Media Quote
Responding to news of attacks in Mindanao against human rights defenders, Amnesty International Philippines Acting Director Jepie Papa said:
“Amnesty International Philippines condemns the series of recent violent attacks against human rights defenders (HRDs) in Mindanao, including on the day President Marcos Jr. claimed in his State of the Nation Address that the Philippines continues to adhere to its state obligations under international human rights law.
“There is a clear pattern that HRDs in Mindanao – particularly those working with alternative law groups, peoples’ organizations including land and environmental groups, and the media – are being systematically targeted with little to no state accountability. On 28 July, just hours after Marcos’s speech, HRD and paralegal Warren Cahayag was shot multiple times and critically injured by two unidentified individuals in General Santos City. Before this, in Davao Oriental, environmental defenders Rico Gonzaga Malubay and Rodolfo Dela Cruz Espe were shot dead by a lone assailant on 26 July.
There is a clear pattern that HRDs in Mindanao – particularly those working with alternative law groups, peoples’ organizations including land and environmental groups, and the media – are being systematically targeted with little to no state accountability.
Jepie Papa, Acting Director
These acts of impunity belie Marcos’s claims that his administration is doing better than the previous Duterte administration. The Marcos administration’s persistent lack of response, and its continued failure to put an end to and ensure accountability for extrajudicial killings, veritably betrays government pronouncements of an ‘improved’ human rights situation in the country.
“The Marcos government must move beyond the rhetoric and take immediate action to dismantle the conditions that enable such violence against HRDs. The human rights “super body” created in May 2024 through Administrative Order 22 has failed to alleviate the increasingly dangerous situation for human rights defenders, activists and other targeted groups.
“Amnesty International Philippines is calling for a thorough, impartial, and credible investigation into the attack on Cahayag and the killing of Malubay and Espe, and other cases of violence targeting HRDs . The human rights “super body” must look at the situation from a broader perspective, to include state involvement, a continuing failure to protect defenders, and the lack of accountability mechanisms.
“We are also urging the new Congress to enact the HRD Protection Bill, defund and support the call for abolition of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), repeal or significantly amend the Anti-Terrorism Act and the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act that are being used against defenders and other groups critical of the government. No life should be expendable. The protection of activists, human rights defenders, and other government critics and targeted groups from red-tagging, harassment and killings must not be delayed.”
Background
On 29 July 2025, Warren Cahayag, a former paralegal for the Union of Peoples’ Lawyers in Mindanao (UPLM), remains in critical condition after unidentified assailants shot him multiple times in Brgy. Calumpang, General Santos City. The attack follows the killing in the same city of former broadcaster Ali Macalintal in June, and other attacks against HRDs under President Marcos, Jr’s watch, including the killing of Rico Gonzaga Malubay and Rodolfo Dela Cruz Espe.