BY FR. SHAY CULLEN
THERE are many unsung brave and strong-minded Filipinos willing to stand up with their people and to fight for their lands and protect the environment; thousands more are ready to sacrifice themselves. They work to defend children’s rights, rescue, protect, and heal victims of abuse and human trafficking, and fight for the Philippine environment, people’s lands, and the human rights of the people.
Among them too are courageous journalists who continue to tell the truth despite harassment and death threats, and a few bishops and priests have spoken out to defend the innocent and have been falsely accused themselves.
An international environmental group has said that the Philippines is the most dangerous place in Asia for defenders of ecology and land rights. More than 114 out of a total of 270 defenders of the land and environment that were murdered were indigenous leaders trying to protect their way of life and lands.
The research was done by Global Witness, an environmental protection NGO based in the UK. Most of the murders and land grabbing have been done in Mindanao.
The NGO researchers found that most of the murders were because of “protests by defenders against company operations.
“A third of the killings are linked to the mining industry, closely followed by the agribusiness sector,” they said in their report.
They allege that “state forces are behind the majority of killings in the few cases where the identity of the perpetrators is documented.”
It is the duty and role of government agencies to actually protect human rights and defend the people, yet the shameful fact is that the authorities are frequently the violators.
The human rights defenders are the true heroes who were not lauded, recognized, or praised for their commitment and dedication to working for justice and truth on Heroes Day. Instead, many of them are unjustly imprisoned, and others are branded and “tagged” as rebels and “communists” or subversives by a small band of military allegedly working with the rich oligarchs.
These super-rich families are politically powerful and well connected, and they make millions of dollars in profit with their partner foreign investors that are mining the mineral resources of the nation and grabbing Indigenous ancestral lands for plantations.
There is a thin veil of legality when a mining corporation gets a “permit”, or “title” to mine or set up yet another plantation on ancestral lands, especially in Mindanao. That is why some of the family dynasties tenaciously hang on to power, manipulating elections, buying votes, and grabbing power to sequester national wealth for themselves.
The Philippines is not really a democracy but a Dynocracy. The family dynasties rule the nation, and injustice and poverty continue to spread. (To be continued)/PN
