We vehemently condemn the recent surveillance and harassment to Clemente Bautista, our national coordinator in the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE), by suspected military intelligence operatives yesterday on October 12.

The suspicious activity started in the afternoon, when Bautista noticed two suspicious individuals alternately loitering and roaming outside the office of the Advocates of Science & Technology for the People (AGHAM) in Scout Fuentebella Quezon City where he was in a meeting with AGHAM’s volunteer scientists.

When Bautista returned to Kalikasan PNE’s office in Matulungin Street, Barangay Central, Quezon City around mid-afternoon, the national secretariat staff barely noticed anyone suspicious loitering in the area until in the early evening. The tailing started at around 6:45 PM when Bautista left the Kalikasan office on his car, when he noticed a car and two motorcycle following him.

Bautista was in the area of Ayala Avenue, Makati City at around 7:30 PM where he parked, hoping to shake off the suspected intelligence operatives. But the suspects, who repeatedly refused to identify themselves, waited patiently just around the parking exit until 10:30PM, even after the parking security confronted them.

Bautista was able to take photos of the suspects and was able to note the car and motorcycles’ plate numbers WTO-294, ZK 2550, and NE 24909, respectively.

We can think of no other entity with motive to harass a known leader-activist but the intelligence assets of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, notorious for harassing and repressing advocates and activists who have opposed the national government’s various reprehensible policies and programs.

Bautista and the rest of the advocates in our network have recently led massive protest mobilizations and other actions in support of anti-mining and anti-coal communities in Batangas, Mindoro, and across the rest of the Southern Tagalog region. They have also been in high-profile actions and have conducted various forms of support for the #StopLumadKillings campaign against the militarization and plunder of the ancestral lands of the Lumad in Mindanao and Igorots in Nueva Vizcaya.

We all know about the continuing war of plunder by the military in Mindanao. Less known is the fact that our colleagues from BUKAL, our provincial counterpart in Batangas province, have also recently experienced heightened militarization and harassment. Some 200 soldiers from the Philippine Army have been reported to have been deployed in areas with land struggles across Batangas, while elements of the Philippine Air Force were reportedly going on a house-to-house campaign around Lobo Town, a biodiversity-rich municipality threatened by the large-scale mining project of Australian-Canadian firm Egerton Gold Philippines, to vilify BUKAL.

Indeed, even environmental advocates are not safe from the intensifying political repression inflicted by the AFP against the people’s movement. This latest attack against an environmental defender is clearly part and parcel of the war of plunder under the AFP’s Oplan Bayanihan, targeting critics and opponents of destructive large-scale mining and other forms development aggression to clear the way to areas ripe for resource plunder.

We will not be cowed by the mounting human rights violations thrown at the environmental movement by the Aquino government and its rabid military dogs. The protection of our environment, the conservation of our natural resources, and the genuine development for our people are just causes that not even the threat of death can ever intimidate.

Thus we reiterate to Aquino and the military: stop the war of plunder and hands off our environmental and human rights defenders—scrap the fascist Oplan Bayanihan!

Reference:
Clemente Bautista
National Coordinator
+63922 844 9787

Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment
26 Matulungin Street
Central District, Diliman
Quezon City, Philippines 1100
Tel: +63 (2) 433 0184
E-mail: secretariat@kalikasan.net
Site: www.kalikasan.net

Maluhutayong Pakigbisog Alansa sa Sumusunod (MAPASO)
KASALO

Immediately arrest and bring to trial the armed bandit criminals who killed Dionel Campos, Emerito Samarca and Datu Juvello Sinzo!

Disarm and disband the armed bandit group of Bocales-Belandres-Egua and others!

We hold units of the AFP accountable, especially the 401st Infantry Brigade that established, armed and continues to use the armed bandits!

It is the 40th day since the September 1, 2015 brutal killing of MAPASU Chairman Dionel Campos, Kiwagan Datu Juvello Sinzo and ALCADEV Executive Director Emerito “Sir Tatay Emok” Samarca. Despite countless opportunities to arrest the masterminds and executioners of the killings and continuing threats against the evacuees from MAPASU areas in Lianga, San Agustin, Marihatag and San Miguel, not a single one has been arrested. The truth about the killings and forcible evacuation has been clear since the first week of the incident yet in the delay, many lies have been forcefully fed to the public to justify the systematic military operation against Lumad schools, progressive organizations and communities in Surigao del Sur and other parts of Mindanao.

