Last September we were treated to a view of how lawless elements have grown and become so emboldened in their brazen acts of criminality under this administration. Manifesting their murderous designs with impunity, an armed group allegedly with the backing of the military, marched into a lumad community and murdered Emerito ‘Tatay Emok’ Samarca, executive director of the Alternative Learning Center for Agriculture and Development Inc.; Dionel Campos, chairperson of Mapasu (Persevering Struggle for Future Manobo Generations); and, his cousin Aurelio “Bello” Sinzo.
It should be emphasized that Tatay Emok was not just murdered. According to news reports he was hogtied, mercilessly shot and stabbed many times. If this wasn’t enough, his killers still had to slit his throat with a knife from ear to ear. Due to the killings and other atrocities being committed in our lumad communities, including harassment and other forms of human-rights violations in the past six months alone, at least 4,000 lumad have been displaced from the provinces of Davao del Norte, Sarangani, Bukidnon and Surigao del Sur.
Ironically, even with Administrative Order No. 35 which provides for creating the Inter-Agency Committee tasked to act on cases “which remain un-investigated and unsolved, with the perpetrators unidentified or unprosecuted giving rise to impunity”, the deafening silence of this administration regarding the lumads is a testament to the fact that the “tuwid na daan” and “kayo ang boss ko” is mere administration propaganda.
According to Kalumaran secretary-general Dulphing Ogan, there can be no other reason behind the attack but the frustration of some sectors regarding the persistence of the tribes not to allow the operations of mining and logging concessions in the area. Likewise Datu Hawadon Cesar Batao, provincial tribal chieftain of Surigao del Sur, said that the lumads feel that this administration is more keen on promoting the interests of investors—the mining and logging companies who exploit natural resources in their ancestral domain, —more than securing the security and welfare of the lumads. These include the Xstrata-SMI’s open pit mine in the South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Davao del Sur and Sarangani; the mining companies Greenstone, as well as the Nickel Asia of Manny Zamora, Tag-anito HPAL of Gerard Brimo, and the San R Mining and Galeo Equipment and Mining (who are involved in the controversial nickel mines in the coastal town of Tubay, Agusan del Norte). SRMI lists Caloocan City Rep. Edgar Erice, a close ally of PNoy, as its president. Other owners of SRMI: Miguel Alberto Gutierrez and Eric Gutierrez, are said to be close political supporters of both President Benigno Aquino III and Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Mar Roxas.
All these demonstrate a clear indication of this administration’s failure to protect and respect the inherent rights to life and dignity of its citizens. Together with the Lianga massacre, the number of killings of environmental advocates under this administration has gone way over those recorded within almost a decade under the previous supposedly corrupt Arroyo regime. Other cases have likely remained undocumented as according to data from the United Nations office on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, some 100 indigenous people were killed protecting their ancestral lands and environment over the past three years alone. It is high time that we get past this administration’s highly funded and misleading media campaign showing them to be pro-people and incorruptible. “Yolanda,’’ MRT mess, SAF 44, and now the lumad massacre—all these are the legacy of the yellow administration.