ICHRP Australian Chapter: Australian Council of Trade Unions; Maritime Union of Australia, Victorian Branch; SEARCH Foundation; Philippines Australia Union Link; Action for Peace & Development in the Philippines, Migrante Australia

H E Benigno Simeon Aquino III
President of the Republic of the Philippines
Malacañang Palace,
JP Laurel St., San Miguel
Manila Philippines

Dear Excellency,

The Australian Chapter of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines calls on your government to take urgent action in response to the torture of three Higaonon civilians from Barangay Mat-I, Claveria, in the province of Misamis Oriental.

According to Katungod Lumad Alert, they were tortured by the military in the wake of an armed encounter between the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the New People’s Army, on September 28, 2015.

That day, elements of the 58th Infantry Battalion passed by the community without informing any of the community elders or leaders. After the residents heard an exchange of gunfire coming from the direction of the mountainous parts of their domain called Balahan, they hurriedly packed their belongings to leave, fearing stray bullets would hit them.

Three men who had been out gathering wild plants – which the Higaonon people use for various purposes like medicine and spice, among other things – in Balahan had taken cover when they heard the gunfire. When the shooting died down, they went out of their hiding place, thinking that the armed men were already far away. However, the military saw them and they were apprehended. They were accused of being members of the New People’s Army (NPA), a communist-led armed group operating in the province.

According to them, they were held at gunpoint and were forced to lie on the ground. They were then bound and blindfolded. The men explained why they were there at the forest but the military insisted that they were members of the NPA. After some time, they were forced to walk with the heavy bags of the military placed on their shoulder. Again, they were accused that they were couriers of the NPA. When they reached the military truck, they had difficulty in boarding because of the ropes and bags. The military hauled them up by their hair.

They were brought to Camp Gabino, a military camp of the 58th IB in Claveria. Inside the camp, they were beaten and asked for names of NPAs. When they passed out from exhaustion, they were doused with water to wake them up.

Before they were finally released, the military took photos of them. Their fingerprints were also taken and they were asked to sign a paper – the contents unknown to them.

Balahan is both an economic and cultural area for the Higaonon of Mat-i. It is where many of the residents’ farmlands are, and the forest is where they hunt and forage. Ritual areas can also be found here as it is the practice of the Higaonon to perform a ritual before any major production activity. For a long time, the military has been conducting their operations in these areas, in the ancestral lands of the Higaonon, without having even informed any of the traditional leaders. Worst, the Higaonon dwellers have become suspect of being rebels simply by living in their ancestral domain.

Excellency, as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, we urge you to:

1. Publicly condemn the torture of the three Higaonon civilians at Claveria, Misamis Oriental on September 28, 2015
2. Create an independent body to investigate this case of torture
3. Respect and observe the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the Philippines is a signatory and party to all the major Human Rights instruments;
4. Junk Oplan Bayanihan, your government’s counterinsurgency program that has victimized countless Filipinos.

Finally we call on your administration and all its institutions to uphold the basic human rights of the citizens whom you have sworn to serve.

For human rights and peace,

General Secretary
Global Council, ICHRP
peter_murphy1_au@bigpond.com

Cc

Ret. Lt. Gen. Voltaire T. Gazmin,
Secretary, Department of National Defense,
Email: osnd@philonline.com

Atty. Leila De Lima,
Secretary, Department of Justice,
Email: lmdelima@doj.gov.ph,
lmdelima.doj@gmail.com,
lmdelima.doj2@gmail.com

Hon. Jose Luis Martin Gascon,
Chairperson, Commission on Human Rights,
E-mail: comsec@chr.gov.ph

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III,
Chair, Justice and Human Rights Committee,
kokopimenteloffice@yahoo.com

Atty. Leonor T. Oralde-Quintayo,
Chairperson, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples,
Email: chairpersonsoffice@gmail.com

Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs
Hon Ms Julie Bishop MHR
foreignminister2013@dfat.gov.au

Rural Missionaries of the Philippines
info@rmp-nmr.org

In behalf of our organizations UMANGAT-MIGRANTE and ICHRP-Rome, Italy and other fellow overseas Filipino Workers in Italy, we express our full support to the ongoing struggles of the Lumad  against the closures of their schools, militarization of their villages and the unabaited Human Rights violations and Extrajudicial killings being perpetrated by the AFP-run paramilitary groups.

