Global Witness released a report on Tuesday that again showed the alarming level of violence against land and environmental defenders in the Philippines. Of the 196 defenders reportedly killed or forcibly disappeared globally in 2023, 17 were in the Philippines, the highest toll in Asia. More environmental defenders have been killed in the country than anywhere else in the region over the past 11 years.
Many of the attacks documented by Global Witness and other groups were linked to the defenders’ opposition to destructive industries such as mining. This is an alarming global trend, with more than 2,000 activists killed worldwide over the past decade. Many of the victims in the Philippines, which is notorious for frequently carrying out enforced disappearances targeting activists, are Indigenous leaders defending their land from environmentally harmful projects.
Global Witness listed 10 of the Filipino victims as killed and 7 others as “disappeared.” The enforced disappearance of land and environmental defenders and Indigenous activists is common across the Philippines. “We have so many cases of killings and arbitrary arrests and detention. Many of these are what I call invisible cases because little is known about them publicly,” Joan Carling, executive director of the Indigenous Peoples Rights International, told me last month.
Apart from abductions, arbitrary detention, politically motivated prosecutions, and murder, environmental defenders and Indigenous leaders in the Philippines are also subjected to harassment and intimidation through “red-tagging,” where authorities allege them to be sympathizers or supporters of the country’s communist insurgency. Red-tagging is often a precursor to physical violence.
The Global Witness report should prompt the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to protect land and environmental defenders and credibly investigate attacks on them. The international community, including multinational companies and investors, should be more concerned about the violence, speak out against it, and ensure that their business practices in the Philippines are consistent with international human rights principles and standards.
