Extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances in the Philippines

[10] Philippine extrajudicial killings are politically motivated murders committed by government officers, punished by local and international law or convention.

In Spanish and Portuguese, "disappeared people" are called desaparecidos, a term which specifically refers to the mostly South American victims of state terrorism during the 1970s and the 1980s, in particular concerning Operation Condor.

Thus, on August 27,[vague] Bayan Muna (People First), Gabriela Women's Party (GWP), and Anakpawis (Toiling Masses) filed House Bill 223, later promulgated as Republic Act No.

2405 – "An Act Penalizing the Commission of Acts of Torture and Involuntary Disappearance of Persons Arrested, Detained or Under Custodial Investigation, and Granting Jurisdiction to the Commission on Human Rights to Conduct Preliminary Investigation for Violation of the Custodial Rights of the Accused, Amending for this Purpose Sections 2, 3 and 4 of RA 7438, and for Other Purposes.

[26][27][28] The New People's Army (NPA) groups known as "Sparrow Units" were active in the mid-1980s, killing government officials, police personnel, military members, and anyone else they targeted for elimination.

A low level civil war with Muslims in the south, Al-Qaeda sympathizers and communist insurgents has led to a general break down of law and order.

According to University of the Philippines professor Roland Tolentino, under President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, left-wing nongovernmental organizations were critical of her administration.

[40] The rights group Desparecidos reported as of May 15, 2008, 194 victims of enforced disappearances under the Arroyo administration, with the latest abduction of National Democratic Front political consultant for Cagayan Valley, activist Randy Felix Malayao, 39, a volunteer worker.

[67] Philip Alston submitted his final report on the killings; he found that the Armed Forces of the Philippines killed left-wing activists to get rid of communist insurgents: "the executions had "eliminated civil society leaders, including human rights defenders, trade unionists and land reform advocates, intimidated a vast number of civil society actors, and narrowed the country’s political discourse."

Alston blamed "impunity" which caused the executions of journalists and leftist activists: "the priorities of the criminal justice system had been "distorted," and had "increasingly focused on prosecuting civil society leaders rather than their killers."

But Alston noted the government's creation of – special courts to try extrajudicial killings, the Melo Commission and the Philippine National Police's Task Force Usig.

Alston officially concluded that “there is a passivity, bordering on an abdication of responsibility, which affects the way in which key institutions and actors approach their responsibilities in relation to such human rights concerns; prosecutors refused to take a role in gathering evidence, and instead being purely passive, waiting for the police to present them with a file; the Ombudsman’s office did almost nothing in recent years in this regard, failing to act in any of the 44 complaints alleging extrajudicial executions attributed to State agents submitted from 2002 to 2006."

“Preliminary note on the visit of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Philip Alston, to the Philippines (12–21 February 2007),” A/HRC/4/20/Add.3, March 22, 2007, p. 4., etc.

[76][77] On March 14, 2007, Eric G. John, Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs testified before the USA Senate Subcommittee on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. John submitted his written statement: a) the increase in extrajudicial killings, b) the “Huk Rebellion” in the 1940s and 50s causing thousands of murdered victims; c) the communist New People's Army (NPA), which was listed in the U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations campaigned to overthrow the government since 1968; d) Extrajudicial killings by the security forces, the NPA, etc.

[79][81] In August 2007, three experts from the International Federation for Human Rights (abbreviated FIDH), Mr. Nabeel Rajab (Bahrain), Mr. Mouloud Boumghar (France) and Mr. Frédéric Ceuppens (Belgium), came to the Philippines.

[82] In March 2008, the US Department of State reported that "arbitrary, unlawful arrests and extrajudicial and political killings continued to be a major problem in the Philippines in 2007.

[86] On November 16, 2010, the international non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch issued a 96-page report titled "They Own the People," charting the Ampatuans’ rise to power, including their use of violence to expand their control and eliminate threats to the family's rule.

[97] In September 2007, Marie Hilao-Enriquez, Karapatan secretary-general, formally petitioned the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to direct the Philippine government to stop the extrajudicial killings.

[103] However, Justice Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor, head of Task Force on Political Violence contradicted Karapatan's submission only on the number of killings.

"[108][109] On January 9, 2008, PNP Task Force Usig announced that 3 policemen, 11 soldiers and 3 militiamen had been arrested or named suspects in killings of journalists and militants since 2001.

[112] In 2006, the Asian Human Rights Commission stated that there had been 26 priests, pastors, and church workers who were executed or were victims of violence under the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo administration since 2001.

[114] On January 19, 2008, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (quoting from a letter of Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone), announced that Pope Benedict XVI "praised the courage of, and was saddened over the brutal and tragic killing of Fr.

The Pope wrote Jolo Bishop Angelito Lampon: "calls upon the perpetrators to renounce the ways of violence and to play their part in building a just and peaceful society, where all can live together in harmony.

[118] On January 23, 2008, Pastor Felicisimo Catambis, 60, of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines in Catugan, Barangay Balucawe, Leyte, was shot dead by an unknown assailant.

[120] In the March 2008 US Department of State, 2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, the US found that extrajudicial and political killings, including those of journalists, by members of the military, police, Communist rebels and other terrorist groups / perpetrators continue to be a major problem in the Philippines.

"[121] In 2008, the delegates to the 6th Congress of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) led by chairperson Jose Torres Jr. renewed calls to end unabated media killings.

[122] The NUJP declared August 20, a "National Day of Mourning" as journalists wore black in protest, as they paid tribute to slain media practitioners at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani in Quezon City.

[123] In 2013, Deepak Obhrai, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, in a statement at Canada's House of Commons, commended "the laudable role of the Supreme Court in the preservation of human rights and in the pursuit of justice."

[125] In April 2023, Indigenous rights activists Dexter Capuyan and Gene Roz Jamil "Bazoo" de Jesus were abducted by unidentified men in Rizal province and have not yet been found.

[126] According to Karapatan, at least 16 activists were abducted from June 2022 to November 2023 under the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos Jr.[127] In June 2019, Watch List (Maria), a feature film thriller directed by Ben Rekhi about a single mother and recovering drug addict who makes a devil's bargain with a police death squad in Manila, premiered and was nominated for a jury prize at the Seattle International Film Festival.