LOOK: Lawyers and law students members of NUPL-NCR held a “Know Your Rights” seminar and legal aid clinic in Libis, Quezon City last August 18, 2024. The activity was organized in partnership with the barangay council of Barangay Libis and Bayan Muna Party-List.
For human rights defenders, humanitarian and religious workers, development NGO personnel, journalists, and community organizers, the unmistakable message is that legitimate social engagement and protected civic activity may be recast by the State as terrorism financing through broad and elastic standards untethered from real acts of terrorism. This shows how terror laws in the Philippines, by their nature and design, chill speech, deter association, and shrink civic space.
We offer our condolences to Ms. Muñoz’s family and loved ones, and our solidarity to her colleagues. May you find comfort in the respect she earned, the lives she touched, and the work she helped sustain.
I therefore join the urgent calls to immediately surface Chantal Anicoche, lift the military blockade in Abra de Ilog, and allow independent investigations and humanitarian access. withdraw military forces from civilian and indigenous communities in Mindoro, and end foreign military support that enables human rights violations in the Philippines.
We likewise call on lawyers’ organizations, human rights institutions, and all freedom-loving peoples to stand with the people of Venezuela and mobilize public pressure against this unlawful assault. The task before us is to resist imperial violence and the rule of force—firmly, collectively, and with an unambiguous commitment to the rule of law and the right of all peoples to determine their own future.