Karapatan condemned the Marcos regime for banning US activist Copeland Downs from entering the Philippines on October 5. Downs is the chair of the Portland Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines and an active member of the International Coalition on Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP)-US. He was scheduled to attend the 6th National Congress of Karapatan as an ally and observer.

He was barred by Bureau of Immigration (BI) personnel at the airport, his belongings searched, his passport confiscated, and was eventually deported back to his country of origin.

Karapatan found out that the Philippine government “blacklisted” Downs due to his supposed participation in a rally in the country in 2022.

Downs asserted that he had only visited peasant and urban poor communities in the Philippines as part of an international delegation of observers who investigated the 2022 elections.

“Like the previous regimes, the Marcos Jr. administration resorts to violations of the people’s right to international solidarity, to freedom of movement, and of other civil liberties to whitewash and hide the human rights and international humanitarian law violations that it commits against the Filipino people.” KARAPATAN secretary general Cristina Palabay said.

According to Palabay, such blacklists target groups and allies who monitor the human rights situation in the country. They are unjustly labeled as criminals or terrorists to hinder their ability to advocate against human rights violations in the country.

Karapatan has documented at least 17 incidents of attacks against foreign activists and ICHRP members since 2018, which includes surveillance while visiting the Philippines, harassment, Red-tagging, and others. Even Australian nun Sister Patricia Fox was not spared from repression and deportation by the previous Duterte regime.

Karapatan called on the Marcos regime to repeal its policy of banning foreign activists from entering the Philippines. This is also a challenge for the international community and organizations to strengthen their solidarity with democratic groups in the Philippines and intensify their monitoring of the human rights situation in the country.