National Union of Peoples' Lawyers, 3F Erythrina Bldg. , #1 Maaralin cor Matatag Sts. , Brgy Central, Quezon City (2026)

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3F Erythrina Bldg. , #1 Maaralin Cor Matatag Sts. , Brgy Central

18/05/2026

NUPL WELCOMES DISMISSAL OF TERRORISM FINANCING CHARGES AGAINST CERNET

Press Release
18 May 2026

The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) welcomes the Order issued today by Regional Trial Court Branch 74 in Cebu City dismissing the terrorism financing charges against the Community Empowerment Resource Network, Inc. (CERNET), its officers, and council members.

The accused were charged under Section 8(ii), in relation to Section 9, of Republic Act No. 10168 or the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act for allegedly failing to prevent the delivery of ₱135,000 to the New People’s Army in September 2012, only months after the law took effect on June 18, 2012. The court granted the Joint Motion to Dismiss, ruling that the acts charged did not constitute an offense.

Section 15 of R.A. 10168 clearly requires the Department of Foreign Affairs to publish the list of designated persons before any designation can have legal effect in the Philippines. No such publication had been made as of September 2012. The first official domestic action designating the NPA, Proclamation No. 374, was issued only on December 5, 2017, while the ATC resolution came later, in December 2020. We note, however, that the prosecution’s reliance on earlier foreign designations to supply the missing element is constitutionally untenable on an additional ground. In Calleja v. Executive Secretary, the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional the second mode of designation under Section 25 of R.A. 11479, precisely because automatic adoption of foreign and supranational designations without adequate safeguards cannot pass constitutional muster (NUPL is pursuing the same constitutional challenge against Proclamation No. 374 in other proceedings).

Without official publication, there was no legally operative “designated person or organization” that could serve as the basis for a charge under Section 8(ii). One of the essential elements of the offense was absent from the start. The case should never have been filed.

The prosecution’s attempt to rely on Philippine Star news reports on foreign designations made years before R.A. 10168 was enacted cannot substitute for the publication expressly required by law. To treat newspaper clippings as sufficient notice is legally indefensible and contrary to basic due process.

The case highlights the continuing weaponization of counterterrorism laws against humanitarian work and legitimate advocacy. These laws grant executive agencies sweeping powers with immediate and punitive consequences, often before any meaningful judicial scrutiny can take place.

NUPL calls on the Department of Justice to dismiss or withdraw charges without sufficient legal basis or based on fabricated evidence. Prosecutors who pursue and maintain cases they know, or ought to know, are legally defective must be held accountable. # # #

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

📸 Photo credit: Rappler

14/05/2026

NUPL HAILS FRENCHIE MAE CUMPIO'S IWMF COURAGE AWARD AS REPUDIATION OF STATE REPRESSION

Press Statement
14 May 2026

The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) congratulates our client Frenchie Mae Cumpio, executive director of Eastern Vista and radio broadcaster with Aksyon Radyo Tacloban, on her conferment of the 2026 Wallis Annenberg Justice for Women Journalists Award by the International Women's Media Foundation (IWMF).

The IWMF award is yet another rejection of the state’s manufactured narrative. While the legal proceedings remain ongoing — with Frenchie Mae currently appealing her conviction for terrorism financing before the higher courts — no credible international institution, independent observer, or honest appraisal of the circumstances surrounding her arrest and prolonged detention has lent any legitimacy to the charge that she is a criminal. Whatever the local court may have ruled, the world recognizes in Frenchie Mae a journalist imprisoned for doing her job; and in that recognition lies the most damning vindication of her work and cause as a people's journalist.

We also remember RJ Nichole Ledesma, editor of Paghimutad-Negros and regional coordinator of the Altermidya Network, who was killed on 19 April 2026 during a military operation in Toboso, Negros Occidental. RJ and Frenchie Mae are bound by the same truth: that in the Philippines, reporting from the margins can cost a journalist freedom or life itself. The state that imprisoned one gave no quarter to the other.

As her legal counsel, we are profoundly honored and grateful for having been entrusted her legal battles. She has bravely faced charges that are, at their core, reprisals for her reporting human rights abuses in militarized communities in Eastern Visayas — journalism pursued not for recognition, but out of necessity, in one of the poorest regions in the country. She is one of the brave clients that inspire us to be brave lawyers.