The incident within the school compound of ALCADEV when Sir Tatay Emok was killed, is a military attack using the armed bandit groups under the command of the 75th IBPA. It was a direct military attack using bandit criminals Bobby Tejero, Loloy Tejero, Garito Layno and 25 other armed bandits when they killed Dionel Campos and Datu Juvello Sinzo. These crimes were planned and systematic killings to instill fear, silence and drive out communities and schools from Brgy. Diatagon that, for a long time, prevented the entry of private businesses salivating at the timber and mineral resources in these mountains. The interest of the bandit groups of Marcos Bocales-Marcial Belandres- Calpet Egua is clearly to claim the right to the ancestral land, to sell this to any business that would give them money, control over the communities and limitless luxury. In exchange for the resources in ancestral lands are the future of the Lumad communities and the rights of all the residents, Lumad or lowlander, who live on the land that they want to claim, to clear and to sell to the biggest capitalists to approach them.

The truth of the events in Lianga and other parts of Surigao del Sur is clear. It is also clear that the criminals who committed the crimes have powerful backers. During the Senate hearing last October 1- 2 of the Committee on Justice and Human Rights with the Committee on Cultural Communities attended by Sen. Teofisto Guingona III and Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III in Tandag City, it was clear that the AFP itself set up, armed and accompanied the armed bandit groups of Bocales-BelandresEgua, including the bandit group of Hasmin Acevedo in San Miguel. Not only the direct victims but even church people and officials of the government in Surigao del Sur attested to this. In the statements of the military, strong allegations that the communities, schools, organizations and even the victims were NPA supporters, were made, rationalizing their being target of operations. They concocted these allegations to justify their attacks against civilians and the schools. The statement of Senator Guingona was clear: ideology is not a basis for summarily killing, driving out or threatening any person. The perpetrators of the killings and many other crimes were identified but the military made itself inutile as this was part of their tactics and plan.

Proof of military backing of the bandit criminals is the continuing media sortie of Marcial Belandres and his companion leader of the ALAMARA in Manila. He continues to make noise there while the evidence and testimonies of his criminal deeds in Barobo, Lianga, San Agustin, Marihatag and San Miguel and as the florid lies he is feeding the media are building up here. His guard and manager there is the AFP, escorting him back and forth to the airplane and gathering anyone willing to listen to his fabricated stories.

Focused military operations and test missions of the Special Forces continue in the mountain areas near communities who were forced to evacuate and armed paramilitary forces continue to accompany them. More daring threats are being made against the communities that remained in nearby areas resulting to the evacuation of another 175 families/954 individuals from 3 communities to the Marihatag Gym. News of more destruction and burning of houses, property and farms left by the evacuees have reached them.

As the delay in enforcing the law and arrest of the perpetrators continue, more destruction is being wrought by the military operation and test mission. The warrants of arrest have been issued against the criminals involved in the Lianga massacre for the crimes of multiple murder, arson, robbery, grave coercion and grave threat that were filed in court, but none have been arrested.

It is 40 days yet the criminals Loloy Tejero, Garito Layno, Bobby Tejero and their armed cohorts are still freely roaming the communities. Marcial Belandres, who is one of their leaders, is freely cavorting with his military escorts in Manila. Marcos Bocales, Calpet Egua, Hasmin Acevedo and their band are holed up in military camps, some of them joining military operations in the mountains, while the loved ones of those they have killed continue to grieve and the communities that they continue to threaten continue to suffer in the evacuation center.

In other parts of Caraga, Lito Abion, a Lumad-Manobo and member of Tagdumahan, was shot dead in San Luis, Agusan del Sur by men believed to be military assets last September 28, 2015 and elements of the Regional Public Safety Management Battalion (RPSMB) of the PNP shot Jupiter Pacquiao, a farmer, in the mountains of Alegria, Surigao del Norte on October 6, 2015. The military alleged them to be NPA
to justify both shootings.

