A series of charges have been brought against human rights defender Mr Kelly Muñez Delgado in the Southern Mindanao Region of the Philippines.

Further Information

Kelly Muñez Delgado is the secretary general of the Karapatan Alliance for the Advancement of People's Rights in the Southern Mindanao Region (Karapatan-SMR). His work as a human rights defender has involved responding quickly to reports of human rights violations, in particular those perpetrated by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) against indigenous peoples and farmers. Front Line previously issued an urgent appeal in relation to death threats against Kelly Muñez Delgado on 18 June 2008.

On 12 June 2010 Karapatan-SMR received information that several charges had been filed against Kelly Muñez Delgado by the State security forces. Upon visiting local courts in pursuit of further information, staff of Karapatan-SMR were able to confirm that a case has been filed against Kelly Muñez Delgado in the court at Branch 3, in the Municipality of Nabunturan, in the Compostela Valley Province.

The charges against Kelly Muñez Delgado include multiple murder (criminal case number 6689), frustrated murder (6690), multiple frustrated murder (6691) and theft (6692), which allegedly took place during an encounter between the New People's Army (NPA) and the AFP between 24 and 25 October 2008 in the outskirts of New Bataan, Compostela Valley Province. However, according to sources at Karapatan-SMR, Kelly Muñez Delgado's name does not appear on any of the original charge sheets for the four cases filed on 13 March 2009. Rather, his name was added to all four cases under an amended information charge sheet on 27 November 2009.

Kelly Muñez Delgado has linked the charges against him to the work carried out by Karapatan-SMR during 2008 and 2009 in condemning and exposing alleged human rights violations perpetrated by state security forces in the region at the time.

Front Line believes that the charges against Kelly Muñez Delgado are directly related to his work in defence of human rights and constitute an attempt by the authorities to delegitimise the work of human rights defenders through criminal cases linking them to illegal armed groups.