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What Tulfo’s trenchant criticism failed to mention is that certain members of the government’s armed personnel are not only violent when they are performing their duty—they are as violent off of it and in dealing with hapless civilians. Sandatahang Dahas’s March 2026 data offer proof to these circumstances and to the alarming number of attacks against state agents outside of official operations.
For the first time in its one year of monthly monitoring of state-related violence, Sandatahang Dahas recorded body dumps of state agents.
State-related violence remains widespread in the last month of 2025. Certain regions, such as Eastern Visayas and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, have become consistent hotspots of state-related violence.
Another case of General Santos City police officers abusing women in their custody happened in October, two months after a similar crime was committed in the same city, monitoring by Sandatahang Dahas revealed.
Two cases of rape committed by police officers against a female detainee and a teenage girl in September reveal disturbing increase in incidents involving persons tasked to protect them.
Monitoring by Sandatahang Dahas for the month of July showed while state forces are the consistent top perpetrator of state-related killings, they also bear the brunt of consistently having the most injuries in such incidents.
With insurgency-related fatalities reaching a new peak in June, the coming months will be crucial in understanding whether these figures represent an isolated spike or an emerging pattern in the conduct of state forces.
The month of May recorded the least number of state- related cases of violence –so far in 2025- with a total of 45 reported incidents (18 killings and 27 injuries), monthly monitoring of Sandatahang Dahas showed. The biggest factor in the incidents of violence, however, was the May 12 elections with Mindanao as the most volatile area.
Sandatahang Dahas’ March data reinforces the idea that state-related violence in the Philippines is no longer geographically isolated; it is structural, adaptive, and capable of reaching places previously thought to be stable.
Violence involving armed government personnel registered an increase while the police continue to lead in the killings of civilians who are subject of their operations, monitoring bySandatahang Dahas’s for February 2025 showed.
