Dear Trade Commissioner Šefčovič,
Dear High Representative / Vice-President Kallas,
Dear Members of the European Parliament’s Monitoring Group on the Philippines,
We are writing to encourage you to link the conclusion of the EU-Philippines Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to the adoption by Philippine authorities of legislative and policy measures to protect civil society, trade unionists, and indigenous leaders in the Philippines. Civic space remains under pressure in the country, yet the implementation of the FTA will require robust and genuine participation from independent civil society organizations, in particular to monitor the trade and sustainable development (TSD) provisions. Failure to secure reforms during the FTA negotiations will make it harder for non-governmental groups to safely monitor the agreement, and potentially expose them to increased risks of threats, violence and other grave abuses.
The EU should also use the negotiations to emphasize the importance of European companies conducting business in the Philippines in a manner that promotes rights-respecting governance. Under international and EU law, companies have responsibilities to respect human rights including by conducting human rights due diligence.
Attacks on human rights defenders have continued under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. For instance, since President Marcos took office in June 2022, there have been 17 enforced disappearances, with 7 victims still missing. Victims of enforced disappearances include leaders and activists from civil society groups and Indigenous communities.
Red-tagging, which involves state harassment, intimidation, and threats against individuals and organizations accused of being supporters or sympathizers of the communist insurgency, is still rampant. The authorities use red-tagging to target leftist activists, Indigenous land rights defenders, labor leaders, and youth activists, which has a chilling effect on freedom of expression and association.
Furthermore, a recent surge in terrorism financing cases filed by the authorities has targeted many of the same individuals and groups who have often been subjected to red-tagging. The surge of cases was an apparent attempt by the Philippine government to be taken off the “grey list” of the Financial Action Task Force, the global watchdog that sets standards for counter terrorism financing and anti-money laundering. However, Philippine authorities are continuing to file new terrorism financing charges against activists and to prosecute existing cases involving civil society groups and journalists even after the country was removed from the grey list in February 2025.
These cases are often prosecuted on the basis of flimsy evidence: in January, a court convicted community journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio and lay worker Marielle Domequil on terror financing charges based on the testimony of a government asset; however in May, a different court dismissed terrorism financing charges brought against the Community Empowerment Resource Network (CERNET) for insufficient evidence.
Indigenous peoples continue to be threatened for asserting their land rights. The Ati tribe in Boracay were recently barricaded out of their previously titled land; the Kirinteken-Ilentungen Menuvu tribe were fenced out of their land by a banana plantation firm in Bukidnon; and there are continued killings of non-Moro Indigenous peoples leaders in the Bangsamoro.
Although the Philippines has long had a vibrant local media landscape, it remains a deadly place to be a journalist. Media freedom has been under threat due to criminal libel laws, with 14 cases of libel and cyber libel filed against journalists under the Marcos administration. The Philippine Congress is also considering a law against false information that would give the government sweeping powers to encroach on free speech.
Labor leaders remain at risk despite an executive order issued by Marcos in 2023 to uphold freedom of association, following a high-level visit by the International Labour Organization. In 2025, two union organizers were killed, and there has been no progress on the investigations of killings of more than 100 labor activists since 2016.
Concerns over these and other issues have been consistently raised by the EU during bilateral human rights dialogues with the Philippines and on other occasions, but Philippine authorities have failed to address them through changes to policy or legislation. The standard TSD provisions in EU FTAs contain important human rights, labor rights and environmental commitments, but fall short of calendarizing reforms and policy measures to ensure their implementation. Independent civil society is identified as a crucial partner also in the monitoring of the TSD chapter, but genuine participation in the domestic advisory groups can be curtailed in a climate of fear, intimidation and serious risks for those who oppose government policies and monitor wrongdoings.
Considering strong support for the FTA among Philippine government institutions and lawmakers, and the EU’s obligations to ensure its trade policy does not contribute to abuses but instead promotes compliance with human rights, we encourage EU leaders, diplomatic representations, negotiators and Members of the European Parliament to make clear to their counterparts in the Philippines that concrete legislative and policy measures are needed for a positive conclusion of the FTA. Those measures should include, at a minimum:
- The adoption by Congress of priority bills to safeguard civic space and protect human rights defenders, such as the bills on human rights defenders, anti-extrajudicial killing, and the charter for the Commission on Human Rights.
- Public denunciations of red-tagging by President Marcos to demonstrate his administration’s commitment to upholding the 2024 Supreme Court ruling that determined the practice to be a threat to life, liberty and security.
- Prompt investigations and appropriate prosecutions into cases of harassment, violence and killings of activists, including labor leaders, Indigenous and other environmental defenders, journalists and others.
- An invitation to the United Nations special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism to visit the Philippines and advise on the use of and possible reforms to the terrorism financing law and anti-terrorism act.
- Measures to protect free speech including the decriminalization of libel and withdrawal of the Digital Media Anti-False Information Act.
We also encourage genuine consultations with local civil society groups in the Philippines, who have expressed concerns about the potential negative impact of the FTA, and whose grievances and recommendations should be taken seriously.
We stand ready to provide further information and would welcome an opportunity to discuss these important matters with you.
Yours sincerely,
Elaine Pearson, Asia Director, Human Rights Watch
Philippe Dam, EU Director, Human Rights Watch
