By Spinning Toboso Killings Before Credible Probe, Marcos Govt Violates International Law NEWS ANALYSIS: The govt has framed its response to Toboso as though the military’s declaration of “success” is the default conclusion. International law says the opposite. rightsreport.org/2026/04/30/t...

WATCH: THE AGONY OF NEGROS: Unanswered Questions and the Dehumanization of Rebels and Dissenters, with @indayevarona @carloshconde @danabatnag rightsreport.org/2026/04/28/n...

Toboso 19: The Communist Party’s admission that nine of the 19 killed were not its combatants shifts the burden squarely onto the Armed Forces of the Philippines — and onto whatever investigation is still credible enough to find the truth. rightsreport.org/2026/04/28/t...

FOG OF WAR OR COVER-UP? #Negros19

Another ‘Nanlaban’ Claim: Boy, Dad, Cousin Killed in Police Raid for Militant A joint military-police operation targeting a suspected militant left three members of a Zamboanga City family dead. The man they were looking for was not among them. rightsreport.org/2026/04/27/z...

19 Dead Bodies and the Army’s Claims That Don’t Add Up A 12-hr running gunfight should leave plenty of evidence: spent casings, trampled paths, bloodstains, bullet holes in trees or structures.These should have been documented by now. What are they hiding in Toboso? rightsreport.org/2026/04/26/t...

Why the Laws of War Matter in Places Like Negros — and Why They Are Routinely Ignored Both sides in the Philippines’ communist insurgency have formally committed to follow the rules of war. In Negros Occidental and elsewhere, they have repeatedly broken them. rightsreport.org/2026/04/24/i...

Death of 19 in Army Raid Raises Hard, Familiar Questions Nineteen people are dead and hundreds displaced after a military operation in Negros Occidental. The military called it a decisive victory against the communists. Human rights groups are demanding answers. rightsreport.org/2026/04/23/n...

Duterte’s Lawyer Is Right About the ICC Seeking Relevance. He’s Just Wrong About Why. NEWS ANALYSIS by Carlos Conde: The ICC handed drug war families something no Philippine court ever did: a real shot at accountability. Pres. Marcos has no excuse not to meet it. rightsreport.org/2026/04/23/i...

The International Criminal Court comes through — and affirms its relevance. #injusticejustice rightsreport.org/2026/04/21/i...

Today is a good day for accountability in the Philippines. ICC appeals chamber affirms court’s jurisdiction of Duterte case. In the Philippine congress, vice president Sara Duterte is on the verge of being impeached for corruption.

If The Hague Can’t Help, Can Manila? A ruling against the ICC’s jurisdiction on the Duterte case would leave thousands of Filipino families with few good options — and a government that has shown little appetite to be the answer. @rightsreportph.bsky.social rightsreport.org/2026/04/21/i...

What RFK Award to Filipino Lawyers Group Means for Human Rights in the Philippines and Beyond NUPL, like other legal aid groups before it, was born out of the Philippines’ long struggle for justice and accountability. rightsreport.org/2026/04/18/n...

From Online Abuse to Real-World Harm: The War on Women Journalists in the Philippines Women journalists in PH are among the most targeted in the world, and the attacks online are increasingly designed to follow them into real life. But they are fighting back. rightsreport.org/2026/04/16/w...

How Ayala Took Land Away from Poor Iloilo Fisherfolk to Build a High-End Resort New documentary shows how Ayala Land grabbed 335 hectares of agrarian reform land in Sicogon, displacing hundreds of small fisherfolk, many of whom are still waiting for their due. rightsreport.org/2026/04/13/s...

This week's human rights news. www.rightsreportph.org/p/april-10-2... SUBSCRIBE TO OUR SUBSTACK NEWSLETTER: www.rightsreportph.org

The drug war that killed 1000s under Duterte remains a policy under Marcos. A fundamental shift in policy is clearly warranted. The question is no longer whether harm reduction works. The question is whether the govt is willing to do what it already said it would. rightsreport.org/2026/04/10/d...

