Environmental and human rights defenders (EHRDs) play a crucial role in safeguarding our ecosystems and the communities that protect them. In the Philippines, however, EHRDs are under attack, with the country earning the distinction as deadliest for EHRDs in Asia for fifteen years in a row since 2009 according to international NGO Global Witness.
Filipino EHRDs face a complex web of attacks including killings, abductions, trumped-up charges, terror-tagging, and vilification. These attacks are mainly perpetrated by state armed forces against community leaders, members and supporters actively defending their lands and livelihoods against the intrusion of destructive mega-development projects namely large-scale mining and quarrying, mega-dams, reclamation, agro-plantations, and power plants.
The pervasive culture of impunity fostered by the Duterte administration is being solidified by the weaponization of Duterte-era policies and laws against EHRDs under the Marcos Jr. regime. The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) continues to systematically terror tags and endangers the lives of EHRDs, while the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 is being used to falsely charge and arrest legitimate defenders. The Marcos Jr. administration has also seen a troubling intensification of militarization across rural communities purportedly as a counterinsurgency strategy that disproportionately targets communities resisting environmentally destructive projects. Alarmingly, aerial strikes, drones, and bombings persist in rural communities across at least 10 different regions.
DESTRUCTIVE “DEVELOPMENT” AND “GREEN” PROJECTS DRIVING ATTACKS
The Philippines has seen a surge in so-called “development” and “green” projects that are actually destructive to the environment and local communities. These include large-scale mining operations, especially for minerals used in renewable energy technologies, mega-dam projects, extensive land reclamation, corporate agricultural plantations, and widespread quarrying to supply materials for infrastructure development. While framed as progress, these projects often devastate ecosystems and displace indigenous peoples and local communities.
Environmental defenders who advocate, educate, and organize against these destructive projects face escalating attacks. Their valuable work in exposing environmental damage and human rights violations has made them targets. In many cases, armed state forces have been deployed to suppress environmental protests and clear areas for extractive and destructive projects. Communities opposing mining, logging, and agribusiness operations have faced extreme tactics, including aerial bombardments, forced evacuations, and the destruction of homes and livelihoods. These aggressive measures aim to terrorize local populations and forcibly displace them from resource-rich areas, allowing corporations and government interests to exploit the land with minimal resistance.
OUR CALLS
- Moratorium on all destructive projects affecting vital ecosystems and the livelihoods of vulnerable communities
- Disband the notoriously corrupt and abusive NTF-ELCAC! Hold them to account for their terror-tagging and crimes.
- Junk the repressive Anti-Terror Law!
- Surface all missing EHRDs and hold their perpetrators to account!
- Stop bombing civilian communities and key biodiversity areas! End the militarized terror in our rural poor communities!
- Justice and accountability for all attacks on EHRDs, including the prosecution of perpetrators
- Pass the Environmental Defenders and the Human Rights Defenders Bills!
