MANILA — Civic space in the Philippines continues to deteriorate with the Philippine government’s failure to implement human rights obligations, global civil society alliance CIVICUS reported.
“Since coming to power, the (Ferdinand Marcos Jr.) government has sustained a systematic pattern of repression against activists, harassing those who defend human rights with the use of trumped-up charges or anti-terror laws,” said Josef Benedict, Asia researcher of CIVICUS.
The Philippines has been rated “Repressed” for five consecutive years — the second worst rating a country can receive — indicating severe restrictions to the freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, and association.
The country was included in the Monitor Watchlist last March 2026, flagging serious concerns about its crackdown on dissent, criminalizing protesters, and targeting activists.
Read: Philippines on human rights watchlist due to crackdown on dissent
“The government must reverse course to protect the rights of activists and allow them to work without fear, interference or retaliation,” Benedict added.
Such a rating was a product of failure of the Philippine government to fulfill its human rights obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which it ratified in 2007.
For example, the government failed to implement the recommendations on civic space during the fourth cycle of the Universal Periodic Review in November 2022 at the United Nations Human Rights Council. It includes the need for the Philippine government to ensure enabling space for civil society and human rights defenders, end red-tagging or the linking of activists and human rights defenders to armed insurgency.
The ICCPR mandates all state parties to respect and protect civic freedoms, including freedoms of association, expression and peaceful assembly: all of which are also enshrined in the 1987 Philippines Constitution.
Among the significant forms of attack against activists is the use of fabricated charges under the twin terror laws.
Karapatan reported as of September 2026 that at least 259 individuals had been charged with the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) and the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act (TFPSA).
Activists are also being charged with violations of the Public Assembly Act of 1985, a relic from the Martial Law of dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr used against protesting activists.
The Marcos Jr. administration has been warned several times this year for its low performance on human rights and civic space. In Safety from the State metric of the Human Rights Measurement Initiative, the Philippines scored a “very bad” performance for freedom from arbitrary arrest, which is the lowest score recorded among Southeast Asian countries surveyed. Its freedom of assembly and association metric also falls under “bad” score.
Read: Philippines’ human rights record worse than average in Southeast Asia
The CIVICUS report also flagged the persistence of red-tagging and killings against activists and journalists. The Philippines remains the deadliest country for environmental and land defenders in Asia since 2012, while it maintains a low rank of 114th in the World Press Freedom Index of the Reporters Without Borders due to its press freedom violations this year.
Moreover, the impunity for the killing of 19 people in Negros Occidental this April 19, 2026, is also highlighted in the report. Not one has been held accountable for the killing of nine civilians and ten revolutionaries, with the Philippine Army maintaining that all of them died in armed encounters.
“The authorities must respect the right to protest and ensure that when arbitrary arrests occur or excessive force is used, that the perpetrators are held to account,” Benedict said.
Some of CIVICUS recommendations for the government include the abolition of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), adoption of Human Rights Defenders Protection Act, decriminalization of libel and cyber-libel, and the withdrawal of the Digital Media Anti-False Information Bill. (RTS, RVO)
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