In 2018, the Duterte administration targeted the IP in the Davao Region, shutting down minority-run schools and forcing pupils, teachers and IP advocates to flee. The military then arrested those who were evacuating and charged them with “child abuse.” The Talaingod 13 led ACT-Teachers Rep. France Castro and former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo were recently convicted in a trial that critics approximated the proceedings in a kangaroo court.
Now, the Marcos Jr. administration appears to be following the Duterte playbook, with the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) arresting four IP advocates police without warrants in Mexico, Pampanga on July 29, 2024, torturing and detaining them to exact bogus confessions, the same illegal and inhuman tactic applied on members of the Aeta community who were manhandled, fed with feces and forced to admit they were New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas. Their torturers were convicted under a law that punishes human rights abusers with huge fines but nothing has been heard about the monetary award.
The Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (Katribu) has taken the cudgels for Maria Theresa Buscayno, Desiree Jaranilla Patuñ-og, Andres Ely, and Oliver Millo, who were bundled off their vehicle, punched, kicked in the head and subjected to martial law-type of torture for championing the rights of the Ayta community in Pampanga and neighboring provinces. Katribu condemned the illegal arrest of the four activists and argued the CIDG has become the spearhead for repression. CIDG was also linked to the murders of peasant rights advocate Randall Echanis, labor organizer Jude Fernandez and the ailing Eugenia “Gene” Magpantay and her artist-husband. A neighbor and witness to the killing of Echanis was also brutally murdered.
“Maria Theresa Buscayno and Desiree Jaranilla Patuñ-og were heavily bruised and sustained with serious injuries. Andres Ely and Oliver Millo were similarly detained without due process and subjected to physical and psychological abuse. Desiree Jaranilla Patuñ-og recounted being physically assaulted and deprived of food and water, while Maria Theresa Buscayno faced threats and intimidation aimed at forcing her to make false confessions,” Katribu revealed.
Katribu explained that Buscayno, Patun-og, Ely and Millo were defending Ayta communities from the plunder and militarization of their ancestral lands. It noted that Ayta lands are being exploited by mining companies, grabbed by firms purportedly pushing “green” energy projects and taken over by the Marcos Jr. regime for the expansion of military base expansion. All these have led to the widespread environmental degradation in IP areas and the displacement and loss of livelihood for minority communities. “We call for the immediate and safe release of Maria Theresa Buscayno, Desiree Jaranilla Patuñ-og, Andres Ely, and Oliver Millo. We demand that the perpetrators of these heinous acts be held accountable,” Katribu said.
This incident puts into focus the scrunched up “respect” for human rights mantra and defense of minority rights by the much-touted Human Rights Committee created by Malacanang to oversee government’s adherence to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and respect for International Humanitarian Law (IHL.) The multi-agency body is a non-starter, comprised as it is by the very same agencies accused of being lawless and complicit with every human rights violation known to mankind.
Katribu says it stands in solidarity with the Ayta and all Indigenous communities for land, genuine development and self-determination. “The state should recognize and respect the rights of IPs over their ancestral lands. The undue exploitation, militarization, and bombings of their lands should immediately stop. We call on all concerned citizens to stand in solidarity, in condemning these human rights violations,” it concluded.
The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) must likewise do its duty to inculcate respect for UDHR and IHL among the members of the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), something that has been tossed by the wayside during the regimes of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Rodrigo Duterte as they intensified enforced disappearances and massive militarization in IP ancestral domains to protect foreign and local investments in mining and logging areas and protect the interests of the Aboitizes, Alcantaras and Consunjis. The Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC) was not established for altruism, as if the profit motive is not the engine of capitalism. Remember the maxim “your liberty to swing your first ends where my nose begins”? The plutocracy is an all-nose creature.
