{"id":13580,"date":"2026-07-20T06:55:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T05:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/?p=13580"},"modified":"2026-07-17T11:22:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T10:22:28","slug":"civil-society-report-highlights-ongoing-human-rights-challenges-in-the-philippines-under-president-marcos-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/civil-society-report-highlights-ongoing-human-rights-challenges-in-the-philippines-under-president-marcos-jr\/","title":{"rendered":"Civil society report highlights ongoing human rights challenges in the Philippines under President Marcos Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"

A new report by the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a collaboration between the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), has brought<\/a> renewed attention to persistent human rights abuses in the Philippines under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.<\/p>\n

The 36-page report, \u201cSame-same but different – Repression of human rights defenders in the Philippines under President Marcos Jr.,\u201d documents<\/a> ongoing impunity and hostility toward civil society, despite the end of Rodrigo Duterte\u2019s administration. The findings are based<\/a> on a five-day fact-finding mission to Metro Manila in March 2026 and consultations with Filipino human rights defenders in exile.<\/p>\n

According to the report, repressive counterterrorism and counter-insurgency laws continue<\/a> to be used against land and environmental defenders, journalists, lawyers, trade unionists, and women\u2019s rights activists, particularly those from Indigenous Peoples\u2019 communities. Common abuses include harassment, surveillance, so-called \u201cred-tagging\u201d, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings. The practice of \u201cred-tagging\u201d means the labelling of individuals or organizations as members or supporters of the armed communist insurgency or as \u201cterrorist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Marcos Jr.\u2019s failure to dismantle his predecessor\u2019s apparatus of repression and to foster accountability for human rights violations means that human rights defenders are still not safe in the Philippines,\u201d said<\/a> FIDH Secretary-General Shahindha Ismail. \u201cHe should promote<\/a> without delay the necessary legislative and policy reforms to make the Philippines a safe place for human rights defenders and other members of civil society,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Civil society organizations and international watchdogs confirm these concerns. While they note<\/a> a slight decrease in direct repression since the Duterte administration, they warn that activists, Indigenous leaders, journalists, and lawyers remain at significant risk.<\/p>\n

An increase<\/a> in \u201cred-tagging\u201d and the continued activities of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), which remains substantially funded by the government, have put activists and defenders at greater risk.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI) continues<\/a> to rate the Philippines among the lowest in the region for protection from arbitrary arrest, torture, extrajudicial killings, and access to basic rights such as food and education.<\/p>\n

The Human Rights Defenders Protection Bill, which was approved for final reading at the House of Representatives, remains<\/a> pending in the Senate.<\/p>\n

The FIDH-OMCT report calls<\/a> for urgent legislative and policy amendments to protect human rights defenders and ensure accountability.<\/p>\n

FIDH observers see<\/a> signs of hope, such as increased youth-led activism and ongoing international legal proceedings against former President Rodrigo Duterte.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new report by the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a collaboration between the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), has brought renewed attention to persistent human rights abuses in the Philippines under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The 36-page report, \u201cSame-same but different – Repression […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":13581,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[64,73,61,63,58,68,59,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-war-on-drugs-en","category-aktuelles-en","category-freedom-of-press","category-human-rights-defenders","category-human-rights-news","category-indigenous-people","category-internal-affairs","category-news-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13580"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13606,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13580\/revisions\/13606"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}