In February 2026, the Sandatahang Dahas monitor of the University of the Philippines Third World Studies Center recorded flare ups of an ingrained strain of violence among the country’s arms-bearing state agents that made them turn on each other.

Bullying—or its more vicious and institutional form, hazing—is behind the unusually high number of reported injuries in February. Of the 153 cases of reported injuries, 129 involved police recruits who were slapped, punched, and beaten with a stick in a “welcome rites” by 57 officers of the Regional Mobile Force Battalion 14-B of the Police Regional Office Bangsamoro Autonomous Region (PRO BAR) in Barangay Ubit, Lamitan City, Basilan on Feb. 5. Thirteen of those hazed were Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) combatants who were part of an integration program that allowed qualified members of the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) to serve in the police force. 

Read full report here.

For the first time in its one year of monthly monitoring of state-related violence,  Sandatahang Dahas recorded body dumps of state agents.

In its January 2026 report, Sandatahang Dahas said two police officers were found dead in separate incidents in Bulacan.

On January 24, the body of PSMS Diane Marie Mollenido was found wrapped in cloth and plastic in a creek along the Pulilan-Baliuag Highway. She had a gunshot wound in the neck. Five days later, the body of her eight-year-old son was found in a calamansi farm in Tarlac. He had reportedly been strangled with plastic bags.

Read full report here.