“The ‘state of calamity’ in Mindoro goes beyond the effects of the typhoons that have recently devastated the island. The people of the island, including the indigenous Mangyan communities, have been subjected to varying forms and levels of human rights violations due to intensified militarization as well as the destructive operations of big corporations that are posing threats to the people’s lives and security. The human rights situation in Mindoro embodies the State of the Nation under Marcos Jr.”
Thus said rights group KARAPATAN as it joined fellow rights advocates, indigenous people’s organizations and church workers in the launch of Defend Mindoro network, which calls for a stop to right violations perpetuated against the people of Mindoro, especially the peasants and Mangyan communities.
“We are one with the network in calling for justice for victims of the aerial strafing of communities, the harassment by the State’s armed forces of people who dare question their intimidating presence in farms and communities. Most of all, we are one in calling for justice for Mangyan youth Jay-El Maligday, who was killed by the military a year ago,” said Cristina Palabay, KARAPATAN secretary general.
Maligday, 21, was killed inside their family home on April 7, 2024. The military justified the killing by accusing the young man, a college student at the time of his death, of being a member of the New People’s Army.
According to Palabay, calls for relief and aid in the island should be doubled with demands for the cessation of destructive operations and projects of big mining companies and other corporations, which are slowly making their way into hinterland communities.
“The farmers and Mangyan people in Mindoro are all too familiar with such scenarios, from many years back. They know that the heavy deployment of military forces in farflung communities and around the mountainous parts of the island are a prelude to the entry of big-ticket projects, and are meant to quell the protest and opposition of communities,” said Palabay.
Aerial strafing of peasant and indigenous communities in Mansalay, Oriental Mindoro were perpetrated by the 4th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army (IBPA) and the 203rd Infantry Brigade in March of this year in violation of international humanitarian law (IHL) which protects civilians and civilian property and infrastructure amid armed conflict. The aerial strafing was followed by focused military operations in Mangyan communities in Mansalay and Bansud, Oriental Mindoro where villagers were restricted from getting food from their swidden farms and buying needed items from town centers. The military also imposed a curfew, banning residents from leaving their homes or going to their swidden farms beyond a specified time, and preventing them from making copra and charcoal, their main sources of livelihood.
“We demand that the people of Mindoro be spared from such brazen violations of IHL whose effects can be just as disastrous as typhoons and other natural calamities,” concluded Palabay. #