Land is Life firmly stands in solidarity with Bestang Dekdeken, Land is Life Asia Program Director and Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) Secretary General, who is currently being subjected to judicial harassment in another disturbing episode of the ongoing political persecution targeting CPA and other Indigenous organizations.
Bestang was sued a month ago by a Cordillera police chief for cyber libel, accusing her of blaming him in a press conference of the dismantling of a memorial to Macli-ing Dulag, Pedro Dungoc, and Lumbaya Gayudan, three Kalinga leaders who successfully campaigned against the World Bank-funded Chico Dam project in the 1970s. After the lawsuit, an arrest warrant was issued, and Bestang appeared today at court with her legal counsel to post bail and face the case.
The Cordillera police chief stressed that the demolition of the Dulag Memorial last month was based “on a Kalinga provincial resolution to remove the structure since it is being used by the CPA to recruit minors into communism while portraying Macli-ing Dulag as a member of the New People’s Army.”
Last January, Land is Life publicly denounced the worrying deterioration of the human rights situation in the Philippines and the government’s campaign to falsely link CPA´s activists and other Indigenous leaders to the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army, both of which were labeled as terrorist organizations by the government in December 2018. This practice, known as “red-tagging”, is a political tactic to stifle dissent in the Philippines.
The CPA claims that the information shared during the press conference was based on reports gathered from the community and the Kalinga Resolution that pointed to the police as responsible for the demolition of the monument.
“Stating and presenting information differs from blatantly tarnishing someone by alleging one to be something they’re not, especially if bereft of proof. Dekdeken has been clear in mentioning the community as reference for the accounts of what happened prior to the dismantling of the structure” -CPA asserted.
Land is Life believes that this is another case of judicial harassment against the Cordillera Peoples Alliance, an independent federation of grassroots-based Indigenous organizations and communities in the northern Cordillera Region. Last December, an arrest warrant was issued for CPA Chairperson Windel Bolinget, based on a trumped-up case of murder. On March the 9th, a court recalled the warrant and ordered prosecutors to reinvestigate the charges again.
We strongly condemn the intensification of defamation, attacks, detentions, and other forms of state persecution against Indigenous leaders and organizations, and call on the Philippine Government to end this deadly campaign; conduct independent investigations into ‘red-tagging’ and other forms of harassment; and prosecute those found responsible for human rights violations. Further, we call on government officials in the Philippines, including President Duterte, to end the ongoing incitement of extrajudicial killings and immediately implement the recommendations of the UN High Commissioner’s 2020 Report.
#DefendCordilleraPH