News
Two soldiers convicted for murder after more than 10 years
A regional court in Bacolod City convicted two Philippine Army intelligence officers for the murder of activist Benjamin Bayles on March 31, 2022. In broad daylight, the two men shot Bayles – coordinator of the party-list Bayan Muna and member of the Iglesia Filipina...
AMP Statement on the arbitrary arrest of Aldeem Yañez
The Aktionsbündnis Menschenrechte – Philippinen (AMP, German Action Network Human Rights) expresses in a statement its deep concerns about the arrest of Aldeem Yañez, a dedicated volunteer at the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI). On April 10, 2022, Yañez was...
No end to trumped-up charges and unlawful detentions
On March 25, 2022, the Bayugan City Regional Court dismissed the kidnapping and serious illegal detention case against community doctor and Lumad supporter Dr. Navidad Castro. The court based its decision on grounds of the denial of her substantive right to due...
34 murder charges because of “Bloody Sunday” massacre
March 7 marked the first anniversary of the so-called "Bloody Sunday" massacre. State security forces killed nine activists while six activists were arrested. In the meantime, 34 police and military personal who were involved in a total of three killings have been...
Even after 6 years no accountability for killings
Victims of the so-called war on drugs as well as human rights organizations continue to criticize the lack of accountability of the Philippine Government for human rights abuses. Yet the current administration gives no reason to hope for improvement. Amnesty...
Increasing cases of red-tagging during election campaign
In the light of the upcoming May 9 elections, cases of red-tagging against the opposition - especially presidential candidate Leni Robredo and her supporters - are on the rise. In a statement, the human rights group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) suspects that...
Deadly consequences of the Anti-Terrorism Act: motion for partial reconsideration filed
26 of the previous 37 petitioners filed another joint motion for partial reconsideration of the highly contested Anti-Terrorism Act before the Supreme Court (SC) on March 2, 2022. The SC dismissed their last petitions on December 7, 2021 and ruled the law only...
Increased repression against press freedom and cyberattacks during election campaign
Since the official start of the presidential election campaign on February 8, 2022, attacks against journalists and news sites have increased, making neutral reporting more difficult. Restrictions on news coverage affect public discourse to inform voters about the...
Human rights organizations call for international sanctions
The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) calls on foreign governments to impose Magnitsky sanctions on Philippine officials. Such sanctions allow states to punish individuals who share responsibility for human rights abuses in the...
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...