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Amid the commemoration of National Women’s Month, human rights group Karapatan, urged the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) as the country’s Gender Ombud to take action on the case of pregnant Elizabeth Estilon and elderly Enriqueta Guelas, who were arrested on trumped-up cases of violation of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 and illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

International humanitarian law does not make mass murder legal, human rights watchdog Karapatan asserted, as the group questioned Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque’s statement before the media yesterday, March 8, claiming that President Rodrigo Duterte’s “kill, kill, kill” order against communist rebels is supposedly “legal” under international humanitarian law.

The killings and mass arrests in the “Bloody Sunday” police raids across Southern Tagalog yesterday are direct orders from President Rodrigo Duterte himself, human rights watchdog Karapatan asserted, especially after Duterte’s orders for the police and the military to “kill” and “finish off” all alleged communist rebels in the country.

At least three progressive leaders were confirmed arrested and five more were reportedly killed in early morning “tokhang-style” police raids on the houses and offices of activists in Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, and Rizal today, March 7, which human rights watchdog Karapatan called a “Bloody Sunday” crackdown on labor unions, peasant organizers, mass organizations, and human rights defenders in the Southern Tagalog region.

Human rights watchdog Karapatan called on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HRC), the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, and the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights while Countering Terrorism to monitor the impact of the Anti-Terrorism Act and the Philippine government’s counterinsurgency and counterterrorism campaigns on the human rights situation in the country in a statement delivered via video and submitted before the council’s 46th session on Thursday, March 4.