This morning PBI-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson met with Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos, National Chairperson of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), and Rosie Lucente of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP).
PBI recently launched a Southeast Asia Project to accompany human rights defenders in the Philippines, Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand. This meeting between PBI-Canada, KMP and ICHRP in Ottawa was a first in-person opportunity to connect and learn about each other’s work.
One of the many interesting points of connection was the similarity between the struggles of peasants in the Philippines and those PBI-Canada learned about when they met with the PBI-Honduras accompanied National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC) in Honduras last month. For more on this, please see PBI-Canada and PBI-Honduras meet with the National Union of Rural Workers (CNTC) in Tegucigalpa (PBI-Canada, March 4, 2026) and Israeli military exports linked to eviction of CNTC farming community, violence against human rights defenders in Honduras (PBI-Canada, April 22, 2026).
Another issue of common concern is human rights violations by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, military “cooperation” between Canada and the Philippines, and the supply chain – weapons exports and the CANSEC arms show – that enables this violence against human rights defenders. For more on this, please see Journalist, researchers killed by Armed Forces of the Philippines on eve of Operation Balikatan exercise with Canadian soldiers (PBI-Canada, April 25, 2026).
Danilo “Ka Daning”
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. At least six of these attacks were linked to government bodies, notably the armed forces in four cases.”
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 at Carleton University tonight (April 29), Anakbayan Ottawa notes: “We will discuss the many struggles imposed upon Filipino farm workers and the Filipino population as a whole.”
