As we observe the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, we bring attention to the pivotal role of indigenous territories as the last frontiers of nature in this climate-changed world. In the Philippines, the right to self-determination of Indigenous Peoples (IP) in governing these territories continues to be besieged by various harms that undermine the ecological corridors that indigenous lands harbor.
This was the collective situation confirmed by IPs and indigenous rights advocates from across Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao who recently converged in a National Academic Forum where they consulted human rights experts from the United Nations. Delegates asked for technical advice from Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples José Francisco Calí Tzay and Business and Human Rights Working Group Member Dr. Pichamon Yeophantong, regarding a total of 35 cases of indigenous rights violations from across 23 different provinces in the country.
Territories under threat and the right to a Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) were the biggest reported concern, with 51% of the cases raised. Destructive corporate and government projects on mining, dams, energy, infrastructure, agribusiness, and other conflicting land uses encroached into ancestral domains while circumventing or manipulating FPIC and other public consultation and participation processes.
These include projects such as the Didipio Copper-Gold Project of Oceanagold in Nueva Vizcaya; the Tampakan Copper-Gold Project in South Cotabato by Mindanao Sagittarius Mines, Inc. (SMI); the Ipilan Nickel Project in Palawan; the Kaliwa-Kanan Dam Projects in Rizal and Quezon; the Saltan and Mabaca Dam Projects in Kalinga; the Jalaur Megadam in Iloilo; the Pulangui Hydropower Project in Bukidnon; and Solar and Wind Power Projects in Ilocos Norte, among others.
Red tagging and criminalization, especially linked to the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), constituted 31% of the reported cases, including the continuing incarceration of Dumagats Rocky Torres and Dandoy Avellaneda, Dulangan-Manobo woman leader Julieta Gomez, and Indigenous rights social worker Niezel Velasco due to trumped-up charges; and the terrorist designation of Cordillera Peoples Alliance leaders Windel Bolinget, Jen Awingan, Sarah Alikes, and Steve Tauli.
Militarization and violent human rights abuses rounded up the last of the cases comprising 17% of the reported cases, which include forced ‘fake surrenders’ of IPs presented as armed rebels in Cagayan Valley; mass arrests of IPs in Negros Island; the abduction of Bontoc-Ibaloi-Kankanaey Dexter Capuyan and indigenous rights advocate Bazoo De Jesus by the police last 2023; and the murder of Dulangan Manobo youth Kuni Cuba in June 2024.
All these must be viewed in the context of what is at stake. Various reports indicate that almost a third of our key biodiversity areas, 75% of our remaining forest cover, and 49% of approved mining projects, are within indigenous territories. Indigenous territories are contested precisely because of the natural wealth they hold, while their contributions to climate adaptation and mitigation are on the other hand ignored.
The trends unmistakably place chief accountability upon the Philippine Government. The economic fast-tracks to development projects, the lack of necessary environmental and human rights safeguards, and the deployment of military, police, and paramilitary troops to secure ‘vital installations’ of ‘national interest,’ create a policy architecture that undermines indigenous territories.
These cases have been compiled and are now submitted to the official reporting channels of the UN experts. They are urged to recommend to the Philippine government the following actions:
To uphold the Indigenous Peoples’ right to genuine FPIC and to address the tenurial overlaps, land and resource grabbing, and various other land and environmental conflicts that beset ancestral domains;
To cease the militarization of Indigenous communities, and the red-tagging and criminalization of Indigenous Peoples’ Human Rights Defenders (IPHRDs) and Indigenous Peoples’ rights advocates;
To abolish the NTF-ELCAC through the repeal of Executive Order No. 70, and to repeal the Anti-Terrorism Law, the chief policy infrastructure for red-tagging and criminalizing IPHRDs; and
Ensure the speedy and impartial trials of illegally arrested and detained IPHRDs and IP rights advocates.
For us, Land is Life. A threat to our lands is a threat to our lives–and all lives interwoven with the lifeblood of our forests, rivers, and fields. We must continue to stand for Indigenous rights.#
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