Press Conference For American HR Activist Barred From The Philippines, Another In A Pattern Of Political Repression

October 17, 2024

PORTLAND, OR — U.S. human rights activist denied entry to the Philippines, Copeland Downs, joined four other human rights defenders targeted by the Philippine government at an online press conference Thursday evening. Downs, a member of the Portland Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (PCHRP), has been a human rights advocate for seven years. On October 6, 2024, he arrived in Manila to observe the 6th Congress of Karapatan, a prominent human rights alliance. He was denied entry to the country and held by the Philippine Bureau of Immigration for hours. His luggage was searched and his passport was confiscated. He was told that he could not enter the Philippines because he is on a blacklist for “attending a rally in 2022” in the Philippines, which he did not do.

While Copeland did not attend any political rallies in 2022, he did travel to the Philippines that year to take part in an International Observers Mission (IOM) hosted by the International Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP). There, he and other advocates observed the elections process in the Philippines and documented widespread vote-buying, harassment, and multiple incidents of deadly violence. Downs connected his experience to the worsening conditions facing human rights defenders in the Philippines and the US: “My experience fits into the larger pattern of repressive actions by the US and Philippine governments who coordinate on surveillance strategy.”

As this repression escalates alongside growing US funding to the Philippine military, Copeland reflected on the upcoming US elections. “It’s clear in both parties’ platforms that they intend to increase the US military presence in the Philippines and around the region. As we’ve seen, more US military results in more vicious counterinsurgency tactics used against people fighting for their right to self-determination…[US] politicians are not prioritizing the wellbeing of their own constituents who are speaking up about the human rights abuses that the US funds, whether it’s repressing students protesting the US arming Israel or those participating in fact-finding missions in the Philippines.”

Joe Iosbaker of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression shared his experience of being “terror-tagged” during the same IOM in 2022. “[The Philippine National Police] hung banners in front of the hotel where I was staying..they had a picture of me on them [that] red-tagged me and told me to get out of the country.” There was even a picket line with similar slogans organized against Iosbaker, which he said was “no doubt from the NTF-ELCAC office.”

The National Taskforce to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) is the government-wide body created by former Philippine President Duterte in 2018. The task force orchestrates the Philippine government’s brutal counterinsurgency program, wherein the military and police relentlessly kill, disappear, and arrest anyone red-tagged or accused of being a communist in the context of the Philippines’ ongoing civil war. Two separate UN rapporteurs have urged the Philippine government to dissolve the NTF-ELCAC after years of the task force recklessly vilifying human rights activists and championing flagrant human rights abuses.

Peter Murphy, Chairperson of ICHRP, affirmed, “we are not intimidated but even more concerned about the situation of the Filipino people struggling for peace and dignity under exploitative and oppressive government measures.” Murphy reported on how current Philippine President Marcos Jr. has maintained President Duterte’s repression of activists under the umbrella of NTF-ELCAC counterinsurgency programs. When Marcos Jr. took office, “blacklisting escalated, repression persisted, militarization and bombings of rural peasant and indigenous peoples’ communities had no let-up.”

Exposing the dire human rights situation in the Philippines, Attorney Sol Taule of Karapatan Alliance shared her experience facing constant harassment by Philippine state forces. She remarked that it is “really odd for the Philippine government to label foreigners, such as Copeland, as ‘undesirable’” while under the NTF-ELCAC, 91 human rights defenders are facing charges and 28 are detained under false pretenses in the Philippines. This includes the youngest journalist in the world detained today, Frenchie Mae Cumpio, who still faces trumped-up firearm and terrorism financing charges. “That, to me, is ‘undesirable,’” concluded Attorney Taule.

Joseph Edward of BAYAN USA, an alliance of progressive Filipino organizations, shared other examples of repression faced by Filipino activists in the US. BAYAN USA organizations have been red-tagged “on fake news programs like SMNI’s Laban Kasama Ang Bayan,” the media outlet owned by known sex trafficker Apollo Quiboloy. Edward continued, “red-tagging is not only a tactic to smear and spread lies against our fellow activists, but to also threaten overseas organizers to stop their work of exposing and opposing the corrupt Philippine government.”

The press conference closed with ICHRP-US’ demands for the Philippine and US governments in light of Copeland’s blacklisting and escalating repression against human rights defenders:

• “We demand the Philippine Government:
• Remove Copeland Downs and all human rights defenders from the blacklist.
• Release of all information on Copeland Downs’ case to him.
• Allow other US citizens to inquire if they are on the blacklist, and, if so, make the reasons clear to them.”
• “We demand the US Government stand behind its citizens whose rights have been violated by:
• Openly condemning the targeting of Copeland and other human rights activists.
• Demanding more information from the Philippine government on Copeland's case and the names of other US citizens on the blacklist.
• Advocating for the removal of Copeland and other Filipino and solidarity activists in the US from the blacklist.”

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