On this International Day of the Disappeared, the Center for Environmental Concerns – Philippines (CEC) stands in solidarity with the families of forcibly disappeared individuals, demanding that all desaparecidos be surfaced and that justice be served in their cases. 

As an organization, we recognize the crucial role of environmental and human rights defenders (EHRDs) in advancing civil society’s fight against environmental destruction and towards climate justice. Despite their crucial role in a country that is considered [1] the most dangerous for environmental defenders in Southeast Asia, EHRDs face numerous risks and remain susceptible to rights violations, including enforced disappearances, where state agents abduct or detain individuals, refusing to acknowledge their whereabouts [2] 

A report from KARAPATAN has shown that there are currently 16 cases of enforced disappearance since Marcos Jr. took office in July 2022 [3]. Prominent cases involve the disappearances of environmental defenders Dexter Capuyan and Bazoo De Jesus. The two disappeared on the evening of April 28, 2023, in Taytay, Rizal. They were forced into separate vehicles by individuals claiming to be personnel of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National Police PNP [4]. Both are indigenous rights and environmental defenders dedicated to organizing grassroots campaigns that protect ancestral lands, natural resources, and local communities in the Cordillera region from destructive extractive projects. 

Farmers and Indigenous Peoples (IPs) who are also on the front lines of environmental defense experience enforced disappearance and other forms of attacks from state-backed forces. Research has shown that extractive industries like mining drive human rights violations, with a 73% increase in 2025 [5]. These attacks are driven by intensified militarization in mining sites, which puts EHRDs and communities actively resisting land-grabbing and environmental destruction at risk. An emblematic example of this is the Didipio gold and copper mine in Nueva Vizcaya, where over a hundred armed state forces violently broke a peaceful indigenous barricade during the 2020 pandemic lockdown to forcibly escort corporate fuel tankers into the site [6]. 

This truth also serves as the primary reason why CEC strongly rejects the push for the U.S.-led Pax Silica initiative [7] in Tarlac. Pax Silica, as an industry that will further accelerate the extraction of critical minerals in a resource-rich country like the Philippines, heightens the risk of militarization and rights violations of peasant and Indigenous communities across the country and in the 1,600-hectare site itself. 

While the state systematically and legally welcomes or supports extractive projects through the existence of neoliberal policies like the Mining Act of 1995 [8]–it ultimately fails in protecting environmental defenders and providing justice to the victims of enforced disappearances. The case of Eco Dangla and Jak Tiong serves as concrete proof of this. Following their abduction and subsequent resurfacing in Pangasinan, environmental defenders Eco Dangla and Jak Tiong petitioned the Supreme Court for legal protection. Although protective writs were initially issued, the Court of Appeals (CA) officially denied their petition for permanent Writs of Amparo and Habeas Data on September 23, 2025 [9]. Despite acknowledging that the abduction, forced disappearance, and prior red-tagging occurred, the court rejected the plea on the grounds of “insufficient evidence” directly linking state military or police forces to the perpetrators.  

Justice for human rights violations is inseparable from the broader environmental struggle. CEC, in its conviction to stand with civil society, calls for the immediate surfacing of forcibly disappeared individuals. As part of this, we also call for urgent protection for those who were surfaced and accountability from state forces behind these abductions. We reiterate the role of the government to protect its citizens and advance their interests. 

Our organization also demands the repeal of terror laws and abolition of mechanisms that drive human rights violations, like the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).

We urge civil society to join the fight and continuously demand justice for the desaparecidos. The Filipino people must continuously demand justice for the forcibly disappeared and hold both the government and state military forces fully accountable for ongoing human rights violations.

Surface all desaparecidos! No to mining and Pax Silica! Repeal terror laws!

References

[1] Bulatlat. (2023, October 4). After 5 months, Cordillera activists Dexter, Bazoo still missing. https://www.bulatlat.com/2023/10/04/after-5-months-cordillera-activists-dexter-bazoo-still-missing/

[2] Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. (2020). Philippines: Indigenous land rights defender killed. https://www.business-humanrights.org/my/%E1%80%9E%E1%80%90%E1%80%84/philippines-indigenous-land-rights-defender-killed/

[3] Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. (2024, February 7). Human rights abuses linked to transition mineral mining surge by 73% in just one year; seven in ten implicated mines tied to listed companies. https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/from-us/press-releases/human-rights-abuses-linked-to-transition-mineral-mining-surge-by-73-in-just-one-year-seven-in-ten-implicated-mines-tied-to-listed-companies/

[4] Global Witness. (2021, September 13). Roots of resistance: The annual report on land and environmental defenders. https://globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/land-and-environmental-defenders/roots-of-resistance/

[5] Karapatan Alliance Philippines. (n.d.). Karapatan Alliance Philippines. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://www.karapatan.org/

[6] The LawPhil Project. (1995, March 3). Republic Act No. 7942: Philippine Mining Act of 1995. Arellano Law Foundation. https://lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra1995/ra_7942_1995.html

[7] Panganiban, Y. (2025, September 25). CA junks activists’ plea for protective writs, tells PNP, AFP to get abductors. Inquirer.net. https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2117292/ca-junks-activists-plea-for-protective-writs-tells-pnp-afp-to-get-abductors

[8] Rappler. (2024, May 14). Things to know: Pax Silica Philippines goals, concerns. https://www.rappler.com/technology/features/things-to-know-pax-silica-philippines-goals-concerns/

[9] Supreme Court of the Philippines. (2001, December 21). Republic Act No. 9184 / Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act. Supreme Court E-Library. https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocs/2/51264