“Safer cities” arrests, a crackdown on the poor amidst deepening economic and political crisis — KARAPATAN
KARAPATAN Public Information
PRESS RELEASE
8 April 2026
Reference: Cristina Palabay, KARAPATAN secretary general, 09173162831
KARAPATAN Public Information Desk, 09189790580
“Safer cities” arrests, a crackdown on the poor amidst deepening economic and political crisis —
KARAPATAN
Human rights alliance KARAPATAN strongly condemned the directive of Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Sec. Jonvic Remulla to the Philippine National Police to conduct arrests in line with its “Safer Cities Initiatives,” calling it a “crackdown against the poor.”
Remulla’s directive, under the DILG’s “Safer Cities Initiative,” includes intensified enforcement of ordinances on public drinking, curfew for minors, anti-noise rules, and other similar measures. According to the PNP National Capital Region office, almost 5,000 individuals have been accosted and arrested last Monday, in the police implementation of Remulla’s orders.
“Let us be clear: this is not about safety. This is a crackdown on the poor, plain and simple,” said Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay. “While the government projects an image of order, it is the poor who are already struggling to survive amid soaring prices and deepening economic crisis, who are once again being targeted.”
Palabay stressed that the current approach is “misdirected, excessive, and ultimately oppressive.”
"It is an extremely performative campaign meant to create the illusion that authorities are in control, when in fact they are failing to address the real problems confronting the people - rising prices, joblessness, and widespread hunger,” she said.
KARAPATAN warned that the campaign echoes the notorious Oplan Tambay under Rodrigo Duterte, which led to the arrest of thousands—over 5,000 in just the first days—mostly from poor communities.
“We have seen this before. Thousands were rounded up in the name of ‘order,’ yet nothing changed for the better in the lives of the people. Instead, the poor were harassed, detained, some of them even get killed in these operations,” Palabay said.
She added that while loitering has long been decriminalized under Republic Act No. 10158, the sweeping enforcement of various ordinances opens wide the door to arbitrary arrests, extortion, and abuse.
“Instead of going after corrupt officials and large-scale plunderers, the government once again turns its force on ordinary people—those who are already being robbed of their livelihoods and dignity by an unjust system,” Palabay stressed.
KARAPATAN asserted that genuine public safety cannot be achieved through repression.
“You cannot police away poverty. You cannot arrest your way out of a crisis driven by skyrocketing prices and inequality,” Palabay said. “What the people demand are concrete measures that address their daily suffering, not a spectacle of arrests targeting the most vulnerable.”
Karapatan called on the DILG and the PNP to halt the crackdown.
“Public safety must be anchored on justice, not repression. Until the Marcos Jr. government addresses the people’s urgent economic needs, these crackdowns will remain what they are, empty, punitive, and anti-poor,” Palabay concluded. #
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KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties. It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign. It was established in 1995.