Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts Volume IV, Number 5 February 29 - March 6, 2004 Quezon City, Philippines |
Indigenous People's Watch Gov’t
Hit for Ignoring UN Call on Human Rights The
Joey Ayala song “Wala nang Tao sa Sta. Filomena” describes a farm
village whose rice stalks had bent, where the langay-langayan (Asiatic
swallow) sings as it flies by without anyone seeing or hearing it, because the
villagers are all gone. The song is a not-so-direct but nevertheless moving
depiction of people fleeing their homes and livelihood to save their skins from
soldiers. By
Alexander Martin Remollino The
Joey Ayala song “Wala nang Tao sa Sta. Filomena” describes a rural
village whose rice stalks had bent, where the langay-langayan (Asiatic
swallow) sings as it flies by without anyone seeing or hearing it, because the
villagers have all fled somewhere. The song is a not-so-direct but nevertheless
moving depiction of the effect of militarization: people fleeing their homes and
livelihood to save their skins from military atrocities. The
Sta. Filomena that Ayala describes in the song is in Davao. Sta.
Filomenas However,
if one was a first-time visitor to the Philippines, and happened to attend the
recent National Workshop of Indigenous Peoples on Human Rights at the Ateneo de
Manila University, held last Feb. 24-27, he or she would think there are many
Sta. Filomenas all over the Philippines. Attended
by delegates from Mindanao, Negros Occidental, Central Luzon, Southern Tagalog,
and Cordillera in northern Philippines, the workshop tackled the issue of human
rights violations against indigenous peoples. A
representative from Karapatan-Southern Mindanao revealed in the workshop that
just last Jan. 10, in Compostela Valley, soldiers of the 33rd Infantry Brigade (IB)
strafed a village, killing one lumad (a term for Mindanao’s non-Muslim
indigenous peoples). Ten lumad leaders are said to have been harassed by
the military in Southern Mindanao this January alone, the human rights alliance
Karapatan said. The
Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) from northern Philippines, which was part of
the workshop’s coordinating committee, revealed that it recorded 1,297 cases
of human rights violations—including arbitrary arrests, harassments, and
summary executions of indigenous people and strafing of their villages—in the
said region from January 2003 to February 2004. The perpetrators, it said, were
from the local units of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Citizens
Armed Force Geographical Unit (CAFGU), a paramilitary unit. UN
report Militarization
was one of the human rights issues relating to indigenous peoples tackled in the
March 2003 report of Rodolfo Stavenhagen, United Nations (UN) special rapporteur
on the rights of indigenous peoples. Stavenhagen
came up with the report after a series of meetings with Philippine government
officials and indigenous organizations, as well as UN agencies. He presented it
to the 56th special session of the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva,
Switzerland in March 2003. Other
indigenous people’s rights issues discussed in the Stavenhagen report are
development aggression (in which “development” projects are foisted on
indigenous communities by either the government or private corporations, or
both, without their free prior and informed consent); the conflict between
national laws and indigenous peoples’ rights as provided for by the Indigenous
Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA); the indigenous communities’ lack of access to
basic social services and employment opportunities as well as the high incidence
of indigenous peoples’ poverty; and the harassment and prosecution, as well as
killings, of indigenous peoples’ activists. Stavenhagen
noted that militarization of indigenous communities is closely linked with
development aggression, as military operations are directed against indigenous
communities protesting the destruction of their livelihood and culture. He
also noted that indigenous people’s rights violations are usually reported by
their victims to the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) and the
Commission on Human Rights (CHR) but are not satisfactorily addressed by these
agencies. He
recommended expanding the functions of the NCIP (including the training of
indigenous legal defenders), the prioritization of indigenous people’s rights
in cases of conflict with national laws, government investigation of indigenous
peoples’ rights violations, the pull-out of CAFGU units from indigenous
communities, the provision of adequate social services for indigenous peoples,
and the speedy ratification of International Labor Organization Convention No.
169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Tribal Countries. Agenda The
delegates to the indigenous peoples’ workshop came up with “An Agenda to
Promote and Protect the Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous
Peoples” based on the many cases of indigenous peoples’ rights violations
shared by the delegates. The agenda was presented to government representatives
in a dialogue at Balay Kalinaw, University of the Philippines, last Feb. 27. Citing
Stavenhagen’s March 2003 report, the agenda states: “We looked at the
situation as described in his report and at his recommendations to see whether
there have been changes since 2002. We regret that the Philippine government
responded negatively and has not done anything, yet, to implement the
recommendations... We fully support these recommendations and urge the
Philippine government to implement these.” The
agenda notes that: “The situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of
indigenous peoples has not improved, and in most regions it has even
deteriorated further. Militarization and development aggression have worsened in
all parts of the country. These are the two main factors which are causing the
violations of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights and
freedoms of indigenous peoples.” The agenda highlights the indigenous peoples’ situations in Mindanao and Cordillera and cites specific cases shared in the workshop, including some from the 1980s which have remained unresolved. Bulatlat.com We want to know what you think of this article.
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