Who are the 11 Philippine environmental defenders who died in 2022? lets tackle,2023.
he Philippines has earned the reputation of having the highest death toll in Asia for land and environmental defenders, with 281 deaths in the past decade, about a third of which were linked to mining.
mine, according to the nonprofit Global Witness.
According to a new report from Global Witness, this number is part of a broader global total of at least 1,910 defenders killed between 2012 and 2022.
In 2022, an average of one every two days Defenders are killed worldwide, with a total of 177 fatal attacks.
According to the organization’s findings, the Philippines has consistently ranked as the top Asian country each year, though it observed a decline in fatal attacks against defenders in recent years, dropping from 29 in 2020 to 19 in 2021 and further down to 11 in 2022.
Despite the decrease in murder counts, Global Witness and its Philippine-based environmental advocacy partners believe that Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
, who assumed the presidency in June 2022, “has so far failed to address human rights violations.”
“Impunity continues and there is a concerted effort to undermine our work by continually branding us as bad people,” says Rodne Galicha, Executive Director of Living