By Diego Morra
From August 11 to August 14, the Philippines hosted the International Human Rights Law (IHL) Conference with 120 delegates from 30 countries across the Asia-Pacific with the theme “Galvanizing Commitment to IHL,” in the face of widespread militarization and largescale human rights violations across the nation, which prompted various organizations to stage a rally at the New World Hotel in Makati City, the venue of the conference, on the penultimate day of the regional conference.
The People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS) criticized the Philippine hosting of the conference, arguing that the Marcos Jr. administration’s counterinsurgency efforts under the new National Action Plan for Unity, Peace and Development (NAP-UPD) 2025-2028 implemented by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and its complicity in US warmongering following recent talks with President Donald Trump should have disqualified the government from hosting the IHL conference.
“How dare this government declare itself to be a champion of international humanitarian law? Rural communities in the Philippines, as direct victims of this regime’s violations and impunity, would be among the first to dispute that claim,” said PCFS global coordinator Gail Orduna. Orduna also slammed the judicial harassment faced by PCFS member-organization Amihan, with a court freezing P200,000 of the group of women’s farmers purportedly because the account was being used to “finance terrorism,” according to a bogus testimony. Orduna also warned that human rights violations are likely to spike due to Marcos Jr.’s subservience to the US, given the regular joint Balikatan war games and reports of US military bases, facilities and infrastructure being built in the country. These include the four additional EDCA sites, US naval repair facility in Palawan, ammunition factory in Subic, and deployment of missile systems in the country.
The International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL) also condemned the hypocrisy of the Marcos Jr. government in sponsoring the conference, informing the foreign delegates that the counter-insurgency campaign pursued by the unlamented Rodrigo Duterte administration is being continued by the current administration, with indigenous people (IP) being the victims of human rights violations and the brazen disrespect for IHL. Both PCFS and IPMSDL are international organizations representing marginalized rural communities and IP groups. “If the Philippine government were sincere in upholding international humanitarian law, it should have at least condemned the war crimes of Israel against the Palestinian people, especially the recent announcement to take over Gaza City. Yet, it has continued to align its position with the US, which has been complicit in the genocidal war,” she said.
For its part, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and Tanggol Magsasaka, which champion peasant rights and defend the agricultural sector from the flawed policies of the Marcos Jr. administration, also lambasted the hosting of the regional IHL conference, tagging it as a “sham” in the face of bloody attacks against farmers and the IP communities in the Southern Tagalog region. KMP condemned the blatant violations of the 1949 Geneva Conventions by the Philippines and “the hypocrisy and deceit by the current regime in ‘championing’ human rights while violating them with impunity.” Tanggol Magsasaka spokesman Ronnie Manalo scored the regime, saying “habang nagmamalaki sa ibang bansa na nagtataguyod ng IHL, patuloy naman ang pambobomba, panghaharas, at pagpatay sa mga magsasaka. Insulto ito sa mga biktima at malinaw na pagpapakita ng kawalanghiyaan.”
Citing the documentation of human rights abuses by Karapatan, PCFS, IMPSDL, Tanggol Magsasaka and KMP said halfway under the Marcos Jr. incumbency, 86 out of the 119 victims of extrajudicially killings and seven out of 14 enforced disappearances are peasants. There have been 19 incidents of aerial bombings and artillery fire during the same period—14 of which happened in 2024 alone—as hamletting of communities and de facto martial law prevail in rural areas. No less than 48,000 people were affected. Karapatan also disclosed that throughout the Duterte incumbency, 339 out of the 422 extrajudicially killed and 15 out of 21 enforced disappearances were farmers. More than 100 bombings and 26 massacres were also documented.
Just this month, Tanggol Magsasaka reported, the military summarily killed a farmer in San Jose, Mindoro Occidental, Members of the 4th Infantry Battalion murdered Juan Sumilhig, also a former political prisoner, on August 1, and soldiers claimed he was gunned down during a fabricated encounter with the New People’s Army (NPA.) From August 2 to 3, the 16th Infantry Battalion in Tagkawayan, Quezon bombed Barangay Maguibay, terrorizing residents and damaging their farms. On August 7, 2025, the military launched successive operations after the Philippine Army clashed with the NPA. PCFS challenged the Marcos Jr. administration to acknowledge its breaches of IHL to demonstrate that its IHL conference is not merely a gimmick.
“The Marcos government is posturing itself as a champion of human rights that it routinely violates. This government is not fit to speak on IHL– much less host a regional conference on it. Shooting at will, bombing at whim is not galvanizing commitment to IHL– it’s state terrorism,” IPMSDL noted. “IPMSDL joins the Filipino people in condemnation and utter disgust in the blatant deceit of the Marcos government. Likewise, we urge our Indigenous brothers and sisters across the Asia-Pacific region and the world to be vigilant and challenge governments to sincerely uphold IHL and genuinely address the question of armed conflict in the Philippines,” it concluded.
