Global rights group backs church calls for an end to persecution of clergy
Press Statement
January 20, 2026
Rev Glofie G Baluntong, a United Methodist Church (UMC) District Superintendent for Mindoro, Romblon and Marinduque at the time, was arrested on attempted murder charges in 2021, following an alleged clash between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the New People’s Army (NPA). She was finally acquitted of this charge by the Regional Trial Court in Mindoro Oriental on December 8, 2025. This outcome was announced by the UMC on January 17, 2026.
“The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) joins with the UMC in celebrating this victory for Rev Baluntong, and at the same time we condemn the state prosecutors and the Philippine judiciary for the long delay to this outcome. The Duterte and Marcos Jr governments are again exposed for grave abuse of judicial process,” said ICHRP Chairperson Peter Murphy.
“ICHRP calls for the dropping of all trumped-up cases and the release of all political prisoners held by the Marcos Jr government, numbered at 696 at the end of November 2025,” said Murphy.
Rev Baluntong was able to post bail, and thus avoid detention while awaiting trial. During her trial, she was able to prove that she was officiating at a funeral service on March 25, 2021, at the time of the alleged clash between the AFP and the NPA. And the prosecutors were unable to prove that the alleged wounded soldier had ever been wounded or could identify who may have shot at him. The court found that Baluntong was charged because her name appeared in a government “order of battle.”
And why was she in the “order of battle”? The UMC said she had been targeted for providing sanctuary to Indigenous Mangyan communities resisting mining, logging and land-grabbing.
Government support for these destructive projects means massive intensification of militarization and war crimes committed by the AFP on Mindoro. On the first day of the year, in the town of Abra de Ilog, the AFP deployed over 1000 soldiers and further terrorized the community with indiscriminate aerial bombing and strafing from helicopters. Almost 700 residents were forced to evacuate, and the attack resulted in the deaths of five civilians, including three children.
Rev Baluntong told online journal Bulatlat in November 2022 that the harassment started after she allowed members of a fact-finding team of human rights group Karapatan-Southern Tagalog to spend the night in her church sometime in June 2019. The group was assisting families to claim the bodies of guerilla fighters killed in a clash with the military from a funeral home in the area.
On October 6, 2022, the state prosecutors withdrew an August 2021 charge against Rev Baluntong of violating the Anti-Terrorism Act, saying that they had insufficient proof to sustain the charge.
Rev Baluntong was forced to leave Mindoro because of this sustained harassment by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
ICHRP echoes the call of the UMC to the Philippine government:
- End the vilification and the filing of trumped-up charges against individuals and organizations, including members of the church who uphold peace in society, human rights, and environmental justice;
- Repeal repressive laws, especially the Anti-Terrorism Act, which has been weaponized to suppress, intimidate, and attack advocates of environmental protection and human rights;
- Abolish the NTF-ELCAC, a principal government agency with a long record of repression, baseless accusations, and the dissemination of falsehoods;
- Resume and enforce the stalled Peace Talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in order to put an end to poverty, the destruction of the country’s natural resources, and the various forms of violence regarded as causes of armed struggle.
Previously signed agreements from peace negotiations, which call for the upholding of human rights and international humanitarian law, but have been totally disregarded by the Marcos regime, must be upheld.
“ICHRP calls on the international community to treat the Philippine government as a pariah and to cease all military aid until there is genuine respect for human rights for the Filipino people,” Murphy concluded.
