By WINDEL BOLINGET / SULONG KATRIBU

On the eve of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III’s last State of the Nation Address (SONA), the state of indigenous peoples from north to south of the Philippines is a chilling story of grave human rights violations, neglect and plunder of resources especially in indigenous peoples’ territories such as the Cordillera. Under the BS Aquino regime, cases of extrajudicial killings, massacres, enforced disappearances, massive arrest and detention, forcible evacuation, displacement and other forms of human rights violations are perpetrated against indigenous peoples and their communities. For five years, BS Aquino has failed to deliver his (slogan) “Tuwid na Daan” for indigenous peoples. In fact, under BS Aquino, the situation of the indigenous peoples worsened.

Recent human rights violations committed against indigenous peoples clearly speak of the blatant disregard and failure of the Aquino government to respect and uphold the rights of indigenous peoples. On July 20, 2015 in Cagayan province, three members of the Agta were forcibly dragged out of their homes, severely mauled, beaten and hogtied in front of their families by the operating troops of the 17th IBPA. Without any warrant of arrest and against their will and before their protesting families and neighbors, the three victims were dragged and brought to a nearby 77th IBPA CAFGU detachment. At around 10pm on the same date, Mendo Visiotan, 26, Marlon Baganay, 27, and Lando Duruin, an elderly, all from Sitio Daligan, San Juan, Rizal, Cagayan, were whisked in a black van and brought to an unknown military camp in the province. The three were later surfaced and are now under the custody of the Cagayan Police Provincial Office facing multiple and fabricated cases.

In the Cordillera region, not a single case of human rights violation was solved under his term. The massacre of the Ligiw family and the extrajudicial killing of William Bugatti in 2014 remain unsolved. Furthermore, heightened political vilification and death threats using materials of sacred indigenous significance against people’s organizations in the region are perpetrated by suspected elements of State security forces.

In Mindanao, Lumad indigenous peoples are under attack. Lumad indigenous communities are driven out from their ancestral lands, their self-initiated schools are closed, and their sources of livelihood are destroyed and left unattended because of intense militarization. Since April 2015 to this date, several leaders and members of people’s organizations became victims of killings, massacres, disappearances, harassment, and the massive filing of trumped-up charges and fabricated cases.

Among these cases is the disappearance of Manobo activist John Calaba, 28, the Public Information Officer of KIDUMA, an organization opposed to the logging and mining projects of DMCI, which displaced peasants and Manobo tribes away from their farms and ancestral land on April 30, 2015. On June 14, 2015, three Lumad civilians were killed by suspected elements of the 69th IBPA, the “Palparan Battalion” in Paquibato, Davao City. On the same date, Aida Seisa, spokesperson of Paquibato District Peasant Alliance (PADIPA), and husband Henry went missing when their house was strafed in Paquibato.

The increasing displacement of Lumad communities due to military operations is very alarming. At present, there are three groups of evacuees from the provinces of Saranggani, Bukidnon and Davao del Norte. The evacuees, numbering to at least a thousand, are mostly indigenous peoples who left their homes starting May up to the present due to heavy military presence and intense combat operations in their respective communities.  

Mindanao is no longer home for the Higaonons, for the Blaans, Ata Manobos, and all other indigenous peoples. Their leaders are either killed by the Philippine soldiers and paramilitary groups or slapped with trumped up criminal charges to bring them to prison. Their self-initiated schools are closed down. Their communities are bombed and they are forced to evacuate their communities. Worst, there is no serious intervention from the government for the evacuees.

On the news lately is North Cotabato Representative Nancy Catamco and currently the Chair of the National Cultural Communities (NCC), along with the PNP, and her goons and paramilitary instigated an attack on a Manobo evacuation center inside a church in Davao. This calls for strong condemnation. She should resign from the Lower House of Congress.

As a representative and Chair of the NCC, she should have listened to, and acted favourably on, the plight of the Manobos.

Sulong Katribu Partylist, the true voice of indigenous peoples, strongly calls on all indigenous peoples and advocates to unite and support the struggle for the assertion and defense of land, life and resources. In these times of heightened State repression against indigenous peoples and the majority of the Filipino people, Sulong Katribu stands with the Agtas, Igorots, Manobos, Higaonons, and B’laans for justice, peace and the defense of ancestral lands. # nordis.net