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Due to the COVID-19 lockdown imposed last year, students were not able to return to their communities. But with the government's easing of travel restrictions, the university said plans have been made for their return. Four of the delegates, in fact, have already returned to their respective communities.
“The NCIP’s so-called ‘datus’ vaguely label Rep. Cullamat’s participation in the protest as a ‘disrespectful act.’ We ask these datus: how is speaking in a peaceful protest action ‘disrespectful?’ How is the exercise of one’s democratic rights a rational basis for banning an elected representative from her own ancestral community?”
In their petition, the two Aetas decried that the law’s definition of terrorism is “impermissibly vague.” They also argued that it is “overly broad that it sweepingly stifles even innocent and legitimate acts, including the exercise of protected freedoms.”
Contrary to military claims that they were members of militia of the Communist Party of the Philippines, the slain indigenous peoples in Panay had long been asserting their right to land and life in the face of so-called development projects. In return, they had been tagged as enemies of the state and subjected to intense militarization over the years.
“We will defend UP, our sanctuary, as much as it has defended us.” - Lumad student
“It is part of the government’s acts of historical revisionism or distorting and erasing the true history of the people’s resistance and heroism which remain relevant until today.”
Cordillera People's Alliance and Bolinget’s family fear for his safety, noting that he can be subjected to a “tokhang-style execution” if he gets arrested and transported to Davao Del Norte for his case.
12th Infantry Battalion-Philippine Army (12IBPA) troopers and the Philippine National Police in Western Visayas swooped down on Tumandok communities in Calinog in Iloilo and Tapaz in Capiz and killed nine civilians in a Synchronized Enhanced Management of Police Operation (SEMPO).
This is not the first time that a national minority was charged with terrorism.
“The agroecology practice of the Lumad students of CTCSM is a great example of the type of learning that should also be incorporated in the general education subjects in universities like UP. The deeper understanding of the flora and fauna should be applied in all degree programs.” -- former UP Diliman Chancellor Michael Tan
Sandugo – Movement of Moro and Indigenous Peoples for Self-Determination called on the Commission on Human Rights to investigate the incidents, and for the Army's 7th Infantry Division, especially its commanding officer, to be "held criminally liable for their abusive acts, including the violation of the Anti-Torture Law."
"The terror law is added ammunition to the existing arsenal of repressive laws against the Indigenous and Moro people. This is a mockery to the exercise of our fundamental rights”
Kalumbay described Datu Reynaldo Ayuma as being “consistently at the forefront of the struggle of the Camansi evacuees against development aggression of their ancestral domain.”
The observance of Ramadan proves to be challenging for Moro communities because of stricter measures imposed due to COVID-19 lockdown. The poorest communities, particularly evacuees from Marawi, also lament their exclusion from government's assistance programs.
“We (IPs) protect the ancestral lands against mining and plantation companies because we ourselves are dependent on those lands for food security."
Local tribal leader Casamira Maniego, chair of their local organization Asosasyon ng Katutubong Mahawang, said 20 armed men were escorted by the local police arrived in their community earlier today, threatening the people’s barricade against the looming expansion of the New Clark City.
In just under six months of fieldwork, we saw the extreme and terrifying change of landscape in the affected areas: hundreds of trees were felled, creeks dried, and mountains flattened; this, despite claims from the Philippine government that New Clark City is “environment-friendly.”
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