How long will our suffering people wait for justice?

STOP THE TEST MISSION OF THE 75TH IB, 36TH IB AND SPECIAL FORCES IN THE MOUNTAINS OF SURIGAO DEL SUR!
STOP THE BRUTAL OPLAN BAYANIHAN!
#STOP LUMAD KILLINGS!

“Forty (40) days after the Lianga Massacre, AFP-backed leaders of paramilitary groups Bobby and Jojo Tejero are still sowing terror, and attacks against the Lumad continue. The warrant of arrest against the murderers has yet to be served, and the indigenous communities that forcibly evacuated from their communities have not gone back to their homes because of continuing military operations,” Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said.

Bobby and Jojo Tejero, members of paramilitary group Magahat-Bagani are among those identified by residents of Han-ayan and Km. 16 as the killers of Lumad leaders Dionel Campos and Juvello Sinzo. The Lumad leaders were shot in the presence of the community and while elements of the 36th and 75th Infantry Battalion and Special Forces of the Philippine Army were around the community.

“After several dialogues with the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the Justice Department, after a number of so-called investigations, still no warrant of arrest has been issued to the murderers,” Palabay said. “Worse, the Lumad communities in Lianga are still in the evacuation in Tandag Sports Complex and the army troops are still in their homes,” Palabay said.

Just last week, residents of Sitio Polonpon and Sitio Boringon Brgy saw Bobby Tejero, with all his brazenness, in Mahaba, Marihatag, Surigao del Sur with elements of the Special Forces. Fearing a repeat of the Lianga massacre, about 1,000 residents were forced to evacuate after hearing a series of gunfires on October 1.

“Pres. Aquino has callously disregarded national and international clamor to bring in the United Nation’s Special Rapporteurs to investigate the massacre of Campos, Sinzo and Alcadev executive director Emerito Samarca. But the BS Aquino regime, as usual, only pretends to take measures to bring justice to the slain Lumad leaders to cover up its involvement in the continuing rights violations in the country,” added Palabay.

Karapatan has requested the UN Special Rapporteurs on Extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, on the Rights of the Indigenous People’s, on Situation of Human Rights Defenders, and on the Promotion of the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons. The SRs however, need an official invitation from the government to visit the country and conduct their investigation. In their September 22 statement, the UN experts reiterated their request to visit and conduct investigations in the Philippines. However, Aquino, through the Department of Foreign Affairs, declined to grant the said request.

Karapatan is wary on the so-called investigations conducted or will be conducted by government agencies, “especially with how the CHR conducted its probe on the forcible evacuation of the 800 Lumad from Talaingod and Kapalong Davao del Sur.”

“The CHR Commissioners have resorted to victim-blaming in their hearing on the evacuees at the UCCP-Haran in Davao City. The CHR, in effect, has questioned the Lumad for not taking part in BS Aquino’s Oplan Bayanihan because they call for the pull-out of military troops in their communities,” said Palabay.

“As we mourn the killing of Campos, Sinzo and Samarca, we mark their courage to fight for the land, rights, and culture of the Lumad.  We stand with their families and communities in their cry for justice. Together, we will never stop in pushing for this US puppet-haciendero government to pay for its crimes against the Lumad and the Filipino people,” Palabay said.

“Campos, Sinzo and Samarca will never be forgotten as they had served the country by offering their lives to defend the poorest and the most oppressed majority. It is through their lives that every peace-loving Filipino and the international community learned about the Lumad struggle and the need to become part of it,” Palabay concluded.

Reference:
Cristina “Tinay” Palabay
Secretary General
+63917-3162831

Angge Santos
Media Liaison
+63918-9790580

http://www.karapatan.org/40+days+since+Lianga+Massacre%2C+murderers+still+sow+terror

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PUBLIC INFORMATION DESK
publicinfo@karapatan.org
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Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights
2nd Flr. Erythrina Building
#1 Maaralin corner Matatag Streets
Central District, Diliman
Quezon City, PHILIPPINES 1101
Telefax: (+63 2) 4354146
Web: http://www.karapatan.org

KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties.  It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign.