Philippines

After his election in May 2022, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. promised that his administration would uphold human rights. Since then, little in the overall rights situation has improved. The brutal “war on drugs” policy remains in place, with killings and violence still continuing, and the government refusing to cooperate with the International Criminal Court. Activists, rights defenders, Indigenous leaders, lawyers, journalists, trade unionists, and environmentalists remain under threat, mainly through “red-tagging” and the filing of spurious charges, and face violent attacks. Critics of former President Rodrigo Duterte, such as Nobel Peace Prize winning journalist Maria Ressa and former senator Leila de Lima, still face politically motivated prosecution on bogus charges.