Press Statement
20 October 2012
Kalikasan Party-list condemns killing of B'laan tribal leader's family, slams large-scale mining as a driver of human rights violations
Kalikasan Partylist condemns the massacre of the family of B'laan tribal leader Daguil Capion.
An army raid by the 27th Infantry Battalion on the morning of October 18 in Kiblawis village, Kiblawan town, Davao del Sur strafed the hut where Capion's family was staying and left his wife, Juvy, and their children Pop, aged 13, and John, aged eight, dead and a daughter Vicky, aged five, wounded. Reports by human rights group KARAPATAN-Socksargen added that the 27th IB laid the dead out in the sun to coerce Capion to surrender.
Daguil Capion is among the B'laan tribal leaders who are struggling to stop an impending mining project by foreign mining giants Xstrata and Sagittarius Mines Incorporated (SMI) into their ancestral domains. The large-scale mining project in Tampakan is one of the largest mines of its kind in the country: straddling the boundaries of four provinces and expected to displace more than 30,000 B'laan peoples.
This state of resistance by the B'laan community is a response to the government's all-out bid to sell the country's remaining mineral lands to private and foreign interests while directing military troops and paramilitary elements to serve as mercenary guards for private mining corporations under the cloak of counter-insurgency. Capion's tribe has long opposed the incursion of mining and military force into their lands. His uncle, Gorelmin Malid, was murdered in 2002 while the Bong Mal community where Capion belongs to has been repeatedly victimized by human rights. In June 2012, Capion and other leaders have finally invoked a pangayaw, the tribal war, as an indigenous means of defending their lands, livelihood and life from the onslaught of development aggression and militarization.
The October 18 massacre of B'laan women and children is clearly an atrocious crime, violating with impunity the rights of unarmed civilians. Kalikasan Party-list condemns this action by the military and urges an independent investigation of the killing that will result in timely justice for the victims.
On November 15, 2010, botanist Leonard L. Co and his companions Julius Borromeo and Sofronio Cortez were similarly slain in what the military then called an "encounter" in the forests of Kananga, Leyte. Despite massive evidence and witness testimonies pointing to the killing as a massacre of unarmed civilians, justice remains elusive for two years now in the Co case. This must not happen again.
Kalikasan Party-list calls for justice and indemnification for this latest incident of extrajudicial killing and supports the call of indigenous groups for the immediate pullout of military forces in indigenous communities, especially those targeted by mining operations.
Lastly, we also call for the permanent and final cancellation of the Tampakan project that has indirectly claimed so many lives over the years and has been the source of increasing social strife and bloodshed even way before it starts operating. Let us not abet the killing of more people and the rich natural wealth of the country's lands. ###
Kalikasan Party-list is a progressive political party formed to protect the environment and defend the people's welfare. It is comprised of individuals and various sectors which support pro-people, pro-Filipino and pro-environment policies, reforms and programs. It is one of the first green political parties in the Philippines.
Kalikasan Party-list
Address: # 26 Matulungin Street, Barangay Central, Diliman, Quezon City 1100
Website: www.kalikasanpartylist.org
Email: kalikasanpartylist.pid@gmail.com
Facebook: Kalikasan Partylist
Twitter: @KalikasanParty
Telephone: +632.434.3173
No comments:
Post a Comment
Site visitors can use the comment form to send their email messages to anyone at DZRH. As your messages will go to a single secure email address, please INDICATE TO WHOM your message is for. Thank you.