Castro, who have testified to the massive cruelty and psychological torture used against them by Philippine state agents. 

“Given the human rights record of the AFP and NTF-ELCAC, statements from these entities hold no weight when they held Chantal in a military camp where all kinds of coercion could happen,” said Murphy. 

Despite the narrative of the Philippine state agencies, which are trying to divert attention from their massive violations of human rights and intimidate activists who expose the reality of the Philippine situation, ICHRP remains steadfast and dedicated to support Chantal and the Filipino people’s struggle for their comprehensive political, economic, social, cultural and collective rights. 

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Urgent Alert
January 25, 2026

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) strongly condemns the violent arrest of seven residents and community members from the people’s anti-mining barricade in Dupax Del Norte, Nueva Vizcaya on January 23.

We condemn the overkill deployment and overwhelming use of force of over 300 PNP and SWAT troops who arrested the protesters and forcibly demolished the barricade to allow the entry of mining equipment of British company Woggle Corporation. State forces and Woggle goons wantonly violated the peasant community’s right to land—with the barricade standing on titled land and private property.

The seven arrested individuals are local community leader Florentino Daynos II, and six peasant Indigenous women—Krislyn Pocday, Adela Modi, Analiza Baliao, Amelia Rabino, Janet Macario, and Sonnette Nginsayan. Two of the women fainted during the altercation and were brought to the hospital before being brought to the local precinct. Most members of the peasant community are displaced Indigenous Peoples who came from different mining sites in the Cordillera region.

Woggle aggressively wants to mine gold and copper deposits which sit on Indigenous lands in Dupax Del Norte. Its exploration permits were obtained through deceptive methods, like acquiring locals’ signatures from attendance sheets for ayuda (aid) and using it as proof of their Free, Prior, Informed Consent (FPIC)—an Indigenous right. Companies need their approval before being allowed to operate on Indigenous lands.

Woggle’s intrusion to Indigenous lands in Dupax Del Norte is proof that the colonial extractivism of centuries ago still continues today. Imperialist countries continue to amass precious metals and minerals in resource-rich countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, often through violating domestic legal processes and using police or military force. They aggressively target Nueva Vizcaya’s gold and copper deposits in the same way that they have salivated in getting access to Venezuela’s oil, Bolivia’s lithium, and Africa’s diamonds. 

This would have not been possible without the collusion of local bureaucrats, which benefit from kickbacks and bribes from foreign corporations to allow them to operate on Philippine soil. In the case of Nueva Vizcaya, politician brothers Timothy Cayton and Paolo Cayton are complicit in allowing the entry of Woggle in the locality. This is the classic playbook of bureaucrat capitalists—use their power and influence to run the government like a business.

ICHRP calls on Marcos Jr. and the local government of Dupax Del Norte to immediately release the seven arrested individuals. The international community will not stand idle and will continue to campaign to stop Woggle’s operations in Nueva Vizcaya.

Woggle out of Dupax Del Norte!

Released Arrested Land Defenders!

Press Statement
January 24, 2026

“They have been in jail for almost six years on what the court has found to be fake firearms and explosives charges, but fake testimony about financing the New People’s Army could now keep journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio and her co-accused, lay church worker Mariel Domequil, in prison for at least another six years,” said Peter Murphy, chairperson of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP). “We urge an immediate appeal to overturn these convictions.”

“Ms Cumpio and Ms Domequil should be granted bail immediately, to get them out f the Tacloban City jail,” Murphy said.

“ICHRP joins with a huge array of organisations in condemning this conviction on blatantly false evidence,” said Murphy. These organizations include the national human rights alliance KARAPATAN, the Committee to Protect Journalists Asia-Pacific, Reporters without Borders, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, the national women’s alliance Gabriela, and independent online news service Altermidya.

The continued jailing of Ms Cumpio, executive director of the community media Eastern Vista at the time of her arrest, is a vivid demonstration of the ongoing repression of the media in the Philippines, especially of journalists critical of government policies. Ms Cumpio reported on the killings of peasant leaders. Ms Domequil is a lay worker with Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP), dedicated to support projects with peasant communities in the Eastern Visayas. RMP was heavily persecuted by the Duterte administration and this continues under Marcos Jr.

“Ms Cumpio and Ms Domequil are political prisoners. These fabricated charges must be quashed and the prisoners liberated,” said Murphy. “There are over 695 political prisoners in the Philippines, a real scandal in Southeast Asia. All of them should be freed to enable deep going political reform.”

The two were convicted on January 22, 2026, of financing terrorism by the Regional Trial Court in Tacloban City, Leyte, a court which also acquitted them of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition. The pair was sentenced to a jail term of 12 to 18 years. They were arrested back on February 7, 2020, and the explosives charge was non-bailable.

The state had alleged that on March 29, 2019 in Catbalogan, Samar, Cumpio and Domequil allegedly delivered cash and support to the New People’s Army, in alleged violation of Republic Act No. 10168, the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act. The firearms and explosives charges were thrown out because the court found they were based on unreliable witnesses, speculative intelligence, and inconsistent narratives. But based on this unreliable evidence, security forces raided the Eastern Vista office on February 7, 2020 in Tacloban City, seizing ₱557,360.00, (USD9,430) which had been collected to aid communities hit by natural disaster or military attack.

“ICHRP calls for all seized funds to be returned to the humanitarian organizations concerned, so that they can continue their important work,” said Murphy.

“The National Taskforce to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) drives this kind of repression and gross injustice,” said Murphy. “It is long overdue that the international community press for the abolition of NTF-ELCAC and the transformation of the judiciary into an independent institution that upholds the law, especially the basic human rights of the Filipino people set out in the Constitution and in international law.”

“The Anti-Terrorism Law (RA 11479), based on Australian advice, and the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Law (RA 10168), must be repealed or fundamentally redrawn,” Murphy concluded.