We will stay committed to her defense and to working for her freedom. # # #

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

13/05/2026

THE SENATE MUST NOT BE A SANCTUARY FOR IMPUNITY

Press Statement
12 May 2026

The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers condemns the decision of the new Senate majority, led by Senate President Alan Peter Cayetano, to place Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa under so-called “Senate protective custody” and to declare that he will not be arrested inside the Senate chamber. This is obstruction of accountability for crimes against humanity, executed on the Senate floor in full public view, on behalf of a man whom the International Criminal Court (ICC) has found reasonable grounds to believe was a co-perpetrator in the systematic killing of thousands of poor Filipinos.

The constitutional immunity from arrest available to members of Congress under Section 11, Article VI of the 1987 Constitution applies only to offenses punishable by not more than six years imprisonment while Congress is in session. The conduct for which Dela Rosa stands accused before the ICC — crimes against humanity — is penalized under Republic Act 9851 with penalties far exceeding that threshold. Even if the warrant were to be enforced through domestic proceedings, the privilege would not apply.

RA 9851 is the governing domestic law. Section 17 authorizes Philippine authorities to surrender persons in the Philippines to an international court already conducting the investigation or prosecution of crimes within its jurisdiction, without requiring a separate domestic charge. The government cannot now disown the same legal framework it invoked when it surrendered former President Rodrigo Duterte to the ICC in March 2025.

The ICC Pre-Trial Chamber I has confirmed a warrant of arrest against Dela Rosa, issued in November 2025 and made public in May 2026, for his role as indirect co-perpetrator in drug war killings from July 2016 to April 2018. With the ICC's public confirmation of the warrant, the Philippine government is duty-bound to arrest Dela Rosa and surrender him to the Court.

Despite its withdrawal from the Rome Statute, the Philippines remains bound by Article 127(2), which preserves obligations incurred while the treaty was in force. This was affirmed by the Supreme Court in Pangilinan v. Cayetano, where it ruled that withdrawal does not discharge the State from obligations already assumed. The Philippines is likewise bound by the principle of pacta sunt servanda, which requires treaties to be performed in good faith. Section 17 of RA 9851 further gives the State discretion to assume jurisdiction over international crimes or to defer to an international tribunal — and where it chooses to defer, it is expressly authorized to surrender custody of the accused to that tribunal. Surrender under Section 17, it must be stressed, is distinct from extradition: extradition applies between States pursuant to treaty, and the ICC, as an international court, is not a party to any extradition treaty. Finally, there is no provision in RA 9851 or in any applicable procedural rules that grants Philippine courts jurisdiction to confirm or review the enforceability of ICC warrants. Absent such express authority, no court may take cognizance of an ICC arrest warrant or interfere with its ex*****on.

Against this framework, the duty of the Philippine government is clear: cooperate in the ex*****on of the ICC warrant and surrender Dela Rosa to the Court.

We will not soon forget the sight of Dela Rosa — caught on CCTV in an undignified sprint through Senate corridors, faltering up the stairs, retreating behind the walls of the same institution he had largely abandoned while an ICC warrant for his arrest lay sealed. The bravado that once dared critics to come for him dissipated the moment he had to run. After six months of hiding and failing to show up for work as a sitting senator, it is time for him to face the music. # # #

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

📷Photo Credit: Senate of the Philippines

10/05/2026

To every mother doing the world's most important unpaid work, with special remembrance of those separated from their children, we salute you!

08/05/2026

PRESS RELEASE
8 May 2026

NUPL Urges Supreme Court to Act on Mary Jane Veloso Habeas Corpus Petition

The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL), through its Women and Children Committee headed by Atty. Katherine A. Panguban, filed today a Motion to Resolve urging the Supreme Court to act on the Petition for Habeas Corpus filed on behalf of Mary Jane Veloso on 14 November 2025.

The petition seeks judicial review of the legal basis for Veloso’s continued detention following her return to the Philippines.

As stated in the Petition, it is the position of Mary Jane Veloso that her continued incarceration at the Correctional Institute for Women, despite the absence of any judgment, treaty, or legislative authority in the Philippines expressly supporting the continued enforcement of Indonesia’s penal judgment, violates her fundamental rights. The Petition further argues that, as a recognized victim of trafficking, her continued deprivation of liberty constitutes an injustice that must be addressed without delay.

In a handwritten letter addressed to Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo and attached to the Motion, Mary Jane Veloso stated that her prison record at the Correctional Institution for Women reflects a sentence of reclusion perpetua, which she believes has no legal basis.

