Archives: Media Releases

The Department of National Defense (DND) is eyeing a hefty Php256.1-billion allocation for 2025, reflecting a 6.4% increase from its 2024 budget. Even with its current budget, however, Marcos Jr.’s military is already responsible for grave human rights violations as well as mounting violations of international humanitarian law as it scrambles to meet kill quotas …

KARAPATAN: Funds for social services, not for State terrorism! Read More »

KARAPATAN raised grave concern over the reported disappearance of a brother of National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) consultant Alan Jazmines. James Jazmines, 63, Alan’s youngest brother, has been reported missing since August 23, 2024 and was last seen in Barangay San Lazaro, Tabaco City, Albay. As of today, efforts by his wife, friends …

Rights group decries disappearance of NDFP consultant’s brother Read More »

Vice President Sara Duterte’s contempt for transparency in accounting for the PhP125 million confidential and intelligence funds of her office in 2023 is in full display during the budget hearings at the House of Representatives and the Senate. She employed “squid (pusit)” tactics and insolence to evade direct responses to questions from the Makabayan representatives …

KARAPATAN hits Sara Duterte’s contempt for transparency Read More »

KARAPATAN raises grave concern about the safety and welfare of former political prisoner Rowena Dasig who has been missing since August 22, 2024, her alleged release from the Lucena City District Jail (LCDJ). Rowena, or “Owen” as her friends call her, is a youth activist and environmental defender who was arrested with fellow activist Miguela …

KARAPATAN: Surface Rowena Dasig! Read More »

KARAPATAN denounces the X-rating classification given by the Movie, Television Ratings and Classification Board (MTRCB), during its first review, to award-winning documentary film “Alipato at Muog” by Jose Luis “JL” Burgos about the abduction and disappearance of his brother, activist Jonas Burgos in April 2007. The X-rating, which prohibits the film’s viewing in commercial theaters …

KARAPATAN hits MTRCB X-rating on award-winning docu-film on Jonas Burgos and desaparecidos Read More »

KARAPATAN condemns the mounting human rights violations in civilian communities where soldiers conducting so-called focused military operations have had a prolonged presence. In San Jose del Monte (SJDM), Bulacan, troops of the 80th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) have been conducting saturation drives for the past two months against residents of Barangays San …

KARAPATAN slams military operations in communities, schools Read More »

August is commemorated in the Philippines as International Humanitarian Law (IHL) month. Yet some of the most horrific violations of IHL have occurred in the month of August. On August 19, 2022, Benito Tiamzon, a member of the National Democratic Front (NDFP) negotiating panel, and Wilma Austria-Tiamzon, an NDFP consultant, were intercepted in Catbalogan, Samar …

KARAPATAN: Bloody August of human rights, IHL violations as PH gov’t commemorates IHL month Read More »

Karapatan condemns the violent dispersal of a rally held by delegates to the 57th General Assembly of Student Councils (GASC) held on August 16, 2024 a few meters outside the University of the Philippines (UP) campus in Tacloban City. The students demanded academic freedom, a stop to the militarization of UP Tacloban, and the release …

Rights group condemns violent dispersal of rally by UP student leaders in Tacloban Read More »