“Under the Duterte government, we have seen an alarming increase in the number of activists and government critics charged with trumped-up cases and subjected to illegal arrests. This is a systematic maneuver meant to silence those voicing out legitimate issues and the poor’s interests. Since October 2017, the machinery tasked with case build-up for the filing of trumped-up charges has been the Inter-Agency Committee on Legal Action (IACLA), alongside the devious machinations under the National Task Force (NTF) to End Local Communist Armed Conflict and the implementation of counterinsurgency Oplan Kapanatagan,” Cristina Palabay, Karapatan Secretary General said.