News
Marcos’ campaign benefits from disinformation
Philippine presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is heading the opinion polls ahead of the May 9 elections. Election observers have linked this success to a long-standing disinformation strategy. For the past six years, the Marcos family has systematically...
European Parliament adopts Urgency Resolution on the Philippines
On February 17, 2022 the European Parliament (EP) adopted another Urgency Resolution on human rights situation in the Philippines (627 votes in favour, 26 against and 31 abstentions). In the six years under Dutertes presidency, there have now been five Urgency...
Peace talks and counterinsurgency are campaign issues
The more than 50-year-long armed conflict between the Philippine government and the New People's Army (NPA), the militant branch of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CCP), is another issue in the current election campaign. During his term in office, Duterte's...
Extralegal killings and election-related violence
The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) highlights that election campaigns in the Philippines are historically marked by violence. They involve "inter-elite rivalry, warlordism, assassination, vote-buying corruption, intimidation and...
Harassment of journalists and the press
As the coverage of the upcoming elections intensified, so did online attacks on journalists and the press. An upsurge in offensive posts on social media is closely linked to election events according to research by the news site Rappler - for example, during the...
Action against trolls and disinformation
The Digital Public Pulse (DPP) project examined election-related online activities between May and October 2021. Facebook pages, accounts, and groups related to the Marcos and Duterte families form a "supercluster," according to DPP. In this, the overlapping behavior...
Calls for the new government to prioritize human rights
On January 13, 2022, the international human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) released its annual World Report for 2021. In regard to the Philippines the report highlights the ongoing so-called war on drugs, the controversial Anti-Terrorism Act,...
The endless tale of injustice – Families find no peace
The number of deaths in the so-called War on Drugs went up again in 2021 - to a total of 545. On January 4, 2022, Rodrigo Duterte said he would never apologize for the deaths. The International Criminal Court (ICC) temporarily halted the emboldened investigation for...
Steps to legally protect human rights defenders
On June 10, 2021, a court in Agusan del Sur acquitted 17 human rights defenders and employees of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Some of them had been imprisoned for up to a year and seven months. Only months later (in early December 2021) their lawyers were...
No improvement for press freedom: Journalist murdered and libel law under criticism
Once again, a journalist was murdered. Jesus Malabanan was shot dead at home in his small store in Calbayong City, Samar, in the early evening hours of Dec. 8, 2021. Malabanan had long worked for the British news agency Reuters, and also for The Manila Times, as a...
Activist arrested
Sally Crisostomo-Ujano, a child and women's rights activist and coordinator of the Philippines Against Child Trafficking (PACT), was arrested in Bulakan on November 14, 2021. The arrest was based on a 2006 arrest warrant issued by a court in Lucena City. According to...
Fake news and social media in the electoral campaigns
Pandemic-related limitations in the campaigning regarding the May 2022 elections will intensify the role of social media. 90% of the Filipino population is active on social media, with 81% using Facebook. In addition, according to a 2017 study, the trust in social...
No improvement for press freedom: Journalist murdered and libel law under criticism
Once again, a journalist was murdered. Jesus Malabanan was shot dead at home in his small store in Calbayong City, Samar, in the early evening of Dec. 8, 2021. Malabanan had long worked for the British news agency Reuters, and also for The Manila Times, as a...
Steps to legally protect human rights defenders
On June 10, 2021, a court in Agusan del Sur acquitted 17 human rights defenders and employees of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Some of them had been imprisoned for up to a year and seven months. Only months later (in early December 2021) their lawyers were...
The so-called war on drugs continues to catch international attention
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) counts a total of 6,215 deaths in the so-called war on drugs between July 2016 and October 2021. However, calculations by human rights organizations as well as the ICC suggest a much higher number of extralegal killings...
International Criminal Court (ICC) suspends investigation
The International Criminal Court (ICC) announced on November 18, 2021 that it would temporarily halt the investigation into crimes against humanity - just two months after the investigation began. A request was made through the Philippine Ambassador to the...
Anti-Terrorism Act declared partially unconstitutional
On December 7, 2021, the Supreme Court (SC) voted on the 37 petitions filed against the controversial Anti-Terror Law. The law was declared partially unconstitutional. However, this only affects two sections: firstly, that the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) can list...
Murdered Journalist and Discussions on Repression and Censorship of the Press
On October 30, 2021, journalist Orlando Dinoy was killed with six gunshots in his apartment in Balsan, Davao del Sur. He was a reporter for Newsline Philippines, an anchor at Radio Energy FM in Digos City, and had worked for SunStar Davao with the Philippine Daily...
Court drops one of two charges against “Bloody Sunday” activists
Erlindo "Lino" Baez and Wilfredo Capareño were arrested together by 50 police officers in Quezon on October 6, 2021. They allegedly found weapons, which Baez and Capareño deny. Capareño has long been active in working with peasants. In 2019, he was accused of being a...
Counterinsurgency and NTF-ELCAC remain under criticism
For months, criticism of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and calls to abolish this body have been growing louder. The Senate Finance Committee approved a cut in the NTF-ELCAC budget from 28 to 4 billion pesos. The surplus...