During an event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC on May 4, 2023, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. acknowledged that human rights abuses related to the so-called “war on drugs” took place under the...
The Philippine Commission on Human Rights (CHR) supported the Department for Education’s (DEPEd) proposal to include lessons on human rights violations in the curriculum. The 10th grade curriculum will now include topics on so-called “red-tagging,” trolling, and...
During the 52nd session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, the Philippine government rejected recommendations to end the practice of the so-called “red-tagging” (i.e. being accused of supporting the armed communist insurgency). In its...
The Human Rights Committee approved the Human Rights Defender Bill (or House Bill 77/HB77) in February 2023, which is currently under consideration in the plenary. The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) emphasized that protecting human rights defenders (HRD) is a...
Navotas Regional Trial Court Branch 287 sentenced police officer Jefrey Sumbo Perez on March 13, 2023, to “reclusion perpetua” with up to 40 years in prison for the 2017 murders of 19-year-old Carl Angelo Arnaiz and 14-year-old Reynaldo “Kulot”...
The Philippine government filed an appeal with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the reopening of the ICC investigation into alleged crimes against humanity on March 13, 2023. In its appeal brief, the government argues that the ICC probe would “lack legal...