We humbly ask for your financial support to help her family cover hospital expenses and the costs of her memorial service. Every contribution, no matter the size, is deeply appreciated. Donations may be sent via: https://www.ichrp.net/LevieFundraiser
October 30, 2026
The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) deeply mourns the passing away of our beloved former Philippine Coordinator Levie Ebio. She is “Mamalag” to the younger comrades, a doting mother and wife, and a dearest friend to many. She died at the age of 63 last October 21 after suffering from pneumonia and other complications.
A long-time activist and human rights defender, Levie’s political awakening began in the late 1970s as a young student in the Philippine Science High School in Quezon City. With the country still under the shadows of the Marcos Sr. dictatorship, her history teacher would talk about raging national issues at the time and invited students to integrate with urban poor communities and labor strikes.
This piqued the interest of a young Levie, and she would eventually join mass integrations in different communities in Metro Manila. The experience opened her eyes to the realities of oppression and inequality in Philippine society, and paved the way to her life-long activism. She was witness to the atrocities of the dictatorship and the regimes that followed, including surviving the Mendiola Massacre.
Upon entering college in the University of the Philippines – Diliman in the early 1980s, she joined the anti-imperialist youth organization League of Filipino Students, established just a few years earlier in 1977. Since becoming organized as a student, Levie worked in many capacities in service of the people’s struggle for rights, organizing among the youth, peasants and workers.
In 1995, she was a founding staff member of Karapatan. She then organized among the youth to call for genuine land reform in her work with the National Network of Agrarian Reform Advocates Youth (NNARA-Youth). In 2004, she became a staff of the Joint Monitoring Committee for the peace negotiations between the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP), a body mandated by the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) to monitor, record and report on violations of human rights and international humanitarian law (IHL) in the context of armed conflict. She became an expert in the history of the peace negotiations and the thousands of war crimes cases committed by the Philippine government.
At the height of the pandemic in 2020, she joined ICHRP and would serve as its Philippine Coordinator until 2025. Through her work, ICHRP was able to effectively coordinate its campaigns with Philippine partner organizations, project local mass struggles, amplify issues confronting the Filipino people, and expose the human rights and IHL violations under the Duterte and Marcos Jr. regimes.
As Philippine Coordinator, she was crucial to the successes of several ICHRP undertakings in the past six years—the InvestigatePH in 2020 to 2021, the International Observer Mission in 2022, the Interfaith Learning Tour and the 4th ICHRP General Assembly in 2023, the International People’s Tribunal in 2024 which ICHRP co-endorsed, the International Observer Mission in 2025, and countless other campaigns and events.
Levie dedicated more than four decades of her life fighting for the rights and interests of youth, peasants, workers, and other oppressed sectors of Philippine society. Her passing away on October 21— falling on the same day as thousands of farmers flooded the streets for genuine land reform—is a befitting culmination to a life lived in service of the Filipino masses.
ICHRP, its members, and the movement for lasting peace are beyond honored to have worked with her. We are boundlessly inspired by her courage, militance, commitment, and the role she played in building international solidarity for the Filipino people’s struggle.
We honor and pay the highest tribute to her meaningful contributions to ICHRP for the past five years. We will forever keep her memory alive by further strengthening and expanding the coalition, as we continue to campaign for a just and lasting peace in the Philippines.
Long live the memory of Levie “Mamalag” Ebio!
Long live the Filipino people!
Long live international solidarity!