A landmark summit in 2024 asked the government to treat illegal drugs not as a crime problem but as a public health problem. The body count since then suggests it isn’t listening. rightsreport.org/2026/04/10/d...

A report by the CHR accuses the Philippines of violating laws meant to protect children. It documents a pattern of abuse that begins at arrest, continues inside government-run facilities, and is sustained by a justice system too broken and too slow to protect them. rightsreport.org/2026/04/09/c...

Nearly 25,000 people were apprehended in two days. The police say it’s about discipline. Critics say the numbers reveal exactly what’s wrong with the operation. Police Nab Thousands in Urban Poor Sweep; Lawyers, Child Rights Groups Call Arrests Illegal, Anti-Poor rightsreport.org/2026/04/09/u...

Building on previous documentation by human rights groups, the CHR issues a report this week that says the facilities waiting for these children are still squalid and abusive. Remulla’s Crackdown: Arrested Children Could End Up in Hell-Holes Like Bahay Pagasa rightsreport.org/2026/04/08/d...

I will be speaking at this event tomorrow, organized by the Ateneo Human Rights Center. www.facebook.com/AteneoHRC/po...

Philippine Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla says young people loitering after 10 p.m. will be arrested. Well-meaning, perhaps, but legally infirm. A child caught out past curfew is supposed to be taken home, not taken into custody. rightsreport.org/2026/04/07/r...

What prompted this schoolgirl from the Philippines to walk out of her graduation ceremony, marched through the streets of her town in Bicol carrying this sign, and pleaded with President @bongbongmarcos for help? #ChildSexualAbuse #Education #Rape ➡️ rightsreport.org/2026/04/01/c...

"How Will We Read If We Are Being Raped?’ A girl’s letter to Marcos went viral. Behind it is a small shelter in Bicol that has been waging a fight against a local official. PLUS: Who is Camille Dowling, the ex-UP basketball star who is supporting the children? rightsreport.org/2026/04/01/c...

A new report by UN expert Mary Lawlor finds that Meta/Facebook, X, TikTok, YouTube and other platforms activists rely on to expose abuse are increasingly being used to silence them, and the tech companies responsible appear to be paying less and less attention. rightsreport.org/2026/03/31/s...

A report by Workers’ Rights Watch paints a grim picture of the state of labor rights in the Philippines. Accountability is practically zero while much-vaunted mechanisms to stop or mitigate the violations, like the @euinthephilippines GSP+, have proven ineffective. rightsreport.org/2026/03/31/l...

Filipinos struggle with housing, yes. But what the data shows is that the Philippines has an inequality problem — deep, structural, and decades in the making. Housing is simply where people feel it most acutely. Affordable housing, decent wages = human rights. rightsreport.org/2026/03/30/h...

Facebook Scrapped Its Fact-Checkers. Now Its Own Watchdog Says the Replacement -- Community Notes -- Could Make Disinformation Worse, Especially in the Philippines, the "Patient Zero" of Disinfo rightsreport.org/2026/03/28/f...

A major ADB study exposes the depths of poverty among older Filipinos. For one, they rely mostly for income from fragile remittances and unpredictable family support. For another, the country’s pension system is broken; it is ranked nearly last in the world. rightsreport.org/2026/03/28/o...

Court Upholds Cumpio, Domequil Terror-Financing Conviction rightsreport.org/2026/03/27/c...

Appeals Court Overturns Rebellion Conviction of Child Rights Advocate Ma. Salome Ujano’s acquittal is the latest blow to a security framework critics say is built on thin evidence rightsreport.org/2026/03/27/s...

#CONTEXTCHECK: The Commission on Human Rights @chrgovph endorsed and celebrated the Philippines’ removal from the UN list of countries with grave violations against children in armed conflict. Here are 8 reasons why that’s a problem.. rightsreport.org/2026/03/27/c...

HOOKED: What the US Verdict vs Meta, YouTube Means for PH A US verdict says Meta and YouTube knew their platforms posed addiction risks to children. The Philippines — the world's most Facebook-saturated and top YouTube-using country — has no equivalent protection. rightsreport.org/2026/03/26/m...

