News
President Marcos silent on human rights in first SONA
On June 30, 2022, the leadership of the Philippine government transitioned from President Rodrigo Duterte to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. International human rights groups like Human Rights Watch (HRW) called...
NTF-ELCAC: “Peace engagements” instead of peace talks with communist rebels
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) would be open to peace negotiations with the Marcos government, stated founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) Jose Maria Sison in June 2022. On August 3, 2022, presidential peace...
Anti-Terrorism Act is no basis for NTC to block websites
National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon ordered the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to block the access of at least 30 websites of different groups - including alternative media outlets and progressive groups such as Bulatlat, Save our Schools...
Wrongfully arrested Tinang83 are rightful landowners
After conducting “bungkalan”, meaning “land cultivation to assert ownership”, the police arrested at least 87 persons without a warrant of arrest in the town of Concepcion in Tarlac province on June 9, 2022. Among the arrested people were several small-scale farmers,...
President Marcos has no intention to rejoin the International Criminal Court
On August 1, 2022, President Marcos announced that the Philippines has no intention to rejoin the International Criminal Court (ICC). He claims that the government was already investigating the alleged crimes under the previous Duterte administration in the context of...
Government hindered Commission on Human Rights investigation on extralegal killings
The Philippine Commission on Human Rights (CHR) released its April 2022 "Report on investigated killings related to the anti-illegal drug campaign" on May 18, 2022. The report extends investigative findings previously published in 2021. Such independent investigations...
Tighter restrictions on press freedom under Marcos expected
With the election of Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. as the Philippines' new president, fears of further restrictions on freedom of press have been raised. Tendencies in this regard continue to emerge shortly after the election. On May 11, 2022, during the first press...
Marcos-Duterte tandem wins – The election of the dynasties
On May 25, 2022, the Philippine Congress officially declared Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. (son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr.) as the new president and Sara Duterte-Carpio (daughter of the still incumbent President Rodrigo Duterte) as vice president. The...
Protests after presidential election
With the emerging results of the presidential election on May 9, 2022, broad civil society resistance and unrest erupted. Not surprisingly, supporters of the political opposition and several activists were in dismay about the landslide victory of Ferdinand "Bongbong"...
Red-tagging of students and book publisher after elections
Students and activist groups protested against the elected Marcos-Duterte tandem and the voting process itself during demonstrations held shortly after election day. One of several nationwide demonstrations took place outside of the Philippine Commission on Elections...
Monitoring the Elections: A Review of the Campaign and Election Day
A large number of election violations were observed during the May 9, 2022, presidential election in the Philippines. On May 19, the International Observer Mission (IOM) released its interim report, including observations in the regions of Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao as...
AMP Statement on the 2022 Philippine Presidential Election
After the landslide victory of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte-Carpio in the 2022 presidential election the Aktionsbündnis Menschenrechte-Philippinen (AMP) calls on the new government in a statement to immediately address the dire human rights...
Why is Marcos Jr. such a popular presidential candidate?
With the May 9 presidential elections approaching, several news reports and election observers are still concerned with the question of how presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the son of a former dictator, managed to take a clear lead in the election polls....
Detained Senator De Lima again exonerated
Alleged drug lord Kerwin Espinosa withdrew his accusations against Senator Leila de Lima in a sworn affidavit. De Lima has already been imprisoned for more than five years on allegedly trumped-up and politically motivated charges. ‘Any statement he made against the...
U.S. Government says human rights reports are credible
On April 12, 2022, the U.S. Department of State released its 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. It rated reports of human rights violations committed by state security forces in the Philippines as credible. According to the report, numerous human rights...
Walden Bello counters cyberlibel complaint
On April 20, 2022, vice Presidential candidate Walden Bello handed in his counter affidavit regarding a cyberlibel complaint filed against him at the Davao City Prosecutor's Office. The complaint was filed by former City Information Office head Jefry Tupas. Tupas...
5 members of the Manobo-Pulangiyon indigenous community hurt in shooting incident
On April 19, 2022, 500 members of the indigenous Manobo-Tulangiyon community were set to re-possess an area of their ancestral lands in Bukidnon when they were shot by alleged security guards of the agri-business corporation Kiantig Development Corporation (KDC), who...
Peace consultants abducted and arrested
According to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), peace consultant Ezequiel Daguman of the National Democratic Front (NDFP) was supposedly killed in an armed clash between the New People’s Army (NPA) and the AFP in Davao de Oro on March 27, 2022. The NDFP,...
Duterte vetoes controversial SIM card registration bill
President Rodrigo Duterte vetoed the SIM card registration bill on April 13, 2022. The so-called “Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) Card Registration Act” was already passed by the Senate last February and is intended to counter cybercrime, for instance, by identifying...
New forensic investigation reveals forged death certificates
An independent investigation of exhumed victims of the so-called war on drugs exposes forged death certificates. Forensic pathologist Dr. Raquel Fortun (one of only two in the entire country) initiated and carries out the investigation together with activist priest...