ICHRP Statement on 10th Anniversary of the Lianga Massacre
September 1, 2025
# The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) calls for justice for the victims of the 2015 Lianga Massacre. On Sept 1, 2015 the Magahat/Bagani paramilitary elements under the protection and support of the 36th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) went into a community in Diatagon, Lianga, lined up residentsat dawn and killed three Manobo community leaders: Dionel Campos and Datu Juvello Sinzo, and ALCADEV school executive Emerito Samarca.
Some 2000 residents of the community and nearby villages, including teachers and students of alternative schools for indigenous children, were forced to evacuate to a sports arena in Tandag City, after members of the paramilitary groups and soldiers threatened to kill them all.
Ten years on and there has been no justice for these killings because the known perpetrators were under the protection of the Philippine government. The people of Lianga have been continually harassed by the AFP and its militias for the past decade around mineral resources and development issues. After Martial Law in Mindanao was declared in 2017, the community suffered through military food blockades, and another four evacuations involving upwards of 1,500 people. “The clear concern here is that the military itself has been conducting an endless campaign of terror against the community and it is time they were removed from the equation and sent back to their barracks,” said ICHRP Chairperson Peter Murphy.
The Duterte government launched a war on the Indigenous school system, occupying, burning, destroying and closing all Lumad schools in Mindanao, a war crime and gross violation of International Humanitarian Law. At one-point, former president and ICC-accused war criminal Rodrigo Duterte threatened to bomb the Lumad schools, which eventually led to the shutting down of over 200 Lumad schools in Mindanao. According to 2024 data gathered by the Save Our Schools (SOS) Network, an estimate of 10,000 indigenous students have been affected by these attacks.
Under the Marcos government, the struggle for justice for indigenous people and advocates continues.
The Talaingod 13 still face fabricated charges of “kidnapping” Lumad children in the Philippine court system. They are thirteen community advocates who rescued Lumad children facing a military food blockade and threats from the notorious Alamara paramilitary group in Talaingod, Davao Del Norte. In another case, Michelle Campos, the daughter of massacre victim Dionel Campos has been harassed for her advocacy work. At the age of 17, Michelle Campos along with other community members had witnessed the execution of her father and the two other leaders. Since her youth she has worked tirelessly advocating for indigenous rights and the protection of ancestral lands. On March 2, 2025, she was arrested without warrant with other members of the Manobo tribe and has since been held in military custody. .
This continuing conflict between the Philippine government and Indigenous communities in Lianga and across Mindanao is largely a struggle around resource development. Indigenous communities, as a result of government-sponsored settlement programs, have been displaced and forced onto increasingly marginal lands, primarily in the mineral rich mountainous areas of Mindanao. International mining companies now covet the Lumad Ancestral Domain, and would like to push the communities off these mineral rich lands.
ICHRP remembers Dionel Campos, Datu Juvello Sinzo, and Emerito Samarca, and condemns the ongoing persecution of the Manobo community saying that no amount of lies by the government can whitewash the criminal liability of state forces for these war crimes in Lianga.
This strategic whitewashing of the Philippines crimes under International Humanitarian Law (IHL) has been ongoing under the Marcos Jr. regime as is the ongoing civil war and counterinsurgency policy that is intensifying in many areas of the country. ICHRP Chair Peter Murphy notes, “If the Marcos government were serious about IHL, they would investigate crimes such as the Lianga massacre, they would stop protecting the perpetrators of rights violations, they would stop the of bombing of civilians and schools, the occupation of schools and the ongoing murder of civilian non-combatants.”
ICHRP since its inception in 2013 has opposed all violations of IHL and the ongoing militarization of Philippine society for the purposes of counter-insurgency under the US COIN Doctrine. Today, we continue to call for international support for the Lumad, indigenous people, and their right to development and self-determination.
We call for an end to the military attacks on all Indigenous Communities.
We call for perpetrators of the Lianga Massacre to be held to account.
We call for the release of Michelle Campos and Justice the Reversal of Charges Against the Talaingod 13.
Stop killing Lumads! #
Contact: Peter Murphy +61 418 312 301
