The following is based on a communication written by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and other UN experts to the Government of the Philippines on 2 June 2025. The communication remained confidential for 60 days before being made public, giving the Government time to reply. Regrettably, the Government did not reply within this time frame. If a reply is received it will be posted on the UN Special Procedures communications database.
Since the sending of the communication, the case of Ms. Salome Crisostomo Ujano remains pending resolution before the Court of Appeals. According to her lawyer, the next step is to file a motion for medical furlough to allow her to receive the necessary medical care, followed by a motion for bail. Human rights advocates emphasised that the process has been moving very slowly, as she has already spent more than a year in prison since her conviction.
This is a shorter version of the original communication.
BACKGROUND
Topic: the arrest and detention of Ms. Salome Crisostomo Ujano in Malolos City since 2021.
Ms. Salome (Sally) Crisostomo Ujano is a woman human rights defender who has served as Executive Director of the Women’s Crisis Center (WCC), resource mobilization officer and coordinator of the WCC survivors’ support program, and National Coordinator of Philippines Against Child Trafficking (PACT). Ms. Ujano was also involved in the drafting and implementation of laws such as the Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children Act of 2004. Through these roles, she has worked closely with the Philippine National Police Women and Child Protection Units and the National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, advocating for the rights of survivors of abuse and victims of violence against women and children. The woman human rights defender was recognized for this work when she was awarded the ‘Natataging Babae’ award from the Commission on Women of Malolos, Bulacan in 2004.
ALLEGATIONS
In 2005, Ms. Salome Crisostomo Ujano was working as Executive Director of the WCC and pursuing a masters degree at St. Scholastica’s College. On 28 June 2006, an arrest warrant was issued for Ms. Ujano by Branch 59 of the Lucena City Regional Trial Court on the basis of allegations of rebellion related to the alleged ambush of two military personnel by members of the New People’s Army (NPA) that is alleged to have occurred sometime between 19-25 November 2005 in Quezon Province.
On 14 November 2021, Ms. Ujano was arrested in Malolos City by unidentified plainclothes police officers who claimed that she had been in hiding. The woman human rights defender was then brought into police custody and detained in Taguig City Jail on the basis of the charges filed against her in 2006. Ms. Ujano reportedly had not received any court summons before her arrest. On 29 December 2022, following one year of imprisonment, the woman human rights defender was provisionally released.
On 16 May 2024, Ms. Ujano was re-arrested and convicted by Branch 266 of the Taguig City Regional Trial Court on charges of rebellion and accused of being a high-ranking officer and member of a group involved in a series of crimes committed against government troops. The information used to charge Ms. Ujano stated that more than sixty unidentified members of the NPA ambushed and fired upon members of the Philippine Army. According to evidence introduced by the prosecution, Ms. Ujano had been identified by two witnesses in a video conference hearing who claimed that they had seen her engaging in hostilities against government troops. In response to these allegations, the woman human rights defender provided an alibi reportedly supported by witness testimonies and documentary evidence, such as bank checks and WCC reports, which provided that during 19-25 November 2005, she had been engaged in professional and personal activities at various locations up to 100 km from where the events in question were supposed to have taken place.
On the same date, 16 May 2024, Ms. Ujano was sentenced by Branch 266 of the Taguig City Regional Trial Court to serve a minimum of ten years in prison and a maximum of 17 years and four months. The woman human rights defender was placed in the custody of the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City where she remains detained at this time, pending appeal.
[Redacted paragraph]
The woman human rights defender receives basic medical care within the CIW but has been advised by her doctor that she requires medical tests that require facilities which the CIW cannot provide. Ms. Ujano’s legal representatives have submitted the required documents for court approval to grant the woman human rights defender this medical attention but the delay in process has left Ms. Crisostomo Ujano without the prescribed medical intervention for over one year.
CONCERNS
In the communication, we express our deep concern about the continued criminalisation and alleged arbitrary arrests of woman human rights defender Ms. Salome Crisostomo Ujano. We are particularly concerned about the apparent lack of due process employed in the arrest of Ms. Ujano and the fact that the woman human rights defender was held in pre-trial detention for one year before her provisional release. It is of our utmost concern that the authorities did not respect Ms. Ujano’s right to due process and that she was unaware of the charges she faced until her detention, fifteen years after the charges were filed. If confirmed, the alleged facts would appear to contravene, among other norms, with articles 9 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), acceded to by the Philippines on 23 October 1986, which guarantee the rights not to be arbitrarily deprived of liberty and the right to a fair trial.
The alleged arbitrary arrest and continued detention of Ms. Ujano is deeply worrying, as it appears to be in direct response to her legitimate and important work as a woman human rights defender in the Philippines. This creates a hostile environment for human rights defenders in the Philippines, which in turn generates fear amongst human rights defenders, preventing them from carrying out their work and from exercising their legitimate rights to freedom of association and to freedom of expression. In this regard, the allegations above could amount to a violation of article 19 of the ICCPR, which guarantees the right to freedom of opinion and expression.
The former UN High Commissioner warned in her 2020 report that red-tagging human rights defenders – labelling them as communists or terrorists – is extremely dangerous and that human rights defenders must be protected from this type of targeting. Furthermore, the Human Rights Council resolutions noted grave concern about the fact that “in some instances, national security and counter-terrorism legislation and other measures, such as laws regulating civil society organizations, have been misused to target human rights defenders or have hindered their work and endangered their safety in a manner contrary to international law.” Further, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression highlighted, in her preliminary observations at the end of her visit to the Philippines, that red-tagging specifically suppresses legitimate activism, journalism, debate and criticism which are part and parcel of freedom of expression, and she made specific recommendations we would encourage the Government to consider.
We further recall the recent ruling of the Supreme Court of the Philippines on 8 May 2025, which declared red-tagging, vilification, labelling, and guilt by association as a threat to people’s life, liberty, and security. Any criminalisation of human rights defenders due to unfounded accusations or labelling as communists or terrorists, is therefore inconsistent with this decision.