From October 2014 to June this year, already 23 indigenous leaders have been killed in Northern Mindanao Region – 20 of them from the province of Bukidnon alone and the three from the neighboring Misamis Oriental. That is almost three lives mercilessly put out every month. And also aince May 2015, there have been more than 4,000 internally displaced people who have fled to the urban areas.  From Agusan, Sarangani, Davao Del Norte, Bukidnon, and Surigao del Sur, the Lumad have been forcibly displaced.  Taking shelter in public plazas or finding safety in Church sanctuaries, Lumad families suffer all the hardships of internally displaced persons.

These human rights violations against our indigenous people, particularly the Lumad has been historical, from the very beginning of the colonial history of Mindanao until the present day, the Lumad of Mindanao have been taken advantage of, their lands have been grabbed, and their labor has been exploited; more so, when the Lumad have resisted invaders or defended their lands and life, they have been driven out, economically marginalized, and even massacred.

As far as we know, the Lumad communities who are being subjected to violence are only resisting the entry and operations of foreign mining, logging and agro-corporations because these corporations are displacing them from their ancestral lands which are the source of their livelihood and where their ancestors are buried.  They consider these lands as sacred because they are the source of life and the burial grounds of their people.  Taking these lands away from them is practically killing them as a people.

We recall the killing of Fr. Fausto Tentorio, PIME in Arakan on October 25, 2011, He  did not only serve and deepen the spiritual lives of the people but lived with them in the real sense of the word. He did not only preach about justice and God’s love for the poor in a vacuum. Fr. Fausto journeyed with the poor and marginalized peasants and lumads in their daily struggle for a better life and future for their children. He supported and joined the peasants and indigenous people’s struggle for land and right to self-determination, against exploitation and oppression, against militarization and human rights violations. Fr. Fausto was a staunch defender of the peasants’ and lumad’s rights and welfare.

The murder of Fr. Fausto deserves strong condemnation and indignation. It speaks so much about the Aquino administration; about his sugar-coated national security plan, Oplan Bayanihan. The strong and visible presence of the 57th Infantry Battalion in Arakan was not able to prevent the threat on Fr. Fausto’s life and security. It has unmasked the hypocrisy of the Aquino soldiers’ claim as human rights defenders. Fr. Fausto’s assassin killed him in broad daylight in his parish grounds without fear.

The Filipino migrant workers in Rome are dismayed of the failure of government to protect them from these rabid paramilitary groups. Why is this so? The people have become the enemy of the state. The state forces turned into investment defense forces. Working under the framework of the Internal Peace and Security Plan—or more popularly called ‘Oplan Bayanihan’, they try to dupe the public by reasoning that the people they have harassed, arbitrarily arrested and slapped with trumped-up charges, or even killed, are supporters of the New People’s Army (NPA). However, how can they justify their presence in areas where there are no NPAs? Clearly, militarization and paramilitarism are designed to protect investments such as corporate plantations and large mining.

There were also reports of soldiers bribing paramilitary men and even Lumad leaders to destroy IP schools, especially in Talaingod  with the continuous threat by soldiers of the Philippine Army’s 68th Infantry Battalion and the paramilitary group Alamara to the staff of Salugpungan Ta Tanu Igkanugon Community Learning Center (STTICLC) at sitio Tibukag in Talaingod, there is a bleak chance for the school to open. Soldiers’ orders: kill and burn.

The latest episode on these dark records on the Indigenous killings, once again, in Mindanao was the cold blooded murder  of a Lumad School Principal (Head Teacher) in Surigao only indicates that the end to this killings is still to be seen.

The brutal slaying of IP leaders and innocent civilians, the displacements of residents, children being rejected by proper school and continues military operation in Mindanao that aggravate more of these violence and more human rights violations should be denounced and STOPPED. We will continue to expose the brutality of the military and para-militaries against the Lumad and their children and we plan to further our campaigns even to the highest leader of the catholic church, to Pope Francis of the Vatican City to appeal to him and to encourage the wichole church in Philippines to take action and and be compassionate because the lumad are not just Filipinos but also children of God.

United with the Lumad we raise our voice in calling for the end of crimes against our Indigenous people the Lumad in particular.

Stop the closure of Lumad schools!
Stop Lumad killings!
Pull out military forces from Lumad communities!
Disband paramilitary forces!
Respect the indigenous peoples’ rights to education, livelihood and self-determination!
Justice for all victims of human rights violations!
Junk Oplan Bayanihan!