The Philippines has the most dismal government response to the pandemic in the Southeast Asian region.1 President Rodrigo Duterte’s militaristic approach has only tightened what little democratic space there is rather than curb the spread of COVID-19.2
In June 2020, the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR) issued a resolution highlighting the worsening human rights violations in the country “marked by an overarching focus on public order and national security, including on countering terrorism and illegal drugs.”3 The strict COVID-19 lockdown, from April to July, resulted in a 50 percent increase in killings related to “drug wars.”4Correspondingly, the existing laws addressing issues of terrorism and newly implemented measures for COVID-19 led to further human rights violations, lack of accountability and disregard for the rule of law.
Republic Act 11479 or the Anti-Terror Act of 2020 was quickly passed and made effective in July despite strong opposition from Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Defenders (IPHRDs) and human rights advocates, including the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines.5 The vagueness and overbreadth of the law appear to systematically bury dissent under the pretext of terrorism that will undermine the constitutionally protected rights.6
A total of 37 petitions were forwarded to the Supreme Court calling for the Act to be declared unconstitutional and therefore, without effect. The oral arguments are currently ongoing.7
Red tagging has been a classic and common military and police practice to silence activists and IPHRDs. It has been practiced even prior to Duterte’s administration, but his open call to use violence on anyone tagged as supporter or member of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA), heightened people’s vulnerability of getting killed, arrested, and/or legally charged.
Red tagging starts with defamation and vilification of activists, delegitimizing their work as human rights defenders. Many progressive Indigenous Peoples’ organizations are also tagged as CPP-NPA members or sympathizers. Even indigenous learning facilities, particularly the Lumad schools that cater to hundreds of young indigenous Lumad are accused of training its students to be terrorists. These unfounded accusations spread fast through social media, particularly Facebook, although posting actual banners and distributing leaflets that contain vicious attacks on individuals in public spaces are also done. On many occasions, mostly with no proper background checking nor basis, red tagging escalates to issuance of a warrant of arrest. More often than not, arrests lead to killing, with the ‘nanlaban’ narrative – claims of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and other state security agents of “criminals resisting arrest”— used widely to justify killings of innocent people who have been issued warrants of arrest.8 On some occasions, mere red tagging is enough for an extra-judicial killing to be committed.
In 2020, there were 92 incidents of red tagging of IPRHDs and members of indigenous communities, 28 indigenous organizations - 60 in total, including support organizations— and seven Lumad schools. The 92 incidents do not include more than 200 undocumented and unnamed individuals who were also reported to have been red tagged.9 A total of 178 Lumad school facilities were shut down. Red tagging has led to 33 arrests and 14 killings.
Another state strategy that is used to harass and justify arrests of innocent individuals is “fake surrender,” which refers to alleged CPP-NPA members supposedly surrendering to the police or the military often conducted in remote areas. More than 200 members of indigenous groups in the country were reported to have fallen victim to this “fake surrender program” in 2020 but these still need further verification.10 This program, along with red tagging, has been slammed for having links to corruption as the government offers a ‘prize’ ranging from 65,000 to 140,000 PHP or around 1,300 to 2,800 USD for every ex-rebel.11
These attacks against Indigenous Peoples and intensified militarization of indigenous communities are clearly linked to existing development aggression projects in indigenous territories and to Duterte’s Build, Build, Build (BBB) program, which is focused on infrastructure projects meant to boost the country’s economic growth.12Among the key projects is the New Clark City covering 9,450-hectares that is set to displace around 18,000 Indigenous Aeta and Magantsi peoples.13 Indigenous leaders demanding a stop to the encroachment on their ancestral lands have been receiving threats from armed men.
TWO INDIGENOUS AETAS ARE FIRST VICTIMS OF THE ANTI-TERROR LAW OF 2020
On August 21, 2020, the 703rd Brigade and 7th Infantry Division of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) engaged a CPP-NPA unit in an operation in the town of San Marcelino, Zambales province in Central Luzon. The encounter resulted in damaged crops and confiscated livestock of the Indigenous Aeta. A total of 192 families comprising 695 individuals were displaced and five were killed; four of them were minors. Their appeal for support from the Department of Agriculture was denied as their crops were not damaged by natural disasters.
The military bombings and shooting with the CPP-NPA on the Aetas’ ancestral lands caused Jepoy Garung, 30, Rosalyn Serrano-Urbano, 16, Junior Ramos-Urbano, 19, Kiray Serrano-Urbano, 17, and Manuel Ramos to evacuate their homes. On their way, they met soldiers from the 7th Infantry Division of the AFP who arrested them on the suspicion that they were members of the rebel organization. The two women, Rosalyn and Kiray, were separated from the three men who were blindfolded. The men were brought to a place where they were interrogated, beaten and tortured incessantly for days. They could not exactly recall the dates and the details of the severe beating and cruel torture. But they remember that before they were brought to the San Marcelino Police Station, the military forced them, including the two girls, to eat human excrement. During those days of interrogation, they were forced to confess that they were CPP-NPA members.
Dubbed as Lumibao 4, and except for Manual Ramos, they were all charged with the non-bailable offense of illegal possession of firearms and explosives. Only Jepoy Garung and Junior Ramos-Urbano were charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 and were accused of shooting a soldier dead during the encounter. They are both detained at the Olongapo City jail, while the girls, being minor, are in the custody of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
The government’s National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) was created in 2018 under the Office of the President with the Chairperson of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) as the unit’s Executive Director. The agency is using the case of the Lumibao 4 to delegitimize their lawyers who are members of the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), a progressive organization that represents victims of human rights violations.14 NUPL was also accused of having ties with the CPP-NPA.15
In a press conference organized by the NTF-ELCAC on February 10, 2021, a distraught and extremely confused Jepoy said, as he fought back his tears, “That’s the way we were treated because we’re illiterate tribesmen. In the past, we were so happy in the mountain. We were farming, then suddenly our family was ruined. Back when they weren’t disrupting our village, our family was happy. But when it was ruined, it got so sad.”16
After the press conference, NUPL withdrew their support following the two Aetas’ decision to change counsel, including their bid to join the petitions against the Anti-Terror Law.17Their new legal representative is the government’s Public Attorney’s Office. Their case is ongoing.
Myrna Duyan, an Indigenous Tuwali, is one of the indigenous leaders defending their lands against Oceana Gold Philippines Inc. (Photo: LILAK - Purple Action for Indigenous Women’s Rights)
OCEANA GOLD INSISTS ON RENEWAL OF CONTRACT TO PLUNDER AND DESTROY18
On April 6, 2020, the stand-off between the people of Didipio, Nueva Vizcaya and the Australian-Canadian mining company, OceanaGold Philippines Inc. (OGPI)* escalated with the police’s violent dispersal of the barricade, injuring several Indigenous Peoples, most of them, women. Fifteen people were charged for violating quarantine and isolation measures and civil disobedience19 while an activist from the Didipio Earth Saver’s Movement Association (DESAMA) was arrested.
OGPI began processing the renewal of its Financial or Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) to extend their “permit to operate” for another 25 years “under the same terms and conditions.” The application for renewal was lodged without informing and consulting the affected communities and the local government unit. The latter and the affected communities have been passing position papers and petitioning against the renewal of the mining permit because of the lack of free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) and the long list of environmental and human rights violations committed against the residents in the area.20
In 2008, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) investigated OGPI based on a report of alleged illegal and unnecessary violent demolition and destruction of around 187 houses. Residents who resisted were beaten while their houses were bulldozed off cliffs and set on fire.
The company’s FTAA expired on June 20, 2019, but in January 2020, President Rodrigo Duterte authorized the entry of 63,000 liters (16,600 gallons) of fuel to the Didipio mining site. Around a hundred police officers escorted three OGPI diesel tankers that forced their way through the people’s barricade. The provincial government had earlier raised concern over the volume of fuel, which should only be used to run generators for its dewatering activities, including removing or pumping out groundwater from the mine site. However, the volume of fuel authorized by the President was enough for OGPI to continue its operations.
In June 2020, the provincial government issued a directive for OGPI to “restrain any operations,” which OGPI challenged at the Court of Appeals. The latter decided in favour of the local government, but this did not stop the OGPI from continuing their operations.
In the Mining Act of 1995, the regulatory authority of mining operations rests with the national government, not with the local government units. It remains to have greater legal validity to trump other relevant laws such as the Philippines’ Local Government Code of 1991 and the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997.
Didipio mines cover around 27,000 hectares believed to hold 1.41 million ounces of gold and 169,400 tons of copper. The provincial government warns that the continuing mining operations will compromise the province’s watershed and agroforestry hub. OGPI’s FTAA is within the Magat Watershed Area feeding into the Magat River, the largest tributary of the Cagayan River, which traverses one of the few remaining primary forests in the Philippines.
Read and download the full IPRI's 2021 Annual Criminalization report here.
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