Today, on the 48th anniversary of the Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos’s declaration of martial law in 1972, MFSA is in solidarity with the Filipino people and condemns the continued Human Rights abuses in the Philippines.  The current Philippine President, Duterte, and his regime pushes to establish a state of dictatorship that reaches beyond what even Marcos accomplished with martial law.

With the recent passing of the unjust Anti Terror Law, Duterte and his regime target and redtag human rights activists and organizations as terrorist and communist.  This kind of de facto Martial Law allows not only for major human rights violations but for outright state sanctioned killings of anyone who speaks out against the regime.

MFSA condemns the redtagging, intimidation, killings, and terrors committed by Duterte and by Duterte’s regime, and MFSA supports the Philippine Human Rights Act.  Introduced last week in Congress, this legislation would “suspend United States security assistance to the Philippines until such time as human rights violations by Philippine security forces cease and the responsible state forces are held accountable.”