“Red-tagging” – the public vilification of human rights defenders and other targeted groups and individuals as alleged members and clandestine recruiters of the communist New People’s Army (NPA) – continued. This was despite a Supreme Court ruling in May that “red-tagging” threatens a person’s life, liberty and security. UN experts, including the Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression, made repeated calls on the government to denounce and penalize the practice.
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.