Price to pay: In defense of environment, ancestral domain

By Bong S. Sarmiento
Mindanews

Conclusion

GENERAL Santos City — The Armed Forces of the Philippines justified the presence of soldiers in remote communities as part of its Community Support Program, which is in line with “Oplan Kapayapaan” or the military’s strategy to bring peace and development in areas affected by the communist insurgency.

Lt. Col. Victorino Seño, 1002nd Infantry Brigade deputy chief for administration based in Malungon, Sarangani, said late last month that they have not received any formal complaint about personnel abusing martial law. 

Seño said they are mandated to secure “the people and public and private infrastructure” from threat groups, explaining the state forces’ presence in remote communities that critics decry as a form of militarization.

The 1002nd Infantry Brigade’s areas of operation cover the whole of Sarangani, South Cotabato, Davao del Sur, Davao Occidental and parts of North Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat.

That the military is being used or is using martial law to stifle dissent among environmental and land defenders and remote communities is “black propaganda” against state forces, he argued.

“The military is always ready to face formal charges of human rights violations,” he said.

Seño turned the tables on the human rights defenders and the NPA rebels, saying that remote communities “would not have been chaotic if they don’t have a presence there.”

In its report released in July 2019 entitled “Enemies of the State?” Global Witness described the Philippines as the “world’s deadliest country” in 2018 for land and environmental defenders.

Last year, 30 defenders were killed in the Philippines, followed by Columbia with 24 and India with 23. Global Witness documented a total of 164 killings in 19 countries or an average of at least three persons killed each week.

Mindanao, Global Witness pointed out, has become the country’s hotspot for murders of land and environmental defenders, accounting for 67 percent of the 48 killings in 2017 and a third — 10 deaths — out of 30 cases in 2018.

In the Philippines, half of those murdered last year opposed agribusiness ventures, Global Witness added.

“Duterte’s government has not only continued to allow the army to protect private interests but, in implementing martial law, has emboldened them to use force to silence environmental and indigenous activism,” the watchdog said.

Malacañang has claimed the deaths of land and environmental defenders were due to alleged “rivalry between claimants.”

“That happens if there are conflicts among claimants to a particular land. Killings occur because of the viciousness of the rivalry between the claimants,” presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a Palace briefing in July 30.

On the Ned killings in December 2017, Pamplona recalled seeing hundreds of empty and live shells of high-powered firearms during a fact-finding mission to the Lumad community shortly after the Datu Victor and seven others were killed.

“All these Indigenous Peoples wanted were to be able to reclaim their ancestral land and live in peace,” he said. “They rely on this land for their livelihoods and traditions, and I will not just stand by while indigenous communities are brutally cut down for defending their way of life.”

Pamplona said that while the military deployment “could not be questioned since it was a martial law period,” the killings of Danyan and company were “clear gross human rights violations.”

The Lumads’ long struggle for their ancestral lands has sustained through the years, he added, but at the expense of the lives of defenders such as Danyan.

Pamplona noted that the key to free environmental and land defenders in Mindanao from the climate of fear brought about by martial law is for Duterte to lift it.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana last month said he was not recommending the fourth extension of martial law. He reiterated this on Dec. 4, stressing it has taken too long.

Duterte declared martial law all over Mindanao’s 27 provinces and 33 cities for 60 days through Proclamation 216 issued on May 23, 2017, in Moscow where he was visiting. The declaration came about eight hours after the first shots were fired in Marawi City on Day 1 of the Siege. 

When the 60-day period expired on July 22, Duterte sought and was granted an extension until Dec. 31, 2017, and sought two more year-long extensions that Congress granted until yearend 2019.

Over a decade ago, Datu Danyan, while pointing to the coffee plantation in their community, told this reporter that they were not afraid to sacrifice their lives to reclaim their land.

“We are ready to die for our ancestral land if push comes to shove,” he said.

Danyan and seven others paid with their lives on Dec. 3, 2017, in the hands of the military under martial law.

Several religious, human rights and environmental groups openly condemned and demanded justice for their deaths.

Lita Wali, Danyan’s sister, blamed the military for what she referred to as a “massacre.”

“I was cooking lunch. We heard volleys of gunshots and my brother rushed out of the house to see what’s happening. He was gunned down. There was no exchange of gunfire,” she recalled.

Danyan was carrying a home-made firearm at that time, which his relatives said he usually used for self and communal defense.

Danyan was believed to have been killed to stifle opposition to the coffee plantation and the proposed coal mining project in their ancestral domain, said Sister Susan Bolanio, executive director of the Oblate of Notre Dame’s Hesed Foundation Inc..

Tagging him as a communist rebel or supporter was supposedly part of the plot to silence him forever. Bolanio added.

Bolanio’s foundation has been providing livelihood assistance and helping the community in their struggle to reclaim their lands.

The nun, who herself was tagged last year as a communist by a group linked to the military, denied allegations she and Danyan were rebels.

Complaints were filed against the military commanders responsible for the operation where two soldiers were also killed. But the officers insisted that the tribal chieftain and his companions were supporters or members of the communist movement and that they were killed in a legitimate military operation.

Reiterating his call for the lifting of martial law in Mindanao, Pamplona, the 2018 Soros awardee, pledged to continue assisting the Lumads in their struggle to reclaim their ancestral land.

Erlan Deluvio, Commission on Human Rights-12 director, described Danyan, as “the power and strength behind his people’s struggle for their ancestral land.”

“To weaken the struggle, he was naturally made the target,” the lawyer said.

After conducting an investigation, the CHR held the military liable “for their utter failure to exert earnest efforts in distinguishing combatants from non-combatants under the Principles of Distinction of the International Humanitarian Law,” Deluvio noted.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported on July 27, 2018, that the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) in Manila filed murder charges before the Department of Justice against soldiers allegedly responsible for the deaths of Danyan and seven others.

In its three-page complaint, the NUPL said their clients, relatives of the slain victims, relocated to Metro Manila due to security concerns and the alleged intensified militarization in their community as a consequence of martial law.

Lt. Col. Seño said no formal charges have been filed against the troops of the 27th and 33rd Infantry Battalions.

Pamplona said Danyan’s immediate family opted against filing charges for fear of retaliation from the military. 

In a martial law setting, that fear is even more pronounced, Pamplona added.