US Senators press Biden on rights abuses in the Philippines
- Published: 31 July 2021 31 July 2021
Members of the US Senate on 26 July called on the administration of President Joseph Biden to address what they called “the pattern of human rights violations” of the Duterte government. The senators urged the Biden administration “to stand with the people of the Philippines as they continue to fight for their universal human rights.”
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Supreme Court: Duterte obliged to cooperate with ICC
- Published: 31 July 2021 31 July 2021
In a unanimous resolution approved on 16 March but published only on 21 July, the Supreme Court of the Republic of the Philippines declared that President Rodrigo Duterte is obliged to cooperate with the International Criminal Court investigations. Duterte has been publicly insisting that he will never allow such an investigation, threatening then ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to be “thrown to the crocodiles” if she comes to the Philippines.
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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