For the past several years, the Philippines has been deemed one of the deadliest countries in the world for human rights defenders, journalists, and trade unionists. Under former President Duterte’s regime, massacres, killings, and intimidation became a regular occurrence, with the number of extrajudicial killings estimated at 30,000.   

Church partners in the Philippines were also targeted for attempting to hold the Duterte government accountable for its crimes. President Bongbong Marcos has done nothing to reverse the deteriorating human rights crisis and has increased funding for the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) which has only served to increase the red-tagging and targeting of human rights activists and community leaders, including church leaders.   

Since 2016, the US has given over $550 million in military aid and millions in arms sale to Philippine state forces that are responsible for most of the killings in the war on drugs as well as shootings of human rights defenders. Despite overwhelming proof of grave human rights violations, the US government continues to violate the Leahy Law, which prohibits the US government from using funds to assist foreign security forces that commit torture, extrajudicial killing, and enforced disappearance.   

For all these reasons and more, we need the re-introduction of the Philippine Human Rights Act (PHRA). The PHRA blocks US funds for police or military assistance to the Philippines, including equipment and training, until such time as human rights conditions are met. Some of those conditions include:    

1. Investigating and prosecuting members of the military and police forces who are found to have violated human rights;    
2. Withdrawing the military from domestic policing, and;   
3. Establishing protections for the rights of trade unionists, journalists, human rights defenders, indigenous people, small farmers, LGBTI activists, and critics of the government.   

As people of faith, we must urge Congress to speak up against this grave violation of human rights. Tell Congress to re-introduce this bill in both the House and Senate!