International Human Rights Day 2022 Bayan Canada statement

December 10, 2022

In the 74th year of the global observance of International Human Rights Day, Bayan Canada remains firm in its commitment and stands resolute in the struggle for human dignity, freedom, and justice for all in the face of threats and attacks against human rights defenders.

The regime of Marcos Jr. has barely been in power for six months in the Philippines, but the killings and human rights violations continue and even worsened in the last quarter of the year, especially among oppressed and exploited sectors throughout the nation. Human rights defenders, members of sectoral people’s organizations,  and indigenous people’s organizations have been attacked due to their public opposition to the anti-people policies of the Marcos, Jr – Duterte regime.

The regime’s moves to suppress dissent knows no bounds – from the redtagging of journalists and peace talks consultants such as Louie Jalandoni  to the brutal murders of Ericson Acosta and Joseph Jimenez, the murder of four farmers in Lacub Abra, and the killing of Percival “Percy Lapid” Mabasa. 

The AFP-PNP and the NTF-ELCAC of the Marcos Jr. -Duterte regime have intensified their assaults on the people’s rights. In recent months, the extensive militarization in Himamaylan, Negros has resulted in the displacement of 19,000 families. In the countryside, there is widespread militarization, aerial bombardment, shellings, and forced evacuation, destruction of houses and the slaughter of animals. In urban areas, attacks on legal and open organizations, surveillance, harassment, redtagging, and illegal arrests, and fabricated criminal charges continue. The overwhelming majority of victims are workers, farmers, and indigenous communities fighting for their rights.

Between July and November 2022,  human rights groups Karapatan and SELDA have documented 156 cases of illegal arrests without detention, 30 cases of illegal arrests and detention, 15 killings, 4 cases of extrajudicial killings, 25 new political detainees, 152 drug-related killings, 9,159 cases of forced evacuations, 3,005 cases of indiscriminate firing, and 357,412 cases of threats and intimidation. 

In its bid to consolidate itself, the Marcos Jr-Duterte regime has given free rein to continuing US imperialist neoliberal policies further bolstering the latter’s domination and control of the Philippine economy, politics, diplomacy, and military. In the recent visit of US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Marcos Jr. administration expressed all-out support to the US Indo-Pacific Strategy. The US-Marcos Jr. regime earmarked $66.5 Million for the construction of Enhanced Defense Cooperation (EDCA) projects for the next two years. At the height of human rights violations, the US also extended $100 Million in credit for weapons and purchases, and supplied $1.4 Billion worth of weapons (in 2015-2021) to the Philippines.

Marcos Jr. continues the Labor Export Policy (LEP) created by Marcos Sr. in the ‘70s.  The LEP continues to see thousands of  Filipino men and women leaving the Philippines on a daily basis to work abroad because of the need to survive. The neoliberal policy of an imperialist-controlled neocolonial, service-oriented, and agricultural Philippine economy relies on migrant Filipino workers and their remittances, the very same migrant workers  who  are denied their rights and welfare that are not available to them in either the sending or receiving country of residence. This policy continues to enslave them. In observance of International Human Rights Day, overseas Filipino workers call for the scrapping of the Labour Export Policy (LEP) and for genuine land reform and national industrialization.

As long as the US-backed Marcos family is in power, the Filipino people will be denied justice and peace. The only way to make the Marcos-Duterte regime and its allies accountable is for the people to stand together in defiance and take collective action. Let us celebrate the International Human Rights Day  by raising our voices in defiance and opposition, and by fighting for the rights of the people!! 

Stop the killings in the Philippines! Justice for Ericson Acosta and Joseph Jimenez!

Stop the attacks on  human rights defenders! 

Free All Political Prisoners!

Defend Louie Jalandoni! Man of Peace, Not a Terrorist!

Carry forward the struggle for national freedom and sovereignty, democracy, and social justice, and a just and lasting peace!

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Wilma Delo

Chair, Bayan Canada

Danelle Ortiz

Secretary-General, Bayan Canada

December 10, 2022