International Learning and Solidarity Mission kicks off in the Philippines amid state harassment
As part of an important solidarity effort, international delegates are currently participating in an International Solidarity Mission (ISM) to various communities in 4 different provinces in the Philippines to document and report on the impact of climate injustice and militarization.
For FFPS one of the important highlights of the ISM and our participation, is to help break through the military cordons around civilian rural villages and expose to the world the rampant war crimes and other forms of suppression committed by the US-Marcos regime under its de-facto martial law. Read our opening press release here.
To share with you the reports and other important news coming out of the ISM, we’ll be launching a daily ISM update! Please read-on for short recaps of the first 2 days in some of the provinces visited by the international delegation, and make sure to help promote all the findings of the ISM.
At the same time there are urgent reports of various forms of repression against the ISM by state forces. These only further implicate the regime and its state forces, underscoring that they have something to hide. You can read more about these reports, and how to support, at the end of this ISM watch report or through our press release here: https://ffps.info/2025/10/12/support-the-international-solidarity-mission-and-ramp-up-international-solidarity-with-communities-in-the-philippines-against-state-suppression/
Mindoro
In Occidental Mindoro the ISM was opened on October 11 with gathering and orientation at an encampment of the local communities in Abra de Ilog. The communities in the area are facing heavy militarization, violations of their rights, and land grabbing by Pieceland corporation with complicity of the Philippine government since May 2024. The delegates were warmly welcomed by the community.
Already on the first day state forces tried to keep the delegation from breaking through to the community, highlighting the deep state complicity in the exploiting and militarization of the community, and the need for international solidarity.
On the second day the delegates joined the community in discussions on their conditions and local struggles. The delegates learned about the local people’s agenda as opposed to the militarization and land-grabbing in the region, and about the democratic aspirations of the local peasant masses.
Read more reports about Mindoro: https://www.facebook.com/peoplesrisingcj/posts/pfbid0asMVxGH…
Negros
The ISM in Negros opened with an educational session on the situation of farmers, farmworkers and indigenous peoples of Negros. Their struggles were situated in the broader socio-economic context of the Philippines. Specific focus was given to feudal exploitation, landlessness, and on the militarization in regions chosen for development projects.
Read more reports about Negros: https://www.facebook.com/peoplesrisingcj/posts/pfbid0ZPWq4y4…
Eastern Visayas
On the second day of the mission, participants visited a farming community in Samar, where they had a sharing and discussion on the worsening poverty, lack of government livelihood support, climate change effects, and militarization the peasant community is experiencing. Members of the local farmers’ association shared their hardships in agricultural production, such as the lack of farming equipment, changing climate patterns, increasing price of farm inputs.
For the comprehensive reports and updates, please stay up-to-date by following https://www.facebook.com/peoplesrisingcj or https://www.instagram.com/prcj.global/
International Solidarity
The systematic poverty, as a result of (semi-)feudal exploitation and oppression, faced by the rural poor is one of the key conditions driving people to take up arms in revolutionary struggle. Our delegates participating in the ISM were able to experience first-hand the socio-economic hardships and state repression faced by the landless peasants, farm workers and others in the rural communities. Unabated and inspired by the stories of the local struggles, the delegates expressed their solidarity with the communities in their demand to end the military presence and militarization.
Overall ISM participants resolved to bear witness, learn from the peasant struggles, and strengthen solidarity against landlessness, exploitation and imperialist plunder.
On the harassment by state forces
FFPS strongly condemns the ongoing harassment, intimidation and surveillance of the International Solidarity Mission (ISM) by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), and other state forces.
Cases in Rizal, Leyte, and Mindoro show that from day one of the ISM, there has been a persistent trend of continuous harassment, intimidation and surveillance by state forces in most of the provinces that the mission is mobilizing to.
Call to action
As the US-Marcos regime intensifies its de-facto martial law and all forms of attacks on civilians, and its repression of the International Solidarity Mission, FFPS calls on everyone in the international community to support the ongoing solidarity efforts by amplifying their voices.
There is an urgent need for solidarity responses to these ongoing state attacks to help ensure that the mission can do its work, and to help promote all the findings of the ISM. These can be in the forms of solidarity statements, press releases and interviews, the printing and sharing of ISM (urgent and daily) reports, solidarity graffiti’s as well as other means to bring the Solidarity Mission outcomes to a bigger public. We also encourage everyone to widely share the reports by the PRCJ, by FFPS and other organizations involved in the solidarity mission.
As FFPS we are proud to participation in this important and concrete effort of international solidarity communities in the Philippines affected by climate imperialism and militarism, and we call on everyone to stand with the delegates amidst suppression, and strengthen our support to the struggles of the Filipino people.