The Kapit Bisig international conference in Toronto this coming Friday September 25-Saturday September 26 will feature as a speaker Filipino human rights defender Cristina (Tinay) Palabay from Karapatan.
The conference is being organized by the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP), in partnership with the Friends of the Filipino People in Struggle (FFPS) and the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL).
The KARAPATAN website explains: “KARAPATAN is an alliance of individuals, groups and organizations working for the promotion and protection of human rights in the Philippines. Its founders and members have been at the forefront of the human rights struggle in the Philippines since the time of Marcos’ martial law regime.”
Front Line Defenders has also previously noted: “Cristina Palabay is the Secretary General of KARAPATAN or the Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights-Philippines. …Palabay has been with KARAPATAN since 2010 [and] has joined numerous quick reaction, fact-finding and humanitarian missions to document and investigate human rights violations, conduct advocacy activities and lead mass actions, and assist the victims of rights violations and their families.”
Thirteen KARAPATAN members killed
In August 2020, Human Rights Watch documented that KARAPATAN legal worker Zara Alvarez was shot dead in Bacolod City that month.
They further noted: “Alvarez is the thirteenth Karapatan member killed during the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte [2016-2022], the group said. Many others have been killed during previous administrations, which shows the risks of human rights work in the Philippines.”
Photo: Zara Alvarez.
KARAPATAN denounces aerial bombings
In January 2026, KARAPATAN called on independent national and international monitors of International Humanitarian Law to “immediately investigate the aerial strafing and bombings carried out by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in Barangay Cabacao, Abra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro on 1 January 2026, which left several civilians dead and one person missing.”
At that time, Palabay stated: “They dropped bombs from the skies and fired indiscriminately from helicopters. The military is solely responsible for these deaths.”
Just a few months later, on May 26-27, a delegation from the Philippines was in Ottawa for CANSEC, “Canada’s largest defence, security & emerging tech tradeshow where $1B+ in business deals happen every year.”
KARAPATAN and Palabay “red-tagged”
Human Rights Watch has also previously warned: “The military and police, along with other government agencies, have for years been ‘red-tagging’ Karapatan [that Global Witness explains is when legitimate activists are falsely branded as terrorists]. And the reality is that people who are ‘red-tagged’ are at heightened risk, including of being targeted for killing. This includes Karapatan’s secretary-general [Cristina Palabay], who herself has been subjected to ‘red-tagging’.”
On July 20, 2026, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was arriving in the Philippines, Palabay stated: “For years, successive Philippine governments have followed [the US counterterrorism] framework through security agreements, military cooperation, and legislation such as the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 and the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act. These measures have been used to red-tag, surveil, arbitrarily arrest, detain, and prosecute activists, trade unionists, peasant and indigenous leaders, humanitarian workers, journalists, lawyers, church people, and human rights defenders because of their people’s rights advocacies and dissent.”
“Really little daylight”
On the same day that KARAPATAN was criticizing the US counterterrorism framework, Canadian defence minister David McGuinty told reporters at the Farnborough Airshow in the United Kingdom that that there’s “really little daylight” between Canada and the United States on military and intelligence affairs.
Commemoration of martial law
Martial law under Ferdinand Marcos was signed on September 21, 1972, and announced to the public on September 23, 1972.
Today, September 21, Rappler reports: “Human rights alliance Karapatan connected the commemoration [of the 54th anniversary of the imposition of martial law by then-president Marcos in the Philippines] to present-day concerns such as corruption, red-tagging, arrests, and restrictions on dissent.”
That article quotes Palabay who says: “The legacy of Martial Law remains because the same atrocities continue, more than five decades after.”
Land and environmental defenders under attack
Global Witness has documented that at least 318 land and environmental defenders have been killed in the Philippines between 2012 and 2025.
Global Witness and Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) have also reported: “Since 2012, the Philippines has been ranked as the deadliest country in Asia for people protecting land and the environment, with mining linked to a third of all killings documented by Global Witness. …The military has been linked to the highest number of documented killings and detentions of land and environmental defenders in the Philippines over the past decade.”
Despite this, in November 2025, Canadian defence minister McGuinty commented: “The Philippines has shown true leadership in upholding international law … and for that [it has] Canada’s greatest and deepest respect.”
PBI-Canada looks forward to hearing KARAPATAN Secretary-General Cristina Palabay speaking in Toronto on September 26 and perhaps being able to ask her how the international community can better help protect human rights defenders in the Philippines from threats, harassment and attacks.
PBI recently launched a Southeast Asia Project to accompany human rights defenders in the Philippines, Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand.
Image: ICHRP promotion on Palabay speaking in Toronto.
