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Human rights alliance Karapatan called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor to resume its investigation into the crimes against humanity in the drug war, following the ICC Office of the Prosecutor’s temporary suspension of its investigative activities as it assesses the “scope and effect” of the request of the Philippine government to defer the investigation in the Philippines.

Political prisoner Antonio Molina, 67, a member of the Katipunan ng Samahang Magbubukid sa Timog Katagalugan, succumbed to complications of stomach cancer at 10 p.m. last night, November 18, 2021, at the Ospital ng Palawan. He was brought to the hospital earlier yesterday when his heart rate collapsed and was intubated after experiencing cardiac arrest. He tested negative for COVID-19 in a rapid antigen test conducted upon his entry to the hospital.

Five years since the dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was given a hero’s burial, we declare our strongest conviction against the comeback of the Marcoses to the highest seat of power in the land.

Photo by Romeo Ranoco/Reuters

Rights group Karapatan urged legislators in Philippine Congress to call off moves to revive death penalty, as more withdraw their support for the reimposition of capital punishment in the country.

Photo by Ara Eugenio/Reportr

Rights group Karapatan called for the immediate release of women and child rights advocate Maria Salome Crisostomo-Ujano, as the group condemned her arrest yesterday, November 14, as “an attack on women and children’s rights advocates under a regime that spent its whole term endangering rights defenders, wrongfully tagging them as criminals and terrorists.”

Human rights watchdog Karapatan asserted calls to surface peasant organizer Steve Abua, who was last seen in Lubao, Pampanga last Saturday, November 6, 2021. Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay condemned Abua’s abduction and disappearance, as she tagged State forces as the “only possible perpetrators” of this “cowardly criminal act” based on the initial reports regarding the incident, particularly the threats made by Abua’s abductors as detailed by his wife.

Photo by Carlo Manalansan/Bulatlat

Karapatan welcomes the Senate Committee on Finance’s move to defund the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) by cutting down PhP24 billion from its proposed budget and reallocating it to the government’s COVID-19 pandemic response, particularly to the special risk allowance for health workers.

Photo by Jire Carreon/ABS-CBN News

Marcos’ martial law victims and survivors led by SELDA (Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto) and the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses to Malacanang and Martial Law (CARMMA) appealed to the Supreme Court today to affirm former first lady Imelda Marcos’ conviction by the Sandiganbayan.

Photo by Michael Vargas/Philippine Star