Sandatahang Dahas Special Reports
ON STATE-RELATED VIOLENCE IN BARMM
BARMM to hold elections amid persistent state-related violence
by Aidrielle Raymundo
BARMM is slated to have its first parliamentary elections on September 14 after four postponements, the earliest being in May 2022.
An estimated 2.393 million registered voters will participate in the election across the region’s five provinces and Special Geographic Areas. In preparation, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed Memorandum Order No. 48 s. 2026, green-lighting the deputation of law enforcement agencies, including the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), to ensure a “free, orderly, honest, peaceful, and credible elections.”
Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Jose Melencio Nartatez has followed suit, stating, “We will not allow violence or the proliferation of loose firearms to undermine the upcoming elections.”
Despite these pronouncements, which also includes a ban on firearms from July 16 to September 29, violent incidents remain consistent.
Read full report here.
ON THE SEPTEMBER 21, 2025 PROTEST
April 4 Nueva Ecija arrest reveals continuing probe on Trillion Peso March protest
by Aidrielle Raymundo
After almost seven months, the violence of the protest action in Manila has conveniently receded from public memory, were it not for an arrest in Guimba, Nueva Ecija. This first week of April, enforcing an arrest warrant for robbery and homicide, the police captured a supposed leader of a gang whom the police is also accusing of inciting unrest during the Sept. 21, 2025 Trillion Peso March protest.
The police still seemed to be working on the theory that the violent turn of events during the September 21 protest was hatched in a conspiracy. That it was not a spontaneous expression of rage by the youth so disgusted by massive theft and corruption committed by people in the government.
As the police continue to search for those whom they think were ultimately responsible for the violence in Manila on September 21, the Sandatahang Dahas of the UP Third World Studies Center conducted a detailed visual investigation to determine just how violent the police was in the same protest action.
Read full report here.