(Names left to right in clockwise order) Beverly Longid, Sherwin de Vera, Joan Carling, Jose Molintas, Joanna Cariño, Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, Windel Bolinget, and Jeannette Cawiding.
“Activism is not terrorism. On the contrary, my organization, the Cordillera Peoples Alliance, has been and is a continuing victim of State terrorism and fascism. CPA will not allow itself to be silenced by Duterte’s attempt of unleashing further its terrorism. We will fight, and we continue to appeal to the wider public for your sustained support and solidarity.”
– Windel Bolinget, Chairperson Cordillera Peoples Alliance, Land is Life Steering Council
Land is Life joins various organizations worldwide in strongly denouncing the terrorist tagging of Indigenous rights defenders in the Philippines by President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration.
The Philippine Department of Justice recently filed a legal petition, which maliciously tagged as “terrorists” more than 600 individuals all over the country, including Windel Bolinget, member of Land is Life Global Steering Council and current Chairperson of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA).
Also included in the terrorist proscription list are Joanna Cariño, CPA pioneer and Co-Chair of Sandugo Moro and IP Movement; Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, UN Special Rapporteur and former Chair of CPA; Beverly Longid, coordinator of Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL) and former CPA Chair; Joan Carling, Co-Convenor of the UN Indigenous Peoples Major Group on Sustainable Development and former CPA Chair; Jose Molintas, human rights lawyer and former CPA Chair; Jeannette Cawiding, former Chair of CPA Baguio City Chapter; IP advocate Sherwin de Vera, and around 14 Indigenous leaders from Lumad communities in Mindanao.
With more than a decade of solidarity partnership with the CPA, Land is Life has long known the dedicated work of the CPA in defending the Cordillera Indigenous Peoples’ ancestral domain and self-determination against State and corporate plunder and destruction.
The Department of Justice petition is the latest in a chain of unrelenting human rights violations experienced by Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines. We have been receiving reports from the CPA and Lumad organizations on the numerous cases of human rights violations, which they described as acts of State terrorism and fascism. On March 2, 2018, anti-dams activist and CPA member Ricardo Mayumi was shot dead in his home in Ifugao province.
We believe that the Department of Justice petition is aimed at silencing legitimate organizations, such as the CPA, and puts at risk the lives of Indigenous human rights defenders.
We call on the Philippine government to stop harassing and criminalizing Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines, dismiss the Department of Justice petition, stop the extrajudicial killings of indigenous human rights defenders, be accountable to the numerous human rights violations against Indigenous Peoples, and uphold its human rights obligations.
