Global Indigenous Peoples organization Indigenous Peoples Rights International (IPRI) denounces the recent murder of Tumandok village chief Julie Catamin and the brutal attack against Angelo Karlo Guillen, one of the legal counsels of the Tumandok tribe members who were arrested in deadly police raids in December 2020.
On February 28, Catamin was shot dead by riding-in-tandem assailants on her way home while driving a motorcycle in Calinog town in Iloilo. According to reports, Catamin was summoned to the military detachment on February 25 and was warned to stop seeking help from the church and militant organizations like Bayan Muna. It was also reported that members of the Philippine National Police - Criminal Investigation and Detection Group were looking for her prior to her murder.
Prior to the supposed threats and her death, Catamin boldly accused on social media the authorities who arrested four residents of their village of planting firearms and explosives. “They were arrested and handcuffed. Bullets and firearms were planted, and their houses were destroyed. Where is justice? I am appealing for help from any government agency that can help me,” Catamin said in her post on Facebook.
Just three days after Catamin’s murder, unidentified suspects chased, mauled, then stabbed the 33-year-old lawyer Guillen with a screwdriver in his left temple. The suspects took his backpack and sling bag which contain his laptop and his documents.
Apart from representing the arrested Tumandok tribe members, Guillen is also a legal counsel in one of the 37 petitions questioning the constitutionality of the Anti-Terrorism Act in the Supreme Court.
IPRI’s partner in the Philippines, Defend Panay Network said in a statement provided to IPRI that the series of attacks against Indigenous Peoples and their allies is not a mere coincidence, as it reveals a pattern that is too obvious to ignore.
“The stabbing of Atty AK Gullen, closely following the murder of barangay chieftain Julie Catamin clearly follows the pattern of an effort to whitewash and derail the investigation on what really happened during the synchronized police operations in December 2020,” Defend Panay Network explains, adding that even the sacking of Western Visayas PNP crime laboratory chief after he revealed to the public that seven of the murdered Tumandok leaders tested negative in paraffin tests fits the pattern.
Meanwhile, IPRI Director Joan Carling says that the continuing attacks against Indigenous Peoples, like the Tumandok and Lumad and Indigenous Peoples rights advocates merely reflects how culture of impunity continue to thrive in the Philippines.
“They want to completely silence and disempower the Indigenous Peoples movement in the country by jailing or killing Indigenous Peoples and their allies, one by one. We cannot and should not turn a blind eye to these grave human rights violations committed against indigenous Peoples,” Carling stresses.
IPRI calls upon all peace-loving citizens to demand an end to this impunity and to pursue justice and democracy.
#JusticeforTumandok9
#FreeTumandok16
#JusticeforJulieCatamin
#JusticeforAKGuillen
#DefendPanay
#StopTheAttacks
#StopTheKillings
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