Philippines: Harassment and criminalisation of activists persist despite concerns raised by UN rights experts

The state of civic space in the Philippines is rated as ‘repressed’ by the CIVICUS Monitor. Concerns documented in recent years include the arrest and detention of activists, often on fabricated charges. Human rights defenders have also been ‘red-tagged’, putting them at risk of arrest or even being killed. Civil society has also documented the harassment and attacks against journalists.

In January 2024, Human Rights Watch stated in their annual report that the human rights situation in the Philippines remains dire amid extrajudicial killings and attacks against political activists and journalists. Government actors have red-tagged activists, unionists, environment defenders, Indigenous leaders, teachers, students and journalists.

The Philippine government still refuses to cooperate with the investigation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) into possible crimes against humanity committed in the context of former President Duterte’s “drug war” and when Duterte was mayor of Davao City. In January 2024, Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra said that the Philippine government had no legal duty to cooperate in the ICC’s investigation.

Irene Khan, the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression visited the Philippines for ten days in January 2024. In a statement at the end of her mission, she said that intimidation of critical voices has continued under the new Marcos Jr. government. Khan noted that many individuals critical of state policies, including human rights defenders, social justice advocates, journalists, students, trade unionists and others continued to be unfairly branded as supporters, recruiters or members of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA), resulting in increased human rights risks.

Khan also said the counter-terrorism task force (NTF-ELCAC) should be abolished. This call was previously also raised by Ian Fry, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of climate change. He stated that ELCAC is operating beyond its original mandate and is red-tagging people from the community and indigenous peoples.

Six independent UN human rights experts flagged the Philippine government’s “seemingly broad and unchecked” use of the anti-terrorism law to target red-tagged humanitarian workers and church leaders. In January 2024, they publicised their October 2023 letter to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. detailing cases of red-tagging, judicial harassment and targeted financial sanctions against religious groups and activists “in the name of countering terrorism and terrorist financing.”

Despite this, in recent months, the authorities have continued to prosecute a religious group, the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, for terror financing, file trumped up charges against activists John Ruiz and Jhonggie Rumol and arbitrarily detain environmental defenders Miguela Peniero and Rowena Dasig. They have also accused environmental activists Jhonila Castro and Jhed Tamano of defamation. A human rights defender and former senator Leila De Lima was freed on bail but continues to face charges. Radio journalist Juan Jumalon was shot and killed, while security forces harassed and stopped protesters marking the 1986 uprising.

Association

Prosecution of religious group continues on trumped up charges of terror financing

The Marcos Jr. government continues its political persecution of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP). The RMP is facing criminal and civil forfeiture cases for alleged violation of Republic Act No. 10168 or the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012.

Aside from the civil forfeiture case pending before the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 37, sixteen individuals, including four nuns who are members of RMP, are facing non-bailable charges before an Iligan City court for alleged violation of Section 8 of RA 10168, punishable with 40 years’ imprisonment and a fine ranging from P500,000 to P1,000,000 (USD 9,036 to 18,072)

Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said in November 2023 that the trumped up charges against RMP are based solely on false testimonies and fabricated stories by two alleged rebel returnees who falsely accused the members of the RMP of being members of the CPP-NPA and of setting aside sixty per cent of their funds from the European Union (EU) to buy arms, medical supplies, food, clothing and support for families of the NPA, as well as other needs for tactical offensives from 2017 to 2019. The said funds were intended for the RMP-Northern Mindanao Region’s development projects and the concerned EU funding agencies have found no irregularity or anomaly whatsoever in the implementation of the projects.

Karapatan said that the freezing of RMP’s assets and properties has led to unjust restrictions on their activities and the suspension or cancellation of their education, health, livelihood and other development projects in impoverished and far-flung communities.

Activists in Central Visayas face trumped-up charges

In December 2023, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) filed a frustrated murder case against Bayan Muna Central Visayas coordinator John Ruiz and former Visayas Human Development Agency, Incorporated (VIHDA) executive director Jhonggie Rumol.

Ruiz said that the cases were filed in Negros Occidental in October 2023. The military accused them of being with the New People’s Army (NPA) when it had an armed encounter with the 79th Infantry Batallion (IB) on 6th April 2023. The two activists initially received information on the case in the first week of December 2023 and have posted bail at the Cebu City Hall of Justice.

Human rights alliance Karapatan slammed the filing of trumped-up charges against two leading activists in Central Visayas. The group said that Ruiz is known for opposing development projects and privatisation schemes that are inimical to the interests of the poor while Rumol, on the other hand, has been serving various marginalised communities in Central Visayas as a development worker.

Cebu human rights lawyer faces threats

On 11th December 2023, a man claiming to be a “gun-for-hire” made death threats against human rights lawyer Fionah Bojos, through a phone call.

Bojos, who is part of the Cebu for Human Rights (C4HR), is known for her work with civil rights groups and movements like the Kalihukan Batok Kulto which fought alleged human rights abuses committed by the Socorro Bayanihan Services Incorporated (SBSI). The SBSI is a cult allegedly involved in forced marriages and other human rights violations according to the Commission on Human Rights (CHR).

The lawyer told Rappler that she suspected the caller may have obtained her name through the work she has been doing related to SBSI in Surigao del Norte.

UN raises concern on arbitrary detention of environmental defenders

On 25th January 2024, two UN experts published a letter to the government dated 30th October 2023 around the arbitrary detention of environmental rights defenders Miguela Peniero and Rowena Dasig and the falsified allegations against them.

Peniero is a woman human rights defender, community health worker and farmer, based in Quezon Province, while Dasig is an environmental and indigenous rights defender and youth activist from Quezon Province.

In July 2023, Peniero and Dasig were arrested by members of the 85th Infantry Battalion in Atimonan, Quezon while studying the potential impacts of the proposed combined cycle gas turbine power project and liquefied natural gas terminal plant to be operated by Atimonan One Energy, Inc. (A1E) on coconut farmers and fisherfolk communities.

They were charged with illegal possession of firearms and explosives, a charge which is commonly used against activists and human rights defenders.

Peniero is currently detained at Batangas City Provincial Jail, where visits by family and paralegals is reportedly monitored closely by military personnel. Rowena Dasig remains in Lucena City District Jail and is still unable to receive visits from paralegals or family members.

Two environmental activists accused of grave oral defamation

On 20th February 2024, a Bulacan court ordered the arrest of environmental activists Jhonila Castro and Jhed Tamano for defamation for “embarrassing and putting the Armed Forces of the Philippines in bad light” during a press conference where they accused the military of abducting them. If found guilty, Castro and Tamano may face imprisonment of up to six months.

According to the arrest warrant penned by Presiding Judge Jonna Veridiano on 2nd February 2024, the two committed grave oral defamation under Article 358 of the Revised Penal Code, as amended by Section 94 of Republic Act No. 10951. Both of them then posted bail.

As previously documented, the two university students active in environmentalist protests were abducted by unidentified men in September 2023 and resurfaced nearly two weeks later. While the authorities claimed that the two reportedly surrendered to the Philippine Army’s 70th Infantry Battalion in Doña Remedios Trinidad town on 12th September 2023, the women said - during a press conference – that they were abducted by the military and then forced into signing affidavits of surrender after supposedly leaving the communist movement.

On 15th February 2024, the Supreme Court granted writs of amparo and habeas data as well as a temporary protection order to the environmental defenders. Associate Justice Ramon Paul Hernando said that “there was an established violation to the life, liberty, or security of petitioners.”. The court found that elements of enforced disappearance were present in the case of Castro and Tamano. It also found that National Security Council (NSC) Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya’s statements about exposing information about Castro and Tamano, and accusing them of perjury, constituted threats to their freedoms.

Continuing judicial harassment of ten activists

On 7th March 2024, Karapatan reported that it was notified by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) that it intends to appeal the decision of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 84 Judge Luisito Cortez upholding the acquittal of ten human rights defenders of Karapatan, the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines and Gabriela on charges of perjury. Notably, the OSG’s appeal will be handled by members of the NTF-ELCAC’s (National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict) Legal Cooperation Cluster.

As previously documented, in January 2023, after more than three years of judicial harassment, the Quezon City Trial Court Branch 139 acquitted the ten human rights defenders who were facing more than two years of imprisonment on bogus “perjury” charges, in retaliation for their actions seeking legal protection for fellow human rights defenders.

The acquitted rights defenders were: Elisa Tita Lubi, Karapatan Chairperson; Cristina Palabay, Karapatan Secretary General; Roneo Clamor, Karapatan Deputy Secretary General; Gabriela Grista Dalena, Karapatan Treasurer; Edita Burgos, Wilfredo Ruazol and Jose Mari Callueng, Karapatan National Council members; Gertrudes Ranjo Libang, Gabriela Chairperson; Joan May Salvador, Gabriela Secretary General; and Emma Cupin, Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP) member.

In November 2023, the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 84 dismissed a petition for review filed by National Security Adviser Eduardo Año and his predecessor, Hermogenes Esperon Jr. The court found that Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 139 Judge Aimee Marie Alcera, who presided over the perjury trial and acquitted the rights defenders, was able to “objectively and independently evaluate all the evidence of the parties and found that the prosecution’s pieces of evidence fell short in presenting its case for conviction beyond reasonable doubt.”

Lawsuit by human rights defenders to proceed

On 9th March 2024, the Supreme Court allowed a regional trial court (RTC) in Baguio city to proceed with the lawsuit seeking to overturn the terrorist designation of four indigenous Filipino activists from the Cordillera.

With the go ahead from the high tribunal, Baguio RTC Judge Cecilia Corazon Dulay Archog of Branch 7 continued hearing the petition for a writ of preliminary injunction and petition for certiorari sought by Windel Bolinget, Stephen Tauli, Jennifer Awingan-Taggaoa and Sarah Abellon-Alikes who sought to be removed from the government terrorist roster.

As previously documented, on 7th June 2023, the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) signed Resolution No. 41 (2022) designating five indigenous people’s leaders and advocates - Sarah Abellon Alikes, Jennifer R. Awingan, Windel Bolinget, Stephen Tauli and May Casilao - as terrorist individuals. Four of the indigenous people’s human rights defenders – Alikes, Awingan, Bolinget and Tauli — are leaders of the Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA). The resolution also freezes their property and funds, including related accounts.

Human rights defender and former senator freed on bail but continues to face charges

In November 2023, nearly seven years after she was first detained, human rights defender and former senator Leila de Lima was granted bail.

As previously documented, de Lima is a long-time critic of former President Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’. The authorities arrested de Lima after she sought to investigate violations committed in the context of the so-called ‘war on drugs’ under the former Duterte administration. She had been in police custody since February 2017 and faced three charges of conspiring to trade in illegal drugs, two of which were dismissed by two different courts in 2021 and 2023. She has repeatedly denied the charges.

UN experts welcomed the release of de Lima, stating: “We welcome the news that a court in the Philippines has granted bail to former human rights commissioner, justice minister and senator, Leila de Lima after years of injustice and incarceration due to seemingly politically motivated allegations. De Lima was persecuted because of her fierce activism against extrajudicial killings, particularly those motivated and orchestrated in the context of the ‘war on drugs.’”

Court proceedings on the third and final bogus charge against De Lima are resuming in March. According to Amnesty International, as of December 2023, at least 13 witnesses had retracted their testimony against de Lima, with the court also citing the weakness of the allegations against her as the basis for the granting of her bail petition in 2023.

Expression

Journalist shot dead live on air

Radio journalist Juan Jumalon was shot and killed by an unidentified assailant while broadcasting from his home in the city of Calamba, on the southern island of Mindanao.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an assailant entered Jumalon’s home-based radio station pretending to be a listener and shot him twice during his live broadcast on Facebook. The attacker stole Jumalon’s gold necklace before escaping on a motorcycle driven by a waiting accomplice.

Sunday’s livestream on 94.7 Gold Mega Calamba FM, a local Visayan-language station, was removed from Facebook but video clips circulating online show Jumalon pausing and looking away from the camera before two apparent gunshots are heard. The journalist was declared dead on arrival at a local hospital.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) denounced the incident as a “brazen killing,” emphasising the risks journalists face in the Philippines.

Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative, said: “The wanton killing of radio reporter Juan Jumalon shows that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s government isn’t doing enough to protect the press.”

Jumalon is the fourth journalist to be killed since Marcos Jr. took power in June 2022.

Peaceful Assembly

Security forces harassed and stopped protesters marking 1986 uprising

Activist groups slammed the government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for restricting nationwide protest rallies on 24th February 2024, to mark the 38th anniversary of the 1986 public uprising that ended the dictatorship of his late father.

Raymond Palatino, secretary-general of progressive group Bayan, alleged that police harassed and stopped activists from joining protests in Los Banos municipality in Laguna province, Cavite province, and Miagao in Iloilo province. Human rights groups reported police checkpoints in 21 Laguna towns, in Rizal province and Cavite province, allegedly for public safety on the anniversary.

He also claimed that police checkpoints were installed to harass activists, conduct illegal surveillance and discourage people from joining the scheduled protests.

Raymond Palatino said: "We will not be intimidated by police checkpoints and overkill deployment of troops in our communities. Despite the malicious attempts to undermine today’s protests, we are ready to mobilise to honour those who defied the dictatorship in 1986.”

Defend Southern Tagalog, a human rights alliance in the Southern Tagalog region, criticised the police for violating democratic rights, arguing that people have the right to express dissent. They accused the police of intimidation and surveillance of students, peasants and workers preparing for mobilisation.