"[4][6] The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights condemned the raids, saying it was "appalled by the apparently arbitrary killing" of the activists.
[7] A spokesperson for the office said at a press briefing: "We are deeply worried that these latest killings indicate an escalation in violence, intimidation, harassment and 'red-tagging' of human rights defenders,"[8] Two days before the crackdown, President Rodrigo Duterte said at a televised public event where he directed the police and the military to "finish off" and kill all members of the communist rebel group New People's Army advising them to "don't mind human rights".
[13] Duterte is facing complaints filed before the International Criminal Court for an anti-drug campaign that has killed thousands of victims, most of whom were from poor families.
Police served search warrants issued by Judges Jose Lorenzo Dela Rosa and Jason Zapanta from two branches of the Manila regional trial court.
[26] In January 2022, the National Bureau of Investigation filed murder complaints against 17 police officers over the killing of Ariel Evangelista and Ana Lemita–Evangelista in their home in Nasugbu, Batangas.
And it came just two days after the President himself ordered state forces to "ignore human rights," kill communist rebels, and "finish them off," in his rant before the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.Senator Risa Hontiveros condemned the killings saying it was due to "this administration's high level of disrespect for basic human rights.
Senator Francis Pangilinan said that the Philippine National Police should use the P289 million worth of body cameras purchased in 2018 to prevent killings like the one in Calabarzon.