Teodoro’s Statement Exposes the U.S.-Marcos Jr. Regime’s Brutality Against the People
The Asia Pacific Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (APCHRP) strongly condemns recent comments made by Secretary of National Defence (SND) Gilbert ‘Gibo’ Teodoro opposing the resumption of peace talks between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). His statement exposes the U.S.-Marcos Jr. regime’s bloodlust and preference for violence and warfare instead of addressing the roots of the conflict – injustice, landlessness and abject poverty particularly in the Philippine countryside.
The 57-year old armed conflict in the Philippines did not emerge in a vacuum. It is rooted in decades of landlessness, labour exploitation, poverty, and repression imposed by foreign multinational companies, local oligarchs, and large landlords on Filipino peasants, workers, and the masses. To finally achieve peace will only be possible if we confront these injustices, and address perennial issues such as the lack of decent jobs, low wages, continuing labour export policy that send Filipinos to perilous jobs abroad, and systematic violations of human rights. No bullet or bomb will ever be enough to end the conflict entirely, but will only cause more deaths and suffering among Filipinos. Despite this fact, the regime of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. continues to answer the people’s demands with fascism, heightening militarization, and state-sanctioned terrorism.
The most recent bloodshed in Toboso, Negros Occidental is another episode in the reactionary Philippine government’s preference to use violence over peace talks and social justice in addressing the communist rebellion. Their aversion to just peace is further exposed by the continued imprisonment of NDFP peace consultants and activitists, detained as political prisoners. As of December 2025, the number of political prisoners has reached 699, including 165 arrested under the Marcos Jr. regime. Among them are 12 NDFP consultants and staff who are crucial to the continuation of peace negotiations. Their continued detention shows that the regime seeks to sabotage the peace process while covering up its systematic neglect of the people.
Recently, Sec. Teodoro himself explicitly declared that the U.S.-Marcos Jr. regime has no intention of meeting the NDFP and the New People’s Army (NPA) for peace talks. His remarks only confirms what had long been clear to human rights defenders and peace advocates: that the reactionary government would prefer to see more Filipinos killed to protect the interests of foreign multinationals and large local businesses and oligarchs. In doing so, Teodoro affirms the U.S.-Marcos Jr. regime’s loyalty to these monied interests, over the Filipino people it is supposed to serve. The Marcos Jr. regime will insist their opposition to peace talks is due to the NPA being a “terrorist” organisation. This is a blatant lie and a shameless attempt to hide the state’s own long record of war crimes and human rights violations. From July 2022 to December 2025, Karapatan documented 135 extrajudicial killings, 16 enforced disappearances, 826 arbitrary arrests, 577 cases of forced or fake surrender, 70,028 cases of indiscriminate firing, 57,156 cases of indiscriminate bombing, 48,247 cases of forced evacuation, and 10,825,864 cases of threats, harassment, and intimidation. These figures expose the U.S.-Marcos Jr. regime, and its mercenary military, as the real terrorists. They are happy to displace civilian communities, disrupting their livelihood in the process, in order to advance the business interests of their corporate masters.
Sec. Teodoro’s statement is not a call for justice or peace, but a declaration of war against the ordinary Filipino people. It attempts to justify greater militarization in the countryside and intensified attacks on the Filipino masses.
APCHRP reiterates its stand to achieve just and lasting peace in the Philippines, and the fact that this can only be achieved by addressing the root causes of the armed conflict. Instead of more indiscriminate aerial bombings and strafings, heightening militarization, or the repression of activists and non-combatants, the U.S.-Marcos Jr. regime should instead address longstanding issues of landlessness among peasants, stagnating wages among workers, and the continuing forced migration of Filipino workers overseas due to a lack of decent jobs at home. For as long as the legitimate demands of peasants, workers and working-class Filipinos continue to be met with tyranny and fascism, the armed conflict will continue.
Free all political prisoners!
Stop the attacks on the people!
Hold the Marcos Jr. regime and the AFP accountable!
