January 20, 2026
Rev Glofie G Baluntong, a United
Methodist Church (UMC) District Superintendent for Mindoro,
Romblon and Marinduque at the time, was arrested on
attempted murder charges in 2021, following an alleged clash
between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the
New People’s Army (NPA). She was finally acquitted of this
charge by the Regional Trial Court in Mindoro Oriental on
December 8, 2025. This outcome was announced by the UMC on
January 17, 2026.
“The International Coalition for
Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) joins with the UMC
in celebrating this victory for Rev Baluntong, and at the
same time we condemn the state prosecutors and the
Philippine judiciary for the long delay to this outcome. The
Duterte and Marcos Jr governments are again exposed for
grave abuse of judicial process,” said ICHRP Chairperson
Peter Murphy.
“ICHRP calls for the dropping of all
trumped-up cases and the release of all political prisoners
held by the Marcos Jr government, numbered at 696 at the end
of November 2025,” said Murphy.
Rev Baluntong was
able to post bail, and thus avoid detention while awaiting
trial. During her trial, she was able to prove that she was
officiating at a funeral service on March 25, 2021, at the
time of the alleged clash between the AFP and the NPA. And
the prosecutors were unable to prove that the alleged
wounded soldier had ever been wounded or could identify who
may have shot at him. The court found that Baluntong was
charged because her name appeared in a government “order
of battle.”
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And why was she in the “order of
battle”? The UMC said she had been targeted for providing
sanctuary to Indigenous Mangyan communities resisting
mining, logging and land-grabbing.
Government support
for these destructive projects means massive intensification
of militarization and war crimes committed by the AFP on
Mindoro. On the first day of the year, in the town of Abra
de Ilog, the AFP deployed over 1000 soldiers and further
terrorized the community with indiscriminate aerial bombing
and strafing from helicopters. Almost 700 residents were
forced to evacuate, and the attack resulted in the deaths of
five civilians, including three children.
Rev
Baluntong told online journal Bulatlat
in November 2022 that the harassment started after she
allowed members of a fact-finding team of human rights group
Karapatan-Southern Tagalog to spend the night in her church
sometime in June 2019. The group was assisting families to
claim the bodies of guerilla
fighters killed in a clash with the military from a
funeral home in the area.
On October 6, 2022, the
state prosecutors withdrew an August 2021 charge against Rev
Baluntong of violating the Anti-Terrorism Act, saying that
they had insufficient proof to sustain the charge.
Rev
Baluntong was forced to leave Mindoro because of this
sustained harassment by the National Task Force to End Local
Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
ICHRP echoes the
call of the UMC to the Philippine government:
- End
the vilification and the filing of trumped-up charges
against individuals and organizations, including members of
the church who uphold peace in society, human rights, and
environmental justice; - Repeal repressive laws,
especially the Anti-Terrorism Act, which has been weaponized
to suppress, intimidate, and attack advocates of
environmental protection and human rights; - Abolish
the NTF-ELCAC, a principal government agency with a long
record of repression, baseless accusations, and the
dissemination of falsehoods; - Honor previously signed
agreements in the peace talks with the National Democratic
Front of the Philippines (NDFP) that uphold human rights and
international humanitarian Law; and resume peace talks with
the NDFP to order to address root causes of the armed
conflict, including poverty, the destruction of the
country’s natural resources, and foreign dominance of the
country.
“ICHRP calls on the international
community to treat the Philippine government as a pariah and
to cease all military aid until there is genuine respect for
human rights for the Filipino people,” Murphy
concluded.
