Human rights group Karapatan strongly condemned yet another massacre in Lianga, Surigao del Sur, the 25th massacre under the Duterte administration in what the group said is “a testimony of the regime’s hideous legacy of killings that count up to the last year of this regime.”

An independent and impartial investigation of the killings of civilians Ailyn Ekit Bulalacao, Ramon Boy Valenzuela Brioso and Antonio Poligrates in Masbate is in order, according to human rights watchdog Karapatan, as it emphasized that the deaths of union leader Nolven Absalon and his cousin Kieth due to a New People’s Army (NPA) operation is “never an excuse for the government security forces to exact retribution by murdering civilians in cold blood.” Karapatan condemned the massacre last Tuesday, June 8, of Bulalacao, Brioso and Poligrates whom the

Human rights group Karapatan said that heads must roll on the recent death of farmer and political prisoner Jesus Alegre, whose plight for freedom has long been part of almost all campaigns for the release of political prisoners.

The announcement of outgoing International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda that she is formally requesting an investigation into the crimes against humanity committed in President Rodrigo Duterte’s sham and bloody war on drugs is a long-awaited step towards justice and accountability. Moreover, it is yet another damning indictment of the Duterte government’s murderous policies that have killed — and continue to kill — thousands of Filipinos with impunity.

Human rights watchdog Karapatan decried the recent freezing of bank accounts of the Amihan Federation of Peasant Women as it criticized the arbitrary action by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), which reportedly released the order on May 5 through Resolution No. TF-38, series of 2021, based on alleged violations of the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act.