APCHRP: Return of Donald Trump will result in escalating violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the Philippines

The victory of Donald Trump in the recent United States elections marks a continuation of the U.S. empire’s legacy of violating international humanitarian law, suppressing immigrants’ rights, oppressing workers through neoliberal policies, and deploying military troops to its colonies and semi-colonies. The United States will further its persistent interference in other nations’ right to self-determination and its aggressive warmongering against rival imperialist powers, particularly China, in a bid to assert dominance in the Indo-Pacific region. 

This policy was evident during the administration of Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, where the Trump administration supported his government’s violent policies. These included the bloody war on drugs, which claimed over 30,000 lives; brutal counter-insurgency operations resulting in hundreds of extra-judicial killings; the suppression of press freedom; the shutdown of Lumad schools in Mindanao under the accusations of being “rebel training grounds”; and the declaration of Martial Law in Mindanao, which displaced thousands of civilians. 

The Duterte regime is tightly bound to the United States due to the support it receives in the form of loans from foreign banks such as the World Bank and IMF, as well as military assistance from the Trump administration through different lopsided military treaties such as VFA and EDCA. In 2018, the International People’s Tribunal investigated the Trump and Duterte governments, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, transnational corporations, and foreign banks operating in the Philippines, and found them guilty of gross human rights violations. 

Under the current Trump-Marcos administration, these violations are expected to persist and even intensify. The Philippines’ debt from the United States will continue to balloon, and in exchange, neoliberal policies will be imposed, worsening the hardship of Filipino workers. The plunder by transnational companies of Philippine forests and ancestral lands will also escalate, as they continue to extract raw materials for profit. 

The Trump administration will further strengthen the Marcos Jr. government through military and police assistance, in pursuit of their of “counter-insurgency efforts”, which will consequently escalate violence against the Filipino people. Last year, the Biden administration pledged $500 million in military aid to the Philippines for defense against ongoing aggression in the West Philippine Sea.  While seemingly generous, the gesture is no more than the U.S.’ encouragement for the Philippines to provoke an escalation of conflict with China, using the Southeast Asian nation as a tool in its imperialist war against their Asian rival.

The Asia-Pacific Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (APCHRP) together with the international community and other human rights organizations in the Asia-Pacific, will be closely monitoring and fighting back against these expected worsening human rights violations. The APCHRP calls on the Trump administration to respect the sovereignty of the Philippines, cease its provocation in the West Philippine Sea, and stop the deployment of military forces in the country. It also urges the Marcos Jr. government to revoke the unequal treaties and agreements, including the Mutual Defense Treaty, Visiting Forces Agreement, and Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. ###