Church and secular activists in the Philippines and Canada are speaking out against the Philippine government’s practice of arresting and imprisoning clergy and church workers and accusing them of working with communist insurgents—a practice known as “red-tagging”— as Canadian Anglican leaders reiterate calls for a just peace and defence of human rights in the Philippines.
In 2025, the Anglican Church of Canada passed Resolution A160 at General Synod, re-affirming its commitment “to the pursuit of lasting peace with justice” for the people of the Philippines. It called on Canadian Anglicans to engage in solidarity and advocacy through prayer and action with church partners in the Philippines and organizations including the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP)-Canada to stop human rights violations such as extrajudicial killings, disappearances and red-tagging.
The Philippine government’s U.S.- backed “war of suppression”—which “targets people indiscriminately and also frames people,” according to ICHRP general secretary Clyde Mills (not his real name)—also extends to church members “who are doing the work of the church in terms of caring for those who are oppressed and downtrodden and poor and reaching out to marginalized communities.”
Speaking to the Anglican Journal, General Secretary Andrea Mann says the current situation in the Philippines reflects “a strongman approach to governance of peoples that is largely serving the elite and the interests of the United States,” in contrast to that of “our partners who do not represent those interests [and who] are seeking a return to peace talks … to amplify and align with the voices of Indigenous peoples in communities, human rights defenders, teachers, lawyers, unionists, folks that have a different approach to peace, justice and good governance.”
