Igorots join Lakbayan ng Pambansang Minorya:
Rise up against mining plunder, development aggression and state fascism
August 31, 2017
MANILA - Hundreds of indigenous peoples from the Cordillera travelled from their barrios to link arms with thousands other national minorities to denounce what they call “the unbridled plunder of their ancestral lands and the fascism by the Duterte government.” In their indigenous attires to assert their identity, they converged in Manila to meet their counterparts from Mindanao, Visayas and the rest of Luzon to join voices to fight for their right to self-determination and ancestral domain.
Fascist attacks against the indigenous peoples
According to Windel Bolinget, Chairperson of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance, their participation in Lakbayan 2017 is marked with their collective aspiration for self-determination and human rights. This is especially so under the fascist US-Duterte regime which unleashed murderous policies of extrajudicial killings, further emboldening the AFP and PNP to commit crimes against the people, national minorities included.
“Oplan Kapayapaan has meant the militarization of our communities resulting in various human rights violations. With the all-out war policy unleashed by Duterte, and peace saboteur Generals Esperon, Año and Lorenzana, the AFP Northern Luzon Command intensified military combat operations and wreaked havoc in the Cordillera,” Bolinget said.
According to CPA, President Duterte’s all-out war resulted to a week of forced evacuation in Namal, Ifugao, indiscriminate air strikes using phosphorous bombs in Malibcong, Abra that accompanied ground operations by the 24th Infantry Battalion under the 7th Infantry Division and heavy militarization under the 503rd Brigade where cases of violations include the divestment and destruction of properties and the physical assault of civilians including barangay officials.
Based on reports from CPA since February, cases of illegal arrest, detention and trumped up charges, harassment, surveillance and political vilification of people’s organizations, activists and community leaders alarmingly increased. From February – March 2017 alone, there were 13 cases of illegal arrest and detention. These include the cases of five residents in Malibcong (including a minor) and Kalinga, and human rights defender Sarah Abellon-Alikes, a Kankanaey, who hails from Mountain Province on February 9. This month, women human rights defenders in the region have been subjected to political persecution through vilification in social media sites as committed by the 24th IBPA in Abra and the filing of trumped up charges by the 7th Infantry Division in Ilocos Sur. Nine political prisoners are currently detained in Abra, Mountain Province, Ifugao, Kalinga and Baguio City including 74-year old Marcos Aggalao who is now confined at the ICU of the Kalinga Provincial Hospital .
"The conduct of war of State security forces consistently violates human rights and international humanitarian law in all of Philippine government’s national internal security policies and programs, and its takes its toll on no less than the people,” Bolinget stressed. “Año's pronouncement to offer a P100,000 reward for the arrest or killing suspected NPAs is gruesome and murderous! It legitimizes and promotes further the human rights violations of State security forces against unarmed civilians.”
Eradicate poverty not the poor!
Bolinget also called on Pres. Duterte to heed the call of Filipinos to stop extra-judicial killings under the guise of his “war on drugs” which has so far claimed the lives of 13,000 individuals. “The death of Kian delos Santos is just one of many instances that underscored Duterte’s disregard for human rights and due process. While most big-time drug syndicates remain scot-free, the police has been on a killing rampage targeting mostly poor drug-users, peddlers, and even innocent minors,” Bolinget said. Bolinget said that the president’s electoral promise of change remains empty with the worsening social injustices that afflict the nation, especially the national minorities.
“We demand an end to the plunder and exploitation of our ancestral lands by big mining and energy business,” Bolinget said. “The entry of these big businesses violated indigenous peoples right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) and did not recognize the non-consent of communities concerned; made use of the military to secure its applications and operations, and worse, led to the killings of indigenous human rights defenders.”
The Cordillera is the watershed cradle of northern Luzon but is ravaged by the operations of mining and energy corporations. New applications alone cover 428, 046 hectares on top of the operations of Lepanto, Philex and Benguet Corporation. There are also 81 approved hydroelectric power plants with 16 pending, on top of the operations of Binga and Ambuklao.
"These urgent issues are of life and death, and thus are the issues at the heart of our participation to Lakbayan 2017. For how can we have self-determination now, when our communities are bombed and militarized? How can we be self-determining when destructive projects are imposed in our indigenous territories in the name of ‘development’? How can there be self-determination of national minorities when there is unpeace?”
“For until our right to self-determination is recognised, and genuine regional autonomy in place under a truly sovereign Philippines, the only recourse is to press on with the struggle. From the Cordillera mountain ranges - Benguet, Mountain Province, Ifugao, Kalinga, Abra and Apayao-- and by the legacy of our heroes and martyrs, we will continue to fight for self-determination! Kaigorotan, lumaban!” ###
Reference:
Windel Bolinget, CPA chair