government’s ongoing “war on drugs”. arrested and killed. Allegations by the President Duterte continued to incite violence security forces that firearms and explosives against people suspected of using or selling were seized during the raids, and that those drugs. In his State of the Nation Address in killed were resisting arrest, were denied by 4 July, he also called on Congress to legislate the groups involved. In a speech given two for free legal assistance for members of the days before the raids, President Duterte said 1 security forces accused of unlawful killings. that he had ordered the police and military to In October, the Department of Justice “kill” communist rebels. In December, the released partial information from its review of Department of Justice recommended the just 52 of the thousands of cases involving filing of murder charges against 17 law killings by police during anti-drug operations. enforcement officials for the death of labour Although the review was woefully inadequate leader Emmanuel Asuncion during the raids. and failed to meet international standards, its Opposition to the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), limited findings contradicted police claims which granted the government broad powers that lethal force had been justified, and to detain perceived enemies of the state, confirmed violations documented by local continued. In December, the Supreme Court, 2 and international human rights groups. acting on petitions challenging the In September, the ICC’s pre-trial chamber constitutionality of the ATA struck down two authorized an investigation into crimes, portions of the law, including parts of Section including the crime against humanity of 4 that vaguely and broadly defined acts of murder committed in the context of the “war terror, which the Court found to be on drugs”, throughout the country between “overbroad and violative of the freedom of 2016 and 2019, and killings in the Davao expression”. However, the law remained 3 5 area between 2011 and 2016. The flawed and open to abuse. In July, a court in government said it would not cooperate with Olongapo city in Central Luzon dismissed the investigation. In November, the ICC charges against two members of the announced that it had temporarily suspended Indigenous Aeta community as a case of the investigation, following a request by the mistaken identities. The case was believed to Philippine government. be the first brought under the ATA since it UN experts and human rights groups was introduced in July 2020. repeated calls for the UN Human Rights Prisoner of conscience Senator Leila de Council (UNHRC) to set up an international Lima, one of the first opposition politicians investigation into killings and other human targeted by the Duterte administration, spent rights violations, amid concerns that the joint her fifth year in detention. In February, a UN capacity-building and technical court dismissed one of three politically- assistance programme established under a motivated charges against her – that of 2020 UNHRC resolution was failing to conspiracy to commit illegal drug trading. advance justice and protect human rights. REPRESSION OF DISSENT INDIGENOUS PEOPLES’ RIGHTS Attacks persisted against Indigenous peoples The linking of organizations and individuals to and Indigenous peoples’ rights activists. In communist groups by the authorities, known January, the Cordillera police chief issued an as “red-tagging”, led to killings and order to “shoot-to-kill” Windel Bolinget, a harassment of human rights defenders, prominent Indigenous peoples’ rights political activists and others. On 7 March, advocate, if he resisted a warrant for his security forces killed nine people and arrest. A politically motivated murder charge arrested six others in simultaneous raids against Windel Bolinget was dismissed in against “red-tagged” groups in Southern July.6 Tagalog. Environmental activists and urban On 28 February, unknown assailants shot poor community leaders were among those dead Julie Catamin, the chief of Roosevelt Amnesty International Report 2021/22 299