Memory as resistance, justice as duty
We will fight to finish what was started and to build the just and free society that EDSA promised but has yet to deliver.
February 25, 2025
NUPL
The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers is a nationwide voluntary association of human rights lawyers in the Philippines, committed to the defense, protection, and promotion of human rights, especially of the poor and the oppressed.

PRESS STATEMENT
February 25, 2025

Decades after the fall of the Marcos dictatorship, the very forces it embodied remain deeply entrenched in our political and economic systems. The return of the Marcoses to power is not just a historical irony; it is the deliberate erasure of truth and the repeated failure of institutions to hold the powerful to account.

Worse, the same failure to exact justice haunts us today: Sara Duterte is yet to tried before the impeachment court, while Rodrigo Duterte remains unpunished for the thousands of drug war-related extrajudicial killings under his regime. Their continued evasion of justice proves that impunity is not an aberration, but a systemic failure. It thrives when history is rewritten and resistance is silenced.

This is why we do not mark the anniversary of EDSA to indulge in nostalgia. We remember to resist. We remember because impunity thrives where memory fades. And we remember because the fight for justice remains an urgent and unfinished task.

But justice demands more than remembrance. It requires dismantling the very structures that sustain impunity, including the militarization of governance and the weaponization of the law against dissent. It demands an end to state-sponsored killings, political persecution, and the suppression of civil liberties. It means exposing and confronting the machinery of historical distortion that seeks to whitewash past crimes while justifying present-day abuses.

The betrayal of EDSA is not just in the return of the Marcoses or the continued rule of political dynasties. It is in every stolen life, every silenced voice, and every truth distorted to serve the powerful. It is in the unpunished crimes of the past that embolden today’s oppressors. It is in the state’s refusal to confront the deep injustices that fuel armed resistance and keep generations trapped in poverty.

History, however, is not destiny. The power that once toppled a dictator still burns in every Filipino who refuses to be silenced and to accept injustice as fate. The fight for justice is not a relic of the past: it is our duty today.

We will fight to finish what was started and to build the just and free society that EDSA promised but has yet to deliver.

Never forget. Never surrender. Never again.

Reference:
Atty. Josalee S. Deinla
NUPL Secretary General
+639174316396

Read more

Defend the youth speaking against injustice, corruption, and red-tagging

Defend the youth speaking against injustice, corruption, and red-tagging

The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers-National Capital Region (NUPL-NCR) stands with youth activists and their fundamental right to free speech and expression. NUPL-NCR assisted youth leader Christian Mataverde on October 20, 2026 as he filed his counter-affidavit before the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor of Rizal in the cyberlibel complaint brought against him by an official of the University of Rizal System (URS), Pililla Campus, for violation of Section 4(c)(4) of Republic Act No. 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012. Cyberlibel potentially carries the penalty of up to eight years in prison.

Four UST students appeal sanctions over PAF exhibit: NUPL and PILC ask Rector to stay penalties and reverse OSA resolutions

Four UST students appeal sanctions over PAF exhibit: NUPL and PILC ask Rector to stay penalties and reverse OSA resolutions

Raven Kristine Racelis, Ralph Christian Manuel, Mecaella Sean Carl Capalar, and Dex Anderson Frogoso, represented by the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) and the Public Interest Law Center (PILC), asked the Office of the Rector to reverse and set aside the separate resolutions issued by the UST Office for Student Affairs on October 2. They also sought an urgent stay of their suspensions and all related sanctions while the appeal is pending.

NUPL seeks to keep Gorgonio amparo case in Manila

NUPL seeks to keep Gorgonio amparo case in Manila

NUPL President Atty. Ephraim Cortez speaks outside the Court of Appeals on September 29, 2026, following the filing of a motion seeking reconsideration of the transfer to Cebu of the amparo and habeas data proceedings involving NUPL–Negros Chairperson Atty. Rey Gorgonio and three development workers of the Paghida-et sa Kauswagan Development Group (PDG).

US sanctions against the ICC: Imperial power in the service of impunity

US sanctions against the ICC: Imperial power in the service of impunity

Under Trump’s Executive Order No. 14203, the designation subjects the ICC to US financial sanctions that threaten to restrict its access to American banks, technology, and other essential services. Given the United States’ influence over the global financial system, these restrictions could disrupt the Court’s operations, including investigations, witness protection, and even the delivery of assistance and reparations to victims.

Share This