My latest analysis for @rightsreportph.bsky.social looks at the Philippines' energy policy failure over the decades and what ordinary Filipinos can expect now that they're facing a severe energy crisis.

Drug War: How the World Failed the Philippines OPINION BY CARLOS CONDE: Aside from the belated case at the ICC, institutions of international accountability have been missing in action. The UN came up short. The EU faltered. The ASEAN didn’t even bother. rightsreport.org/2026/03/25/d...

Islamic jurists in Muslim Mindanao forbid forcible marriage of a woman to her rapist. The Philippines still has colonial-era laws that protect a rapist if he marries his victim. When it comes to the right of survivors, these jurists succeed where legislators fail. rightsreport.org/2026/03/24/f...

Alvin Aragon is clearly violating the Safe Spaces Act. The government, which also has the responsibility to enforce the anti-discrimination treaties it signed under international law, should throw the book at him and stop his vile attacks against LGBT people. rightsreport.org/2026/03/24/n...

Not Just Showbiz: Alvin Aragon’s Anti-LGBT Campaign Echoes a Script to Block LGBTQ Rights in the Philippines The actor’s statements against LGBTQ people and parents are being dismissed as celebrity drama. They shouldn’t be. rightsreport.org/2026/03/24/n...

Crackdown in Lucio Tan’s Factory Highlights Abuse of Workers in ‘Special Economic Zones’ Water cannon incident is latest in string of abuses in Laguna ecozone. Advocates are urging the EU to enforce GSP+, saying this and previous violations fall within its purview. rightsreport.org/2026/03/24/w...

ICYMI: Diplomats like to think that they and the rest of the intl community have done their part to respond to the human rights calamity in the Philippines during Duterte's drug war. They probably did but was it enough? My latest oped for The Diplomat. thediplomat.com/2026/03/drug...

Islamic Jurists in Muslim Mindanao Push for Rights of Women and Children, One Fatwa at a Time. Congress, Meanwhile, Sits on Its Hands on Rape Law. Can the fatwas accumulate enough religious and social weight to change what no law from Manila has managed to change? rightsreport.org/2026/03/24/f...

In this oped for @thediplomat.com , I take a critical look at the international community -- mainly the UN, the EU, and Asean -- for its failure to act meaningfully on the "drug war" violence in the Philippines. thediplomat.com/2026/03/drug...

A nephew of @rightsreportPH editor Carlos Conde found a dead body thrown into a ditch near a dumpsite in Laguna. In this essay, Conde explores what the gruesome discovery means to him, to his nephew, to their community, and to a country now inured to extrajudicial violence.

Rolan Popatco Jr., the first Aeta to become a medical technologist, deserves every word of praise he gets. The Philippine press deserves a kick in the shin for ignoring the larger significance of his story. rightsreport.org/2026/03/23/p...

The Nameless Corpses of Sirang Lupa Dead bodies, damaged lands, and the cost of getting used to everyday impunity. LINK: @rightsreportph rightsreport.org/2026/03/23/t...

A court ruling on Monday could test whether Philippine courts will keep sustaining charges that have already been thrown out in case after case--and force a reckoning with a govt apparatus that has treated due process as an obstacle rather than a right. rightsreport.org/2026/03/21/p...

Tiktok Did It!’: The Lazy Explanation for Why Filipino Gen Z Is Losing Faith in the ICC MY OPED FOR @RIGHTSREPORTPH: Blaming social media for the drop in support for the ICC prosecution of Rodrigo Duterte is a convenient story. It’s also a little embarrassing. rightsreport.org/2026/03/20/t...

Aging Fast, Preparing Slow: PH Is Failing Its Elderly A study exposes what many many already know: growing old here means depending on family, making do with little, and hoping the system catches you before it’s too late. And no, a movie pass won’t fix the problem. rightsreport.org/2026/03/20/a...

IN CONTEXT: The Campus Journalism Act of 1991 was meant to uphold freedom of the press and to protect student journalists. Three decades later, it keeps getting used against them. And a bill seeking to replace it is languishing in Congress. rightsreport.org/2026/03/19/t...