Government emboldens security forces to massacre the poor – Investigate PH
- Published: 15 July 2021 15 July 2021
The Independent International Commission of Investigation into Human Rights Violations in the Philippines (Investigate PH) released its Second Report on 6 July 2021, revealing that policies of the Rodrigo Duterte government “have emboldened both the police and military to massacre the poor and marginalized” as well as those advocating for the rights of these communities. The Report spotlights the “prevailing lack of effective domestic remedies” against these state-sponsored crimes.
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US delivers US$1 million military aid to Duterte government
- Published: 15 July 2021 15 July 2021
One million dollars-worth of weapons and munitions were delivered to the Armed Forces of the Philippines by the Joint United States Military Assistance Group-Philippines on 4 July 2021. The delivery was made at the former US military facility Clark Air Base in Pampanga, in northern Philippines.
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Xi Jinping’s CPC is a big imperialist bully – CPP
- Published: 15 July 2021 15 July 2021
The Communist Party of the Philippines on 5 July lambasted President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party of China as “a big imperialist bully” for pushing its ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ to unload China’s surplus capital, compelling other nations to give up their sovereignty and patrimony through financial and economic pressures, and utilizing its enlarged armed forces to harass Filipino fishers and occupy Philippine territories in the West Philippine Sea.
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Philippine Army kills three Lumad-Manobo
- Published: 30 June 2021 30 June 2021
Elements of the 3rd Special Forces Battalion of the Philippine Army fired indiscriminately on 15 June at a group of six unarmed farmers heading towards the town center of Lianga, Surigao del Sur in southern Philippines, killing three, Willy Rodriguez, Lenie Rivas, and 12-year old girl Angel Rivas. The three others were able to flee the bloodbath.
ICC Prosecutor pushes for investigation of crimes against humanity in the Philippines
- Published: 30 June 2021 30 June 2021
The Prosecutor of International Criminal Court Fatou Bensouda announced on 14 June that she was closing the preliminary examination of the Philippine case and requesting the ICC's Pre-Trial Chamber for a judicial authorization to proceed to an investigation of crimes against humanity of murder against the Duterte government. Ms. Bensouda declared that there’s reasonable basis to believe that these crimes have been committed between 1 July 2016 and 16 March 2019 in the context of the Duterte government’s ‘war on drugs’ campaign.
Read more: ICC Prosecutor pushes for investigation of crimes against humanity in the Philippines
Philippine Human Rights Act reintroduced in US Congress
- Published: 30 June 2021 30 June 2021
US Representative Susan Wild reintroduced the Philippine Human Rights Act to the US Congress on 15 June, calling for a suspension of US security assistance to the Philippines until “violence against dissidents cease and accountability against the perpetrators commences.”
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Human rights groups: Stop the killings!
- Published: 15 June 2021 15 June 2021
A total of 103 civil society, religious organizations and concerned individuals signed a joint open letter on 7 June addressed to the Philippine Supreme Court and Department of Justice, expressing “profound and urgent concern on the recent extrajudicial killings, judicial harassment, arbitrary arrests and detention and threats through red-tagging against human rights defenders, human rights lawyers, trade unionists and public sector unions, and organizers of community pantries in the Philippines.”