Public Interest Law Center - Philippines

30/04/2026

IN THE NEWS: A lawyers’ organization has called on the government to operationalize the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) as it pressed for an impartial investigation into the killing of 19 individuals in Toboso, Negros Occidental.

PILC calls for an impartial probe into the killing of 19 in Toboso, Negros Occidental. Read why activating the JMC is crucial for human rights and IHL.

18/04/2026

READ: “A GROUP of Filipino human rights lawyers is receiving one of the most recognized honors in international advocacy, and the timing could not be more pointed.

The Robert & Ethel Kennedy Human Rights Center has named the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) as the recipient of its 43rd annual Human Rights Award, placing the Philippine organization in the company of activists and defenders from 31 countries who have carried the award since its founding in 1984. The center, led by Kerry Kennedy — daughter of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy — described NUPL as an organization that stands up to oppression “at grave personal risk in the nonviolent pursuit of human rights.

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Rooted in Dictatorship

To understand what NUPL’s recognition means, it helps to understand where it came from — and that story begins not in 2007 but in 1974, in the darkest years of Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s martial law regime.

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When Marcos fell in 1986, the infrastructure FLAG built did not disappear. It expanded. Activist lawyer Romeo Capulong, who had himself fled the country under martial law and founded the Filipino Lawyers Committee for Human Rights in New York in 1980, returned to the Philippines and in 1989 established the Public Interest Law Center (PILC), the country’s first public interest law firm. Although he was not a member of FLAG, Capulong worked and thrived in the same broader legal support ecosystem that FLAG pioneered.”

The 43rd RFK Human Rights Award goes to the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, whose members have faced killings, red-tagging, and state harassment for defending the poor and the oppressed....

12/04/2026

IN THE NEWS: The Public Interest Law Center (PILC) has criticized the arrest of seven urban poor individuals during a clearing operation in Quezon City and provided legal assistance to them during inquest proceedings on Saturday.

PILC provides legal aid to 7 urban poor residents arrested during a NIA Road clearing operation in Quezon City. Read about the fight for social justice here.

25/02/2026

STATEMENT

Forty years ago, millions of Filipinos rose in collective defiance along EDSA and toppled the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos Sr. But EDSA did not emerge in isolation. It was the culmination of years of resistance—not only in Metro Manila, but in campuses, factories, fields, and communities across Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Student mobilizations, workers’ strikes, church-led protests, underground organizing, and countless acts of courage in different parts of the country paved the way for that historic moment.

EDSA was a victory of collective action. It restored democratic institutions and reclaimed fundamental freedoms. Yet political change did not automatically dismantle the structures that enabled abuse and poverty. Subservience to foreign powers, enduring feudal conditions that keep many Filipinos landless and impoverished, and rampant corruption continue to distort governance and betray the public trust.

As we commemorate this historic triumph, we are reminded that democracy is not a one-time event but an ongoing struggle. The spirit of People Power lives wherever citizens organize, resist injustice, and demand accountability. Forty years on, the struggle continues—and so must our collective resolve.