Adherence to due process and rule of law

I JOIN the government in its desire to rid the country of crime and illegal drug trafficking. The people deserve a peaceful environment, free of crime. We must respect everyone’s right to pursue his or her aspirations without fear.

I am extremely concerned over the spate of extrajudicial killings happening all over the country. I am worried that lawless elements and public officials with less commitment to the rule of law are taking advantage of the government’s anti-crime campaign to cover up higher crimes. President Rodrigo Duterte’s camp had even said that this might be part of a design to protect big-time criminals.

I therefore support any legislative inquiry that will seriously look into the cases of extrajudicial killings and summary executions allegedly done in the name of fighting crime. Contrary to the claim that this will undermine the government’s anti-crime initiative, an impartial inquiry will actually contribute in preventing it from being hijacked by vested interests while safeguarding the rights of all citizens. The government’s effort to protect the public from crime and illegal drug trafficking must not sow fear among the public and encourage vigilantism. It must not be tainted by abuse and other excesses.

Fighting crime and safeguarding the rights of all citizens are not mutually exclusive of one another. They co-exist. President Duterte himself said during his inauguration that his adherence to due process and rule of law is uncompromising. I trust that the administration will prosecute its anti-crime campaign based on the said standards. –Risa Hontiveros, Senator

Land Row

ON July 12, 2016, security personnel of Ramcar Inc. fired at members of the Sitio Inalsahan Indigenous Peoples Organization who were at their makeshift tent, killing three of the lumad farmers who were then preparing to farm.

According to survivors, at around six in the morning, 13 security guards from the Tagbagani Security Agency employed by the company allegedly surrounded the tent of the lumads put up on the land they were tilling at Sitio Inalsahan, Barangay Lupiagan, Sumilao, Bukidnon. The guards were firing at the lumads while encircling them. The lumads, who were then having coffee, tried to duck and seek cover.

Remar Mayantao, a council member of the Sitio Inalsahan Indigenous People Organization, raised his arms to express submission to the guards. However, he was hit on his right abdomen, causing him to fall. A security guard went to him and slit his throat with a knife.

Senon Nacaytuna attempted to run. However, he tripped and fell. Another security guard went to him, turned him so that he faced upwards, and shot him on the chest. The guard then placed a 0.38 gun on Nacayutna’s hand that was holding a weeding bolo. Rogen Suminao also took a fatal shot. Three other lumad farmers – one of them a 15-year old female – were wounded.

The shooting lasted for five minutes. The guards destroyed three of the tents of the lumads that were on the contested land and went away. The tents were set up on the contested area that the lumad group had been claiming but was occupied by Ramcar  Inc.

In 2011, the Higaonon community in Barangay Lupiagan processed an ancestral domain claim over 5,000 hectares of land in the said barangay. However, they found out that only 2,400 hectares were left untitled over the years, the rest of the ‘borrowed’ land from their ancestors already privately owned by institutions and individuals. The group settled for an application for the 2,400 hectares.

However, the lumad group claimed that Ramcar Inc., which is raising cattle in the area, fenced around 5,000 hectares, including part of their ancestral domain claim. On June 11, 2014, the lumads set up tents on the contested land. The following day, they were driven away by the guards of the company and so were forced to transfer their tents outside the fenced area. The security guards then put up a guardhouse in front of them.

In the first week of July, Datu Makalingaw received notice that there is already a request from the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) to allow them to enter the lands they had claimed. However, the group waited for a dialogue that was to be facilitated by the Local Government Unit of Sumilao and the NCIP. The lumads also set up three more tents on July 10 – this time inside the territory fenced by Ramcar Inc. but well within their ancestral domain.-Higala sa Lumad (Interfaith Solidarity Network for Lumads)