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Delon Porcalla - The Philippine Star
December 11, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — As the country marked International Human Rights Day yesterday, rights groups said the pattern of abuse extends well beyond the Duterte administration and continues under President Marcos.
Watchdog Karapatan accused the current administration of failing to curb extrajudicial killings and attacks on activists.
Since Marcos took office in July 2022, the network said 134 people have been killed and 15 forcibly disappeared, with state forces allegedly involved in many of the cases.
“International humanitarian law, which is supposed to protect civilians during armed conflict, has been consistently violated by the Marcos Jr. regime as the vast majority of EJK victims are leaders or members of peasant organizations who are falsely portrayed by the military as rebels killed in armed encounters,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said.
Beyond killings, the watchdog tallied 822 arbitrary arrests, 577 forced or fake surrenders and tens of thousands affected by indiscriminate firing and aerial bombings.
The group said about 48,200 people have been displaced by threats and military operations, while 696 political prisoners were documented nationwide, including 163 detained under the Marcos administration and 12 consultants and staff of the National Democratic Front.
Aside from these, Karapatan also criticized the expanded use of the Anti-Terrorism Act and related programs such as the National Action Plan for Unity, Peace and Development and the NTF-ELCAC, saying these have enabled profiling, red-tagging and “trumped-up charges” against activists.
According to Palabay, state forces have also “weaponized” anti-terrorism laws to clamp down on dissent, noting the arrest of 227 mass leaders and activists.
Recycled firearms
Meanwhile, in a privilege speech Tuesday, Akbayan Rep. Chel Diokno condemned what he called the “recycling” of firearms allegedly used to justify killings during the Duterte administration’s six-year war on drugs.
Diokno revealed that a single Colt .45 pistol with serial number 936185 was reported as “recovered” three times in Quezon City – on Sept. 22, 2016 in Barangay San Bartolome; Sept. 23, 2016 in Barangay Talipapa and Nov. 30, 2016 in Barangay Nagkaisang Nayon.
Seven other firearms bore identical serial numbers but were listed with varying descriptions of make, model or caliber, supposedly seized in separate police operations involving different suspects, he added.
“It is incumbent on the Philippine National Police to prove that these are different firearms. If they are the same, this means that at least 14 firearms were recycled by the QC Police from 2016 to 2018,” he said.
These findings, Diokno said, directly undermine the “self-defense” narrative long advanced by police officers under former president Rodrigo Duterte and then-PNP chief Ronald dela Rosa.
Based on the Office of the President’s 2017 year-end report to the high court, 20,322 people were killed in the first 17 months of the drug war.
In several incidents, the same firearms – bearing matching serial numbers – appeared as recovered evidence in different police operations on various dates and in multiple locations, raising concerns about systematic evidence-planting.
In Quezon City alone, the firearms that appeared to have been reused included several .45-caliber pistols of varying brands and serial numbers: a Colt (Serial 361852), Remington (047936), Remington (793618), Colt (9111243), Colt (479361) and a Springfield Armory (195859).
Diokno urged Congress to probe those involved and compensate the families of victims.
