The Cordillera has become one of the most militarized regions in the country, with the provinces of Kalinga and Abra topping the list human rights violations by the State through the Armed Forces, the police, including the paramilitary. Militarization has become one of the manifestations of national oppression in the region against indigenous peoples. It has also become the the ruthless response of the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) administration to the Cordillera peoples’ resistance against a regime that systematically denies and violates indigenous peoples’ rights over their land and resources.

Kalinga hosts more than 1,800 members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Police (PNP) and paramilitary forces with a ratio of one regular to one paramilitary element.

The 501st Valiant Brigade operates in Kalinga with its headquarters based in Calanan, Tabuk town; the 41st IB of the 503rd Brigade in the province of Abra, and the 502nd Brigade in Mt. Province and Benguet and extends its operations to the provinces of Quirino, Nueva Vizcaya, Ifugao and Isabela. Two full brigades and one battalion of the 503rd brigade of the 5th ID of the Philippine Army are deployed in the whole region.

It also exhibits close linkage with the intensity of people’s struggles, especially in areas where peoples organizations are markedly influential. Correspondingly, these are the areas where armed struggle is noticeably on-the-rise. These are the same areas hosting or about to host mining operations and explorations.

Some 140 mining applications, covering more than 60% of Cordillera land, are currently being processed by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Tapping the resources of the Cordillera remains one of the few hopes of the government to spur the economy, putting indigenous peoples’ collective rights in jeopardy.

Repression bottomline
Underneath the Cordillera’s rugged terrains are gold, copper and other minerals. On the surface is the rich biodiversity hosting vital bio-medicinal plants and animals. It shelters 6 major rivers systems, the Agno, Abra, Amburayan, Abulog, Chico and Magat rivers, which are potential for hydropower generation. The region hosts the San Roque Dam, the biggest of its kind in Asia, which the government built despite opposition from the host communities, in addition to the Magat, Ambuklao and Binga megadams and other mini-hydro dams. Under the present program of the government, they are to build more dams, to supply the power requirement of the mining industry and other industries.

Also existing are two large-scale mining firms operated and owned by foreign capitalists. More than10 mines shut down their operations for various reasons.

Yet, peoples of the Cordillera can easily decipher the link between the repression and the rich natural resources. “Development” of the mining industry is one of the top economic agenda of the GMA administration. When exploited as planned, the mining industry can significantly uplift the economic crises plaguing the country. Cordillera peoples are likewise not blind to the link between mining exploration and hydropower development. The mining industry requires enormous energy hence, the rivers systems have to be exploited to ensure energy sources for the mining ventures.

The Cordillera peoples certainly will not deny the Filipino people with its resources. Sharing is an indigenous virtue that persists in the region. The Cordillera peoples however, are convinced that the exploitation of the resources will not benefit the toiling Filipino people, much less the toiling Cordillera peoples.

In the ultimate analysis, the benefits in these so-called “development” projects will accrue to the very rich not only of the Filipino rich but also their international partners and linkages. The environmental impact of mining and its twin, the hydropower development is enormous and irreversible. It is under GMA’s administration that the miners in the Cordillera experienced extreme repression and worsened exploitation.

The Lepanto miners in Mankayan, Benguet province staged two strikes, one in 2003, and the recently concluded strike that was staged from June 2, 2005 to September 11, 2005. In both strikes, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) issued the Assumption of Jurisdiction order, which in both occasions were defied by the workers. In both instances, the Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company (LCMCo) employed police and military forces to harass and intimidate the workers, including their wives, children, and supporters. Leaders were arbitrarily arrested and charged with common crimes. And worst, the 19 union officers were dismissed.

At the Philex Mines in Itogon, also in Benguet, retrenched and retired workers and their families are confronting demolition of their houses in the company vicinities. Their children re not allowed to enroll in the mining company’s subsidized schools.

Systematic repression
The Cordillera Human Rights Organization (CHRO) and Dinteg are convinced of the correlation between the many incidents of human rights violations and the continuing plunder of the lands and resources of the Cordillera peoples by private corporations and or with the government. These are various manifestations of the state’s systematic violation of indigenous peoples’ collective and inherent rights: the right to ancestral land and the right to self-determination.

With these convictions, the CHRO asserts that initiatives related to the promotion and defense of human rights and fundamental freedom should not be taken separately from the wider context of indigenous peoples’ rights as well as on the issue of national sovereignty. People suffering from intensified national oppression have no recourse but to resist, defend and assert their democratic and national rights and welfare, as in the case of the Cordillera peoples who are engaged in a resistance closely forged with the resistance of the Moro peoples and the rest of the Filipino people against the tyranny of the GMA administration.

State terrorism
The GMA administration is marked with brutality and repression. It is tainted with the blood of civilians and persons rendered hors d combat summarily executed by military and police forces in the conduct of their so-called anti-terrorism campaigns and in some instances even in regular police functions. The militarist policy has thoroughly and systematically been accustomed in the mindset and conduct of the armed section of the State such that repression and persecution have become a habitual course of events. Such militarist culture has resulted to numerous cases of indiscriminate firing, shelling, bombing, arrest and detention, search and seizure, looting, violent dispersal of workers on strike, demolition of urban poor dwellings, raids of offices, terrorist tagging of activists and organizations, among others.

In the recent months, the militarist regime has once more unleashed its fury of development aggression. Major operations were carried out in the tri-boundaries of the Mt. Province, Ilocos Sur, and Abra as a result of the peoples’ resistance to the entry of a foreign mining firm and protect the expansion operations of LCMCo. Even Northern Luzon Command (Nolcomm) Spokesperson Preme Monta of the PNP did not deny that the presence of the military in the tri-boundary intended to ensure such. These agriculture-reliant provinces suffered great economic dislocation with the military operations carried out. Four incidents of gunbattles with the revolutionary New People’s Army (NPA) also took place, aside from the 14-day operations, which resulted to one farm hut totally burned, 3 rice granaries forcibly opened and searched and several properties and divested livestock

Meanwhile, combat operations are concentrated in the northwest and central towns of Abra province. During the Lenten season, a brigade-sized combat operation was conducted in 11 communities in the towns of Lacub, Tineg, Bangilo, and Malibcong, where the 21st Cordillera Day was celebrated.

No more major combat operations were conducted in Mt. Province from 2002 to 2004. Of late, however, a major operation was conducted in the tri-boundaries of mt. Proince, Abra, and Ilocos Sur with combined forces of the 41st IB, 50th IB, and the 52nd and 53rd Reconnaissance Coys of the 502nd and 503rd Brigades from June 9 to 22, 2005.
The CHRA and Dinteg support the demand for the pullout of the 41st IB in Abra province, as the deployment coincides with the entry of big mining firms in the province. Four mining applications were made as of July 31, 2005 in the towns of Baay-Licuan and Lacub. The presence and operations of the 41st IB has sown terror among community folk. They are no longer able to attend to their farmlands and animals. We support the peasants in these towns through the Lenneng Kiling Timpuyog Farmers Association who are demanding for the pullout of the said troopers to prevent more human rights violations in the future. During their operations, three civilians were forcibly taken from Baay-Licuan and used into battle. The act of using civilians in a firefight is a clear violation of the international laws concerning armed conflict.

The ruthless human rights record of GMA is one big reason why CHRA actively involves itself in the Filipino people’s movement in building a just and democratic society, a society where citizens freely exercise their rights and where indigenous peoples freely exercise their right to self-determination.

(Reports prepared by the Cordillera Human Rights Alliance and Dinteg Indigenous Law Center).