“Lubos ang aking paniniwala na walang legal na batayan na ako ay manatiling nakapiit lalo na sa ilalim ng sentensyang reclusion perpetua. Aking napag-alaman na ito ang hatol na nakasaad sa aking carpeta dito sa CIW.”

(“I firmly believe there is no legal basis for my continued detention, especially under the sentence of reclusion perpetua. I have learned that this is the judgment stated in my prison record here at the CIW.”)

The Petition raises important questions concerning the right to liberty, due process, and the protection of trafficked persons under domestic and international law.

“Mary Jane’s letter is a deeply human appeal for justice,” Panguban said. “The writ of habeas corpus exists precisely to allow the courts to examine whether a person’s detention continues to have sufficient legal basis. We respectfully urge the Supreme Court to resolve the petition at the soonest possible time.”

In the same letter, Veloso also appealed to the Court as a mother who has spent years separated from her children:

“Ako po ay lumalapit sa inyo bilang isang taong umaasa sa katarungan at sa malasakit ng ating Kataas-Taasang Hukuman at bilang isang inang matagal nang nawalay sa kanyang mga anak. Sa darating na Mother’s Day ngayong Mayo 10 ay ika-17 beses na akong mawawala sa piling ng aking dalawang anak. Ganito na katagal silang walang nanay na gumagabay at kumakalinga sa kanila.”

(“I come before you as someone hoping for justice and compassion from our Supreme Court, and as a mother who has long been separated from her children. This coming Mother’s Day on May 10 will mark the 17th time I will be away from my two children. For that long, they have been without a mother to guide and care for them.”)

Panguban also emphasized the personal toll of Veloso’s prolonged detention.

“Behind every legal proceeding is a family waiting for resolution,” she said. “Mary Jane is a mother who has spent seventeen long years separated from her children. We hope that her petition will be given the urgent attention that cases involving trafficking victims deserve.” # # #

Reference:

Atty. Katherine A. Panguban
NUPL Committee on Women and Children Head
+639566730301

06/05/2026

THE PHILIPPINES IS NOT A MISSILE RANGE

Press Statement
6 May 2026

The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers condemns the launch of a Tomahawk cruise missile by the United States military in the early hours of 5 May 2026 from its Typhon Mid-Range Capability system stationed at Tacloban Airport—a civilian facility. The missile traveled more than 630 kilometers across Philippine airspace before striking a target inside Fort Magsaysay in Laur, Nueva Ecija.

That the missile reportedly carried an inert payload does not lessen the gravity of the incident. The Typhon system is a fully operational weapons platform designed to launch Tomahawk cruise missiles—armed with up to 450 to 510 pounds of high explosives and capable of striking targets with precision. The only difference between this test and an actual attack is the payload. What was demonstrated was not only the system’s readiness and reach, but also a troubling precedent: that Philippine territory can be used to project foreign military power.

The legal consequences are equally grave. Under international humanitarian law, civilian objects are protected from attack unless—and for such time as—they are used in a way that effectively contributes to military action and their destruction offers a definite military advantage. The Marcos administration has placed a critical civilian infrastructure, and the people who depend on it, within the legal crosshairs of future targeting determinations in a region where armed conflict is neither unthinkable nor unprovoked. Should hostilities erupt, Tacloban Airport’s prior use as a missile launch platform would factor into targeting assessments under the laws of armed conflict, placing civilians at risk in a war they did not choose.

This incident stems directly from the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement — an executive arrangement that, as we have argued before the Supreme Court, stands in clear contradiction to the constitutional principles that the Philippines renounces war as an instrument of national policy and upholds an independent foreign policy grounded in sovereignty. The Filipino people alone, who were neither informed nor gave their consent, will bear the risks.

NUPL demands the immediate suspension of Balikatan 41-2026; full public disclosure of the legal basis for the deployment and operational use of the Typhon system; a Senate inquiry into the constitutional implications of this launch; and a comprehensive review of EDCA with a view to its abrogation.

The Philippines is not a testing ground for foreign weapons. It will not be a launchpad for war. # # #

Reference:
Atty. Ephraim B. Cortez
NUPL President
+639172092943

📷 Photo credit: Defense News

03/05/2026

NUPL TO SECRETARY TEODORO: IF WE ARE “AT PEACE,” WHY DOES THE ARMED CONFLICT PERSIST

Press Statement
3 May 2026

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. dismissed renewed calls to resume GRP-NDFP negotiations, declaring: “The Filipinos are at peace. They are the ones disturbing the peace.” He denies the reality of communities living under sustained militarization and state violence recasting a protracted armed conflict merely as an internal security threat rather than a deep-seated social, economic, and political crisis requiring a negotiated settlement. In Negros, where peasants remain among the poorest in the country — dispossessed and exploited across generations — such a declaration is an insult to their reality.

The calls rejected by Teodoro came from former GRP peace negotiators — lawyers and civil society figures who sat across from the NDFP between 2014 and 2020. They warned that incidents like the Toboso killings further shrink what little room for dialogue remains, and urged the resumption of talks without preconditions. Teodoro responded by saying that to negotiate would be to "elevate the morality of their cause to something legitimate, which I cannot accept."

Such a bellicose position not only obstructs the resolution of a decades-long armed conflict; it contradicts the Marcos administration's own campaign for a Philippine seat on the UN Security Council. A government cannot credibly claim that it is a “voice for principled peace” and a “committed peacemaker” abroad while its defense chief forecloses every avenue for peace at home, not least while hosting the largest and most expansive Balikatan exercises in the country's history.

Regardless of whether peace talks resume, the GRP remains legally obligated under both domestic and international law to observe and respect international humanitarian law and human rights — and such obligations are legally demandable and enforceable. NUPL thus reiterates its call for full accountability for the Toboso killings. # # #

📷 Photo credit: Karapatan

02/05/2026

On this 124th Labor Day, the NUPL stands with the Filipino working class in their fight for a living wage, genuine job security, and an end to the violent repression of unions and organizers.

Workers’ rights are not privileges granted by those in power. They are fundamental rights that the government continues to deny with impunity, from the picket line to the prison cell.

The struggle continues!

Mabuhay ang uring manggagawa at mamamayang Pilipino!

25/04/2026

We Will Not Fall for the Lies: On the Toboso Killings and the Military's Pattern of IHL Violations

Press Statement
25 April 2026

We will not fall for the lies.

When Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro, Jr. asks “why were they there in the first place, if indeed they were students and civilians,” he does more than echo the self-serving narrative of the Philippine Army, he presumes that the poor, the dispossessed, and those who stand with them have no legitimate place in the communities where structural violence is daily life. In the same breath, he threatens legal consequence, suggesting that such presence in a peasant community "could constitute aiding and abetting or obstruction of justice."

The Philippine Army's 79th Infantry Battalion claims that all 19 individuals killed in the series of firefights that began before dawn on April 19 were armed members of the New People's Army (NPA). The NPA has publicly stated that only three among the 19 were their members. The identities of the others tell a different story: UP Diliman student leader Alyssa Alano; peasant advocates Maureen Keil Santuyo and Errol Wendel; community journalist RJ Nichole Ledesma, who was reportedly conducting immersion reporting on the impact of solar farm and windmill projects on farming communities in a separate sitio; Filipino-American activist Lyle Prijoles; and several villagers. Their presence in Toboso was a conscious act of solidarity with communities facing landgrabbing, systemic neglect, and the grinding poverty that decades of counterinsurgency have done nothing to address.

AFP Chief of Staff Gen. Romeo Brawner, Jr. distinguished US citizen Chantal Anicoche from Alano, noting that Anicoche was found "not shooting" and was treated humanely, even as humanitarian workers who came to her aid were denied access to her, and even as a vlogger at her discovery site miraculously knew to address her in English upon finding her. In their official statement, the Philippine Army asked: why were they at the site of the encounter — armed and shooting?

These are the right questions to ask:

- Why would students, journalists, and advocates not be present to live alongside and document the struggles of peasant communities with long histories of landlessness, oppression, and poverty? Is solidarity now a crime?

- If IHL’s core principles — distinction, proportionality, and precaution — were observed, how is it that 19 people are dead, over 650 residents of Barangays Salamanca and San Jose displaced? What does proportionality mean when a firefight ends with no reported military casualties and 19 dead civilians and alleged combatants alike?

- Why does the military's response to civilian scrutiny follow a now-familiar script: stage the scene, control the narrative, then blame the dead for being where they were found?

The military narrative seeks, perhaps, to drown out the tributes from the masses — from those who buried NPA member Roger Fabillar, who apparently had a one-million-peso bounty on his head, and the students, journalists, and activists who rallied in campuses and public places to seek justice for all the victims. After all, the AFP has a documented record of violating International Humanitarian Law against civilians, persons hors de combat, and the dead — staging the remains of alleged fallen fighters in photographs with fi****ms, flags, and "subversive" documents, or mockingly portraying bodies as "corned beef" on their own social media pages. They have produced Photoshopped photos of "surrendered" rebels for the Task Force Balik Loob program. Disinformation is a weapon they deploy alongside the guns. But as we said, we will not be fooled.

The facts on the ground are still being established. The NUPL awaits the findings of the fact-finding mission conducted by Karapatan and other human rights organizations, and will issue a more detailed legal assessment once those findings are before us. What is already clear, and what no military press release can obscure, is that the circumstances of these killings demand rigorous, independent scrutiny — not the self-investigation of the very institution whose troops carried out the operation, and not the whitewash of an NTF-ELCAC whose mandate is to justify these operations rather than examine them.

We call for a truly independent investigation into the April 19 killings in Toboso with full and unimpeded access for humanitarian workers, independent human rights experts, and the families of the dead. We call for accountability — not just for those who pulled the trigger, but for those who ordered, tolerated, and concealed the killings. We call on the international community to monitor this case closely, as it is not an isolated incident but part of a continuing pattern of IHL violations across the Philippine countryside. # # #

*Photo by Bulatlat

20/04/2026

The 43rd Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award belongs to every people's lawyer who ever chose the harder path and to every client who trusted us with their cause.

Our officers speak on what this recognition means, in their own words.

Swipe through. 👇

🔗 rightsreport.org/2026/04/18/nupl-rfk

19/04/2026

NUPL Calls for Investigation and Prosecution of Donors and Recipients, Including Marcos and Duterte, in Prohibited Contributions Case

PRESS STATEMENT
17 April 2026

The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) calls on the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to fully exercise its constitutional mandate under the 1987 Constitution to enforce election laws and investigate election offenses, in relation to the verified complaint filed on 17 April 2026 by election watchdogs and anti-corruption activists Prof. Danilo A. Arao, Raymond D. Palatino, Rochelle M. Porras, Nina Estelle S. Fegi, Gabriel N. Lacerna, and Francesca Mariae M. Duran.

The complaint* concerns violations of Section 95(c) of the Omnibus Election Code, which prohibits campaign contributions—direct or indirect—from persons or entities holding government contracts during the election period, and likewise makes it unlawful to solicit or receive such contributions.

The records cited identify the following material facts:
• Rodulfo D. Hilot, Jr., President of Rudhil Construction Enterprises, Inc., contributed ₱20,000,000.00 on May 2, 2022 to then-presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. At the time, Rudhil Construction had existing contracts with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) dated January 9, February 11, and March 9, 2022.
• Glenn Y. Escandor, President of ESDEVCO Realty Corporation and Genesis 88 Construction, Inc., is linked to a contribution of ₱19,923,904.00 on February 28, 2022 to then-vice presidential candidate Sara Duterte, coursed through ESDEVCO Realty Corporation. Genesis 88 Construction, Inc. had an existing DPWH contract dated February 10, 2022.
• Corporate records and financial statements indicate common control and raise substantial questions as to whether these contributions were made indirectly by government contractors, in circumvention of the statutory prohibition.

The Statements of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCE) filed before COMELEC confirm that these amounts were received by the respective campaign organizations of Marcos Jr. and Duterte.

Under Section 95(c), liability attaches not only to those who give prohibited contributions, but also to those who solicit or receive them. At this stage, the standard is probable cause. The documentary evidence on record—SOCE filings, DPWH contracts, SEC records, and corporate financial statements—sufficiently establishes reasonable ground to believe that violations may have been committed by both the contributors and the recipients.

NUPL stresses that COMELEC’s constitutional duty admits of no selective application. Any investigation that excludes the recipients of the contributions, despite clear statutory language, would be inconsistent with the Commission’s mandate to enforce election laws.

Accordingly, COMELEC must conduct a full preliminary investigation, indict, and prosecute all respondents, including Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte for prohibited campaign contribution.

COMELEC is urged to honor the plain text of the law with equal force regardless of who the respondents are. Selective enforcement is not enforcement at all; it is a license for impunity. The evidence is on record, the law is clear, and the duty is unequivocal. COMELEC must act—fully, impartially, and without delay. # # #

National Union of Peoples' Lawyers

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