PBI-Canada will be attending the presentation on Wednesday April 29 at Carleton University in Ottawa by Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos, National Chairperson of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP/Peasant Movement of the Philippines).
PBI recently launched a Southeast Asia Project to accompany human rights defenders in the Philippines, Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand.
The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP-Canada) has previously highlighted: “Ka Daning, a farmer himself, is a staunch human rights defender and environmentalist. KMP has effective leadership over a total of 1.3 million rural people with 65 provincial chapters and 15 regional chapters nationwide.”
AlterMidya has reported: “Ka Daning is a survivor of the 1987 Mendiola Massacre. He was among the tens of thousands of poor farmers from Luzon who marched to the then Ministry of Agrarian Reform and later to Mendiola. They were demanding free land distribution to the then Cory Aquino administration when the Philippine Constabulary (now PNP), opened fire at the protesting farmers, killing 13 and injuring scores of others.”
In February 2024, PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP) expressed “deep concern about the reported incidents of surveillance and red tagging that Danilo Ramos, chairperson of the Peasant Movement of the Philippines (KMP), has recently faced.”
They further noted: “Many cases of human rights violations, including political killings, involve activists red-tagged by the government. We are outraged that Ramos is facing real threats to his life for standing up for the rights of landless Filipino peasants.”
Attacks on HRDS in the Philippines
In September 2025, Global Witness stated: “Once again, the Philippines had the highest number of murders and long-term disappearances in Asia, with eight cases in 2024 – despite seeing a decrease in cases since 2023. At least six of these attacks were linked to government bodies, notably the armed forces in four cases. But violent attacks against land and environmental defenders – and killings and disappearances of human rights defenders more broadly – have not necessarily abated.”
Global Witness adds: “Filipino human rights alliance Karapatan documented 14 killings of human rights defenders in 2024.”
Between 2012 and 2023, at least 298 defenders were killed in the Philippines (the third highest in the world after Colombia and Brazil). The military was responsible for 64 out of 117 killings of Indigenous defenders in the Philippines during this period.
Ramos in Ottawa, April 29
In their promotion of Ramos speaking on April 29, Anakbayan Ottawa notes: “We will discuss the many struggles imposed upon Filipino farm workers and the Filipino population as a whole.”
