Iloilo City – Amnesty International Philippines said that it sees no meaningful progress in the government’s effort to address the human rights situation in the Visayas despite rising protest actions across regions. Launching its State of the World Human Rights Report 2025/26 in Iloilo City during the Visayas leg, Amnesty International Philippines reports locally on armed conflict, political repression, attacks on press freedom, displacement, and corruption under the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

On 11 March, former president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by police in the capital city Manila on a warrant issued by the ICC for murder as a crime against humanity. The warrant was issued in relation to unlawful killings in the “war on drugs” while he was president[1] and for killings in Davao City during his time as mayor (2013-2016), a development welcomed by families of victims and civil society[2]. He was subsequently transferred to The Hague and remained in detention at the end of the year.[3] The ICC Office of the Prosecutor was preparing to request that Duterte be charged with three counts of murder as a crime against humanity, but his lawyers submitted that he was unfit to stand trial. The ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber postponed his confirmation of charges hearing, originally scheduled for 23 September. No new date had been set by the end of the year.

Responding to the news that a Tacloban court denied bail for detained journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio and lay worker Marielle Domequil, Amnesty International Section Director Ritz Lee Santos said:

Responding to the news on President Marcos Jr.’s 2025 budget for NTF-ELCAC, Amnesty International Philippines Section Director Butch Olano said:

Responding to President Marcos Jr.’s third State of the Nation’s Address, Amnesty International Philippines Section Director Butch Olano said:

Responding to news that Representatives Bienvenido Abante and Ramon Gutierrez filed House Resolution 1477, urging Philippine government agencies to cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in conducting an investigation into possible crimes against humanity in the campaign against drugs, Dr. Aurora Parong, Co-Chairperson of the Philippine Coalition for the International Criminal Court (PCICC) said:

In Amnesty International Philippines, we engage and work with a diverse network of partners and coalitions in our human rights work: school administrations and school-based organizations, youth groups, civil society organizations, government institutions, companies, and professional organizations such as lawyers’ and medical associations, solidarity and pressure groups, academic institutions open to human rights work, religious-based organizations, funding NGOs, developmental NGOs and people’s organizations, trade unions, environmental groups, women’s groups, humanitarian and peace groups, and NGO networks as well as the wide range of groups and organizations covering civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.

Responding to the news that a court in the Philippines dropped one of two drug-related cases against former Senator Leila de Lima, Amnesty International’s interim Deputy Regional Director for Research Montse Ferrer said: 

Our human right to just and favorable conditions of work as prescribed under the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights include fair wages, equal pay for work of equal value, safe and healthy working conditions, reasonable limitations on working hours, respect and protection of women, LGBTQIA, persons with disability and indigenous peoples in the workforce, and equality of treatment in employment. 

On 13 March 2023, the government’s National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), which has previously and repeatedly labeled groups and individuals as “communists and terrorists” for being critical of the government, once again red-tagged various human rights groups and opposed the enactment of a Human Rights Defenders Protection Act. In a statement, the task force’s Legal Cooperation Cluster said the proposed legislation would create a committee composed of “Communist Terrorist Groups” that included human rights groups Karapatan and Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates, as well as lawyers’ groups the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers and Free Legal Assistance Group.

Upcoming elections next month should be a game-changing moment for human rights in the Philippines, Amnesty International said today, as it released an eight-point agenda urging all Presidential candidates to ensure that the protection of human rights is a core part of their plans.