• Urgent Action

Urgent Action Update: Human Rights Defenders Face Brutal Crackdown (Philippines: UA 54.19)

June 13, 2019

On 22 April, Cristina Palabay of Philippines-based human rights alliance Karapatan received a text message from an unidentified person, sent to her personal number, warning her and several other individuals that they are targeted to be killed this year. Amid the threats against Palabay, on 30 May the Supreme Court directed the government to give access to information of Palabay and other human rights defenders in hope to protect their right to life, liberty and security.

TAKE ACTION:
  1. Write a letter in your own words or using the sample below as a guide to one or both government officials listed. You can also email, fax, call or Tweet them.
  2. Click here to let us know the actions you took on Urgent Action 54.19. It’s important to report because we share the total number with the officials we are trying to persuade and the people we are trying to help.
Police General Oscar Albayalde Chief, Philippine National Police National Headquarters Building Camp BGen Rafael Crame, Quezon City 1111 Philippines Fax: +632 724 8749 Email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
H.E. Jose Manuel G. Romualdez Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines 1600 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington DC 20036 Phone: 202 467 9300 I 202 467 9366 Fax: 202 467 9417 Email: [email protected], [email protected] Twitter: @PhilippinesUSA Salutation: Dear Ambassador

Dear General Albayalde, I am writing to express my concern over death threats received by prominent human rights defender in the Philippines, Cristina Palabay. Cristina is the secretary general of Karapatan, a coalition of several human rights groups and individuals. On 6 May, Karapatan, along with women’s rights group Gabriela and religious group Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, filed a petition to seek legal protection from threats to life, liberty, privacy and security. On 30 May, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of these groups and issued a writ of amparo and habeas data – protection and access to information, respectively, and named a Philippine National Police directorate as one of the respondents. The groups noted in their petition that they have been threatened, harassed, and intimidated after government authorities accused them of being “communist fronts.” On 22 April, Cristina Palabay received a text message from an unidentified person sent to her personal number warning her and several other human rights defenders that they are targeted to be killed this year. The threats were all the more alarming as they came just a few hours after another human rights defender, Bernardino Patigas, was gunned down in broad daylight in Escalante City, Negros Occidental province. The killing of Patigas and the threats against Palabay and other human rights defenders come amid what appears to be an increasingly deadlier campaign against human rights defenders and political activists. I urge your office to act swiftly to promote and protect the rights of human rights defenders in the country. Specifically, I call on you to open a prompt, thorough, independent, impartial and effective investigation into the allegations of death threats against Cristina Palabay and other human rights defenders in the country, and bring those responsible to justice in fair trials; put in place effective mechanisms to protect human rights defenders at risk in consultation with them, and ensure they are able to carry out their work without fear of reprisals; and launch a thorough, independent, impartial and effective investigation into the allegations of killings of human rights defenders and bring all those responsible to justice in fair trials. Sincerely, ADDITIONAL RESOURCES