Around 30 environmental defenders staged a protest outside the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters at Camp Crame in Quezon City on Thursday to denounce what they described as fabricated cases and police harassment against environmental activists.

In RH Edniel Parrosa's report on Damdaming Bayan, the protesters, based on an estimate from the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority’s Metrobase, carried placards and called on authorities to stop what they said was the criminalization of environmental and Indigenous Peoples’ (IPs) rights advocates.

The demonstration was led by the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment and joined by Indigenous Peoples’ groups, including Tignayan dagiti Agtutubo ti Kordilyera para iti Demokrasya ken Rang-ay (TAKDER) and Katribu.

The protesters said activists opposing mining, environmental destruction, and projects affecting ancestral lands have faced harassment and intimidation.

Raven Desposado, an environmental activist opposing mining activities in Benguet, claimed that police had visited their homes in what he described as an intimidation tactic.

He alleged that activists who refused to be silenced through surveillance, red-tagging and other forms of harassment were eventually threatened with criminal charges.

“Higit pa kapag hindi ka nila napatahimik sa kanila mga pagbisita, harassment, intimidation sa inyong mga tahanan. Hindi ka nila napatahimik sa mga pananakot, red tagging at iba't iba pang mga surveillances. Nandiyan ang bibigyan ka ng mga gawa-gawang trump of charges,” Desposado said.

The group claimed that more than 70 individuals have been charged in what it described as fabricated cases.

The protest also came days after five people were arrested during an anti-Pax Silica rally in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, on September 10.

The demonstration turned tense as protesters and police clashed, with police reporting injuries among their personnel and protest groups reporting injuries among activists.