News
Justice Department lowers bail amounts for indigent detainees
Bail amounts for criminal detainees will be lowered, based on arecent order from the Department of Justice, which could free about three out of ten incarcerated people in the Philippines. A memorandum issued by Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla on February 20,...
“Red-tagging” threatens human rights defenders
Bishop of San Carlos, Gerardo Alminaza, admonished media platform SMNI, known for misinformation, on February 24, 2023, after they accused him of supporting the communist insurgency. The media group of self-proclaimed son of God Apollo Quiboloy called the bishop a...
EU-Parliamentarians discussed human rights situation with Philippine government in Manila
Six members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from the Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) visited the Philippines from 22-24 February 2023 for an assessment of the current human rights situation and readiness of the Philippine government to act. The EU delegation met...
Leila De Lima’s trial could be resolved by March 2023
After nine years in prison, following a Supreme Court ruling, former aide of the Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Jessica "Gigi" Reyes was released from prison on January 19, 2023. Reyes was involved in a multi-billion-dollar corruption scandal ("pork barrel") and was...
Charges dropped against 17 police officers in “Bloody Sunday” murder case
The Department of Justice (DOJ) junked charges against 17 police officers on January 16, 2023, for the murder of labor leader and general secretary of BAYAN-Cavite Emmanuel "Manny" Asuncion in Cavite. The murder case occurred as part of the so-called "Bloody Sunday"...
Annual review: Human rights violations under Marcos continue
In its 2023 World Report, the organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a review of the human rights violations in the Philippines in 2022. In a press conference on January 12, 2023, HRW called on the new government under President Marcos to provide justice to...
Two activists enforced disappeared in Cebu, serious human rights violation says CHR
In a statement issued on January 24, 2023, the AMP condemned the recent abduction of 28-year-old development worker Dyan Gumanao and 27-year-old labor rights activist Armand Dayoha in Cebu City. On January 10, 2023, Gumanao and Dayoha were forcibly abducted in broad...
ICC resumes investigation, Philippine government refuses cooperation
The International Criminal Court (ICC) announced on January 26, 2023, that it will resume its investigations into possible "crimes against humanity" under ex-President Rodrigo Duterte as part of the so-called "war on drugs." ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan will thus...
AMP-Statement: Abduction of Dyan Gumanao and Armand Dayoha
The Aktionsbündnis Menschenrechte – Philippinen (AMP, German Action Network Human Rights - Philippines) strongly condemns the recent abduction of development worker Dyan Gumanao and labor rights activist Armand Dayoha in Cebu City, Philippines. In a statement, the AMP...
“War on drugs”: Forged death certificate corrected
An initiative of the Paghilom Program was able to achieve, with the legal support of the organization IDEALS, Inc., the correction of a forged death certificate of a victim of the so-called "war on drugs" in December 2022. 9-year-old Lenin Baylon died in 2016 because...
Marcos wants trade preferences without human rights compliance
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. discussed at the EU-ASEAN Summit on December 12-14, 2022, also the Philippines' status and new application for EU's Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+). The GSP+ allows a duty-free import of over 6,000 products from the...
Sison’s death could re-open peace talks with communists
Jose Maria Sison, founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), died on December 17, 2022, after being hospitalized in his exile in Utrecht, Netherlands. His death could lead to the resumption of peace talks in the Philippines "and the implementation of...
10 Human Rights Defenders acquitted
A Quezon City court acquitted on January 9, 2023, ten activists who were charged with perjury by former National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. in 2020. The ten activists of the three human rights organizations (Karapatan, Gabriela, and Rural Missionaries of...
Maria Ressa acquitted of tax evasion charges
"Today, facts win. Truth wins. Justice wins," said Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Rappler-CEO, Maria Ressa, after a court acquitted her and her online news portal of four tax evasion charges on January 18, 2023. The acquittal reduces the open court cases against Ressa...
Maguindanao massacre anniversary reminds about the risks impunity entails
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla denied during this year's UN Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the Philippines on November 14, 2022, that civic and media spaces in the Philippines are shrinking and described the Philippines as “a...
Government launches new anti-drug program
The Philippine Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) officially launched the new government anti-drug program on November 26, 2022. The program, Buhay Ingatan, Droga'y Ayaw (Take care of life, Don't want drugs), is intended to take a "holistic"...
Philippine government invites UN Special Rapporteurs once again
The Philippine government has invited the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, and arbitrary executions, Morris Tidball-Binz, to the Philippines for 2023 as part of the United Nations Joint Programme (UNJP). The UNJP is a technical cooperation between the...
Second “war on drugs” conviction
After five years, the Regional Trial Court Branch 122 in Caloocan City convicted patrolman Jefrey Perez for torturing 19-year-old Carl Angelo Arnaiz and 14-year-old Reynaldo “Kulot” de Guzman in 2017. Aside from life imprisonment on two occasions, the court ordered on...
AMP 2022 Report – Human Rights in the Philippines
In this year’s commemoration of the International Human Rights Day on December 10, the Aktionsbündnis Menschenrechte-Philippinen (AMP) publishes its fourth human rights report. The report describes the pattern of human rights violations during former President...
Brussels: Philippine delegation seeks renewal of EU trade preferences
On October 27, 2022, an interparliamentary meeting was held in Brussels with a Philippine delegation. One key topic was the status of the Philippines regarding its EU trade preferences granted under the Generalized Scheme of Preferences (GSP+); its current cycle will...