About 30 members of the environmental group Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment staged a surprise protest Thursday morning outside Philippine National Police (PNP)  headquarters at Camp Crame.

Demonstrators gathered to demand accountability from the PNP and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration over alleged human rights violations against environmental and indigenous leaders defending ancestral lands.

Participants included leaders from Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya, who reported experiencing police brutality and retaliatory legal actions, known as Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, filed by North Luzon Mineral Resources Corp.

Community members said local police forcibly dismantled their barricades, which had been set up to block mining activities threatening their livelihoods.

Lei Jin Dugay, a member of Kasibu Intertribal Response for Ecological Development who faces charges stemming from the blockade, criticized police intervention at community checkpoints.

Dugay said the barricades were necessary to prevent mining personnel from entering and destroying agricultural lands.

Members of the Cagayan 11, a group of peasant leaders and community organizers charged under Republic Act 10168, the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012, also participated in the rally.

The group claimed the charges rely on testimonies from alleged former rebels claiming activists supplied goods to New People’s Army encampments in 2019.