The Independent International Commission of Investigation into Human Rights Violations in the Philippines INVESTIGATE PH released its Final Report on 13 September, calling on the international community to hold the officials of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines accountable “for the thousands of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law carried out as official state policies.”

The 18-member commission of experts in human rights and international law reaffirmed their findings in their First and Second Reports of March and June 2021, respectively, exposing the gross human rights violations of the Duterte regime against Philippine workers, farmers, indigenous people, women, youth, children and church workers. In its Final Report, INVESTIGATE PH focused on the violations against the right to development and peace of the Filipino people.

It exposed the violations of the rights of the peasants and indigenous people to their land and livelihood. INVESTIGATE PH provided compelling evidence of the landgrabbing done mostly by foreign multinational companies with the complicity of the Duterte regime and its armed security forces. They explained that this violates the UN Agreement on Social, Economic and Cultural Reforms, to which the Philippines is a signatory. It is likewise a gross violation of the peasants’ and indigenous peoples’ basic right to development, affecting especially the indigenous Lumads in Mindanao and indigenous peoples in the Cordilleras in Northern Luzon.

The report likewise stressed the violations of the Filipino people’s right to peace, when  President Duterte terminated  the peace negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines in November 2017. He did this soon after meeting with US President Trump during the ASEAN Summit on 10 – 11 November 2017, the report said.

The NDFP, representing the Philippine revolutionary forces, and the GRP, had achieved significant progress in peace negotiations through the signing of The Hague Joint Declaration of 1992, an agreement of parity and non-capitulation. In 1998, the NDFP and GRP signed the Comprehensive Agreement on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law. Before Duterte’s November 2017 termination, both sides were able to sign the Agreements on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ARRD) and National Industrialization and Economic Development (NIED). Both are substantial parts of the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Economic Reforms.

INVESTIGATE PH declared that the ARRD and NIED draft agreements can be revived, if the peace negotiations are restored. The NDFP had earlier declared willingness to resume peace negotiations with a new administration “that seriously desires to engage in peace talks”.

INVESTIGATE PH called for international support for the Filipino people “in their courageous struggle for human rights, for development and peace.”