On Duterte’s 3rd State of the Nation Address (SONA), political prisoners (PPs) from various jails across the country joined their voices to call for justice and demand accountability for the crimes and rights violations perpetrated by the Duterte regime.
As of June 2018, Karapatan documented 509 political prisoners in the country. Of this number, 179 were arrested under Duterte, 118 are sickly, 46 are women, 39 are elderly, 5 are minors, and 6 are consultants of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP). Most of the political detainees come from peasant and indigenous communities who were charged with trumped-up criminal charges.
