53 years later, attacks vs. IP persist; Panaghiusa calls for accountability over rights violations

Panaghiusa Philippine Network
6 days ago
2 min read

[TAGALOG] 53 taon ang lumipas, nagpapatuloy ang atake laban sa Katutubo; Panaghiusa nananawagan ng pananagutan sa mga paglabag sa karapatan

Fifty three years after the declaration of Martial Law in the Philippines by the dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr, we remember the thousands who were tortured, disappeared, and killed under the Marcos Sr. dictatorship. Among them were Indigenous leaders, elders, and youth who bravely defended their ancestral lands against militarization, logging, mining, and state-sponsored violence.

During the commemoration of the declaration of Martial Law by the dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., the Indigenous People and advocates march along the streets of Manila to call for the defense of ancestral lands and Indigenous rights. Photo by KR Abalos.

Panaghiusa stands in solidarity with all Indigenous communities who continue to suffer under the legacy of Martial Law. The same patterns of repression persist today: red-tagging, militarization, plunder of ancestral lands, and the criminalization of Indigenous resistance. The recorded 100 Indigenous Peoples political prisoners, including Dumagat Rocky Torres and Avelardo “Dandoy” Avellaneda, is a living testament to this ongoing injustice.

As frontliners in defending their ancestral land and the environment, they are among the most targeted and silenced. Their repression is rooted not only in militarization but also in the state’s treatment of their lands as commodities for profit.

We remember the Chico River Dam Project during the Marcos Sr. dictatorship. The dam would have submerged Kalinga and Bontok ancestral lands along the Chico River, a 175-kilometer lifeline from the Mountain Province to the Cagayan River. In 1980, Macliing Dulag, a revered Kalinga leader, was assassinated by soldiers for opposing the project.

Today, these projects persist under the same profit-driven interests and bloody “clearing operations”. The Marcos Jr. administration now pushes “renewable energy” through hydropower, auctioning off Cordillera rivers to private and foreign firms. The Chico River Hydropower Project, led by San Lorenzo Ruiz Piat Energy and Water, Inc., promises 150 megawatts but at the cost of displacement, deforestation, and ecosystem destruction. As seen during Typhoon Ulysses in 2020 when Magat Dam’s release submerged 60 towns and displaced over 300,000 people, such projects endanger rather than protect lives, putting Indigenous communities in Kalinga and nearby regions at grave risk.

Instead of protecting communities, the state grants tax breaks, fast-tracked permits, and military protection to corporations. In fact, the AFP are deployed to divide and conquer Indigenous communities into supporting these projects and to suppress their resistance.

We urge the Filipino people to condemn human rights and Indigenous rights violations by state forces. We demand accountability for past and present crimes against Filipinos. We call for the release of all Indigenous Peoples political prisoners, dropping of trumped-up charges against human rights defenders, surfacing of all Desaparecidos, junking of repressive laws such as the Anti-Terrorism Law, halting of destructive projects in ancestral lands, and stoppage of the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ militarization and bombings in communities.

Reference:

Rikki Mae Gono

National Coordinator

Panaghiusa Philippine Network to Uphold Indigenous Peoples Rights

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