Since 2021, such attacks have been documented by human rights groups, who stressed that these put marginalized communities in danger. As such, Karapatan said these incidents constitute a clear violation of international humanitarian law (IHL).

From 2021 to 2024, Karapatan documented 9,163 individuals or about 1,953 families who were affected by aerial bombing and indiscriminate strafing in the province of Cagayan. Human rights groups attribute these attacks to the Philippine Air Force.

During this time, a total of 17 incidents were recorded in Cagayan: 11 bombings and strafing, 2 bombardment, and 4 strafing attacks. Six occurred under the Duterte administration while 11 happened during the Marcos Jr. administration. This is part of the 13 regions in the Philippines subjected to aerial bombings where Karapatan documented 378,203 victims.

“One of the emblematic cases under the Duterte administration was the bombing of Marawi City, when the President declared martial law in Mindanao on May 23, 2017 that lasted until December 31, 2019.“ said Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay.

In the first year of Marcos Jr., there were 6,931 victims of bombings documented as part of the government’s counterinsurgency campaign, Karapatan said.

In May, an international people’s tribunal issued a guilty verdict to Marcos Jr. and the US government for violating the international humanitarian law.

In the initial verdict furnished to the media, the five-member jurors of the [International Peoples Tribunal or] IPT revisited the US government’s role in the counterinsurgency program that allowed such war crimes to happen, saying that the “heavy bombardment and forced displacement of communities, and the killing of civilians and hors de combat of state forces would not have been possible without the direction, arms, and training provided by the US government.

Rights and youth groups in this city marked the 52nd anniversary of the declaration of martial law in the country with a protest action and various cultural performances on Saturday, Sept. 21, highlighting cases of continued repression faced by Cordilleran activists and human rights defenders under the administration of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

Cordilleran activist Joanna Cariño, who was a student when arrested during martial rule, said not much has changed 52 years since.

“I have a feeling of deja vu (of martial law) with Duterte and with Marcos Jr.,” she said during the mobilization, bringing up the cases of disappeared activists Dexter Capuyan and Gene Roz Jamil “Bazoo” De Jesus.

Cariño said it was important to recall the spirit of “indigenous people power” and to continue remembering the atrocities of martial law because this period was “an important part of our history that is not always taught in schools.”

Rey Cortez, a lawyer from the National Union of People’s Lawyers, claimed that “despite the former dictator being gone, repression of all government critics was continuing” under the term of Marcos Jr.

In the Cordillera, members of the indigenous peoples’ group, the Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA), had been named as terrorists by the Anti-Terror Council in June 2023.

“In the time of Marcos Jr., the anti-terror law can be used to illegally detain someone, arrest them without a warrant, freeze their bank accounts, and [subject them to surveillance],” Cortez concluded.

Farmers groups filed a petition for certiorari with a prayer for the issuance of a Temporary Restraining Order at the Supreme Court against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio Balisacan and Tariff Commission Chairperson Marilou Mendoza.

The farmers are questioning the constitutionality of Marcos' Executive Order No. 62 which reduces the tariff on rice imports from 35 percent to 15 percent.

Aside from due process, the EO also allegedly violated the constitutional mandate of government officials to protect farmers from unfair competition and trade practices and to develop a self-reliant and independent national economy controlled by Filipinos, they said.

The group expects that because of the EO, farmers will no longer plant rice on some 500,000 hectares of land because of the expected flood of imported rice.

The petitioners also claimed that even with the deluge of rice imports, prices of rice for the consuming public are not expected to go down.

The drug war reinvestigation of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s government has shown dismal results since its launch four years ago, with four homicide investigations now closed, putting six police officials back on active duty, Rappler has learned.

But during the House committee on human rights hearing on Wednesday, June 5, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Deputy Director for Operations Jose Justo Yap said there are actually a total of 30 cases already closed.

Mila [the mother of a young man killed by police officials and whose case landed in the reinvestigation] has participated in the drug war reinvestigation – an initiative launched in 2020 during Duterte’s time – by former justice secretary Menardo Guevarra that intended to review a speck of 52 cases of killings by police. The 52 cases were chosen because cops involved had already been meted sanctions, mostly suspensions, by the police force’s own internal affairs service or IAS.

On a smartphone screen, Mila watched Guevarra be accused by Act Teachers Partylist Representative France Castro of being behind a “coverup.” It is now June 2024, and Guevarra is President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s solicitor general.

Mila watched with a blank face as Guevarra explained that the difficulty in reinvestigating was lack of participation. “I participated,” Mila said, “I gave them everything I had.”

“But it’s like they weren’t interested,” she said. Mila said that in the few times that investigators reached out to her, they asked her if she had obtained more evidence. “I wanted to tell them: was that not your job?”

In the four homicide investigations involving nine police officials in Laguna and Cavite, three were “provisionally closed” in August 2022 due to a lack of investigative leads, and one is now closed and terminated because the family is “no longer interested,” according to the NBI.

“Despite commitments made before the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the government has been remiss in following up and acting on the commitments made by the former secretary of justice. How can the victims have the confidence in cooperating with government when you have such dismal results in the status of cases?” said Karen Gomez Dumpit, a former human rights commissioner who, during her term, already complained about the “superfluous” reinvestigation.

Of the 52, only one, the case of Carl Angelo Arnaiz, which was a sensational case that merited headlines in 2017, resulted in the criminal conviction for murder of one policeman.

“Mapanlinlang ang reinvestigation na ito para sa mga biktima (This reinvestigation is deceptive for the victims),” Kristina Conti, lawyer for victims and an ICC-accredited assistant counsel, told Rappler on Saturday, June 1.

Conti pointed out that the “cherry-picking” of the 52 cases was suspect from the beginning because the DOJ relied on records that were forwarded to them by the police. “The reinvestigation was a desk review, and this desk review is ineffective, and ultimately has no impact on the search for accountability in the Philippines,” said Conti.

Rubilyn Litao, the coordinator for Rise Up or the organized network of families of victims that Conti works with, said there’s been a little bit more willingness on the part of other families to share their experiences now that Duterte is no longer in power.

Dumpit said a family she’s in contact with expresses some hope from time to time whenever they see another case progress. “The successful prosecution of other cases even if not their kin’s case can regain some of the crumbled trust with the police and in the justice system in the country,” said Dumpit, “but clearly, with what you have gathered, there has been a dearth of investigations, very few indictments and more so with successful prosecutions.”

The Makabayan bloc sees promise in the committee hearing. Castro told Rappler she will try to have the individual police officials be called to the hearing to answer for their deadly operations. [Gabriela Partylist Representative Arlene Brosas] said “it’s also [the families’] time to be heard.”

Inquirer on Twitter @inquirerdotnet:

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. orders the transfer of attachment of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples from the Department of Social Welfare and Development to the Office of the President.

[via Luisa Cabato] @luisacabatoINQ

Filipino-American activists protested Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s visit to the United States for the first trilateral U.S.-Japan-Philippines leaders’ summit on April 11.

In a statement, Brittany Tabora of Anakbayan-DC and Bayan-DMV said that it is critical for Filipinos around the world to know that Filipinos in the US do not stand for Marcos.

For the progressive groups, the trilateral summit is among the series of efforts to leverage the Philippines’ strategic geo-political location for economic and military benefit as tensions rise between the U.S. and China, “at the expense of the sovereignty of the Philippines, the economic conditions of Filipino workers, and the health of the environment.”

"We’re here bringing the voices of the Filipino people to oppose the trilateral summit that’s happening around the US, Philippines and Japan. The US government talks about bringing economic growth, prosperity, clean energy and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. But we know this is a guise for more war and militarism in the Asia Pacific region and also an opportunity to perpetuate unequal economic and military agreements,” said Julie Jamora of Malaya Movement USA.

Tinay Palabay, Secretary General of Karapatan, on Facebook:

Under Marcos, there are 12 desaparecidos yet to be surfaced and we fear that environmental defender Rowena Dasig will be the 13th. Let us join Desaparecidos (Pamilya ng Desaparecidos para sa Katarungan, families of the disappeared, on August 30, International Day of the Disappeared, in a mass action in the morning and in watching Alipato at Muog at the UP Film Center in the afternoon.

#SurfaceAllDesaparecidos

2024 Aug. 27

ID under the cut

The culmination of the bloodless revolt on February 25, 1986, kicked dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos out of Malacañang after an iron-fist rule that lasted more than a decade. His family soon went on exile in Hawaii, an experience that his son Marcos Jr. described as among the darkest days of their lives.

A decades-long project to rehabilitate their family’s image ultimately led to the Marcoses returning to power, capped by Marcos Jr.’s ascent to the presidency in 2022.

For 2024, the Palace downplayed its removal of the EDSA Revolution anniversary from the list of holidays, saying there would be “minimal socio-economic impact in declaring this day as a special non-working holiday since it coincides with the rest day for most workers and laborers.”

This year, democracy advocates are also using the EDSA revolution anniversary commemoration to amplify their opposition to charter change.

The present Constitution was completed months after the 1986 uprising, and ratified through a nationwide plebiscite in February 1987.

It replaced the 1973 Constitution, which helped Marcos justify his prolonged stay in office.