[STATEMENT] Defend Environmental Defenders, Junk Twin Terror Laws!

Six years ago, Republic Act No. 11479—the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020—was signed into law. What followed has been a systematic assault on those who dare defend our country’s natural resources. Today, we mark six years not of countering terrorism, but of weaponizing state power against environmental human rights defenders under both the ATA and its companion legislation, the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012.

The Philippines is abundant in land, minerals, forests, and waters. This wealth has attracted private corporations—often in cohorts with government officials and armed state personnel—to seize and control what should belong to all Filipinos.

When communities resist, they are branded as terrorists. First and foremost among those resisting are marginalized sectors whose very survival depends on protecting their environment: farmers defending their ancestral lands, fisherfolk guarding coastal resources, and Indigenous Peoples preserving ecosystems that sustain their communities. But under these twin terror laws, protecting one’s home becomes evidence of terrorism. Providing cooked rice and ₱50,000 to detained political prisoners? That’s “terrorism financing.” Organizing farmers against mining companies? That’s “material support for terrorists.” Advocating for ecological justice? That grounds for warrantless arrest, extended detention up to 24 days, and designation by an executive council without judicial oversight.

Nowhere is this betrayal clearer than in our treatment of Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA)—honored by Gawad Bayani ng Kalikasan in 2009 for decades of courageous indigenous advocacy. Chairperson Windel Bolinget faces red-tagging and legal harassment alongside Sarah Abellon-Alikes, Jen Awingan, and Stephen Tauli—all now designated as terrorists despite their recognized work protecting ancestral domains.

If an organization celebrated for defending forests and communities can be criminalized overnight, then no defender is safe. Instead of beiong listened to within legislative halls and across international platforms, here stands our environmental defenders in courtrooms or detention cells, a testament that a broken system recognizes no justice once the state has decided your resistance is “terrorism.”

Bolinget and the defenders in CPA are not alone, too. Across our nation, this legalized terrorism recurs. The very first case of Anti-Terror Law charges remains an ironically genuine testament to how baseless these accusations are. In August of 2020, Japer Gurung and Junior Ramos, Aeta farmers from Central Luzon made to eat human feces, was then charged with terrorism after the military falsely accusing them of firing at soldiers. Jazmin Aguisanda-Jerusalem—an “International Climate Heroine”, faced terrorism financing charges despite leading disaster relief and renewable energy projects in the Eastern Visayas. Miguela Peniero of Southern Tagalog, who was arbitrarily arrested by the Philippine Army while conducting community investigation on the environmental and health impacts of a proposed coal-fired power plant, was later on charged with Anti-Terrorism Act charges. Even Ronnie Manalo, secretary-general to the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, had his house wrongfully raided and was later cycled through charges—including Anti-Terrorism Act charges—despite baseless accusations being dropped.

Gawad Bayani ng Kalikasan exists precisely because such courage needs recognition, not prosecution. Many of our awardees—from the Cordilleras resisting dam projects to Mindanao communities opposing nickel mining—have found themselves in courtrooms rather than receiving halls. It is no accident that environmental activism itself is now treated as suspicious activity worthy of criminal investigation.

Six years is long enough. We stand in solidarity with every farmer facing arrest, every Indigenous elder threatened by military raids, every defender charged for providing basic necessities to detained activists. Whoever they persecute today will be tomorrow’s concern if silence remains our response.

We stand with the environmental human rights defenders’ demands:

Drop all charges filed solely on the basis of activist work. Cease red-tagging immediately.

Junk both of the twin terror laws! Repeal RA 11479 and RA 10168 entirely.

Hold perpetrators and human rights abusers accountable! Prosecute officials and security forces involved in malicious use of these laws against civilians exercising constitutional rights.