On July 12, 2021, the Regional Trial Court in Tagum City, capital of Davao del Norte – a province in Davao region in Mindanao Island at the south of the Philippines—rejected the criminal prosecution against the indigenous human rights defender, Windel Bolinget.
Bolinget is the chairperson of the local indigenous organization, Cordillera Peoples Alliance and convenor of Katribu, a national indigenous peoples’ alliance. He is a long-time indigenous human rights defender and known to be against large-scale mining projects, mega-dams and other projects that pose a threat to the indigenous peoples’ land rights in Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) located in the north of the Philippines’ Luzon Island.
On August 6, 2020, a criminal case was filed at against him and ten other individuals wherein three are women. They are being linked to the murder of a certain Garito Malibato in 2018.
On September 25, 2020, the Regional Trial Court in Tagum City, capital of Davao del Norte, issued a warrant of arrest for murder against Bolinget, et. al. They learned about the charges only in December 2020.
Bolinget has never set foot in Kapalong, Davao del Norte, where the killing of Malibato is reported to have happened. Also, in a local news report in 2018, the brother of Garito, Datu (tribal chieftain) Delio Malibato, have identified the paramilitary group called Alamara as the perpetrators of the murder of his brother. Datu Malibato said the leaders of the group are known as Ungging and Laris Masaloon.
Garito is the brother of Mintroso and Delio Malibato, datu of the indigenous Ata Manobo group and leaders of Karadyawan, a local Indigenous Peoples’ organization in Kapalong, Davao del Norte. The leaders and members of Karadyawan have been politically vilified and red tagged by the Philippine government and its security forces.[1]
Before Bolinget was linked to the murder of Garito, he has been vilified and tagged as member of the communist terrorist group, Communist Party of the Philippines – New People’s Army (CPP-NPA), even prior to the current Duterte administration. With the issuance of the warrant of arrest, he observed heightened surveillance of his residence. On December 10, 2020, flyers indicating that he is a member of CPP-NPA were posted in the area that leads to his home. In that same month, State security forces harassed his father-in-law and eldest child.
Attacks on Bolinget intensified when on January 15, 2021, a 100,000 PHP (approximately 2,000 USD) reward was offered by the Cordillera Police Department for any information leading to Bolinget's arrest. A shoot-to-kill order was even issued on January 20, 2021 by Cordillera Police Chief Brigadier General R’win Pagkalinawan should Bolinget resist arrest.[2]
Prior to Bolinget’s case, another indigenous human rights defender from the Cordillera region, Beatrice ‘Betty’ Belen, was charged with illegal possession of explosives. She was jailed for almost four months before her case was dismissed due to lack of evidence on February 12, 2020.
In the early morning of October 25, 2020, joint operation of the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and the 503rd Infantry Brigade of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) served search warrants to Belen and 10 others in Lower and Western Uma, Lubuagan, Kalinga in Philippines’ Cordillera Administrative Region. All of them are all openly opposed to the Chevron Energy company’s geothermal project that is being planned in their ancestral lands.
Before her arrest, she has been subjected to harassment and intimidation by state security forces since 2015. She has been accused of providing shelter and hosting members of the terrorist organization, CPP-NPA. Her organization, Innabuyog, has also been tagged by the military as a terrorist organization.
The cases of Bolinget and Belen may have ended with vindication, but they highlight the continuing impunity enjoyed by state security forces and criminalization of activism in the country. There are many cases of trumped-up charges against human rights defenders that drag on for years, which can have significant impacts on the victims, their families, and their communities.
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[1] Read more: http://davaotoday.com/main/human-rights/kin-of-lumad-slain-in-kapalong-call-to-disband-paramilitary-anew/
[2] Karapatan Monitor. “Judicial harassment against human rights defenders”. Retrieved from: https://www.karapatan.org/files/Karapatan_2021%20monitor_Jan-Mar2021%20(WEB).pdf
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