We call for a thorough, impartial, and credible inquiry into the attack on Cahayag. This must go beyond identifying the direct perpetrators and must examine the broader political architecture, including the chain of command and potential involvement of the state. Anything less would not only fall short of justice but would further legitimize the machinery of impunity.

We reiterate, with due respect to the Honorable Court: constitutional powers must be preserved, especially in the service of accountability. When these powers are subordinated to procedural interpretations that strain the Constitution’s plain meaning, it is not merely institutional balance that suffers—it is the public’s right to demand responsibility from those who wield power in their name. The people will remember what was lost in the process: a clear invocation of the people’s right to hold even the highest officials to account.

The NUPL renews its call for the immediate repeal of these laws. Their continued enforcement safeguards not security, but legitimizes state repression. As long as these laws exist, rights defenders, activists, journalists, and humanitarian workers will remain at risk—not because they have broken the law, but because they challenge the conditions of injustice that the law now seeks to protect.

NUPL issues this final warning to all concerned AFP and PNP personnel: immediately cease and desist from any contact or communication with our clients, without the knowledge of their lawyers and their express consent.

Today, NUPL, acting as counsel in the habeas corpus case filed by his daughter Analyn Calubid, received the decision of the Sixteenth Division of the Court of Appeals granting the privilege of the writ and ordering his immediate release.

The NUPL stands in solidarity with the peoples of Iran and all those committed to genuine peace grounded in sovereignty, human rights, and international law. The world cannot afford yet another war invoked in the name of security, but in truth serving imperial interests.

“For years, the FATF has spoken of ‘unintended consequences’ when its standards are abused. But in the Philippines, these consequences are not unintended — they are deliberate. The global counterterrorism framework is being systematically exploited to silence dissent,”

The Philippine UPR Watch urged the Special Rapporteur to initiate an urgent inquiry into the systemic abuse of counterterrorism measures in the Philippines, and called on the international community to demand immediate safeguards to protect the fundamental rights of the Filipino people.

The Special Rapporteur’s report compels urgent legal and institutional measures to dismantle the structures of impunity that continue to subvert the rule of law. The Philippine government now faces a decisive choice: to maintain a legal order that instrumentalizes law as a tool of repression, or to finally fulfill its obligation to uphold democratic accountability and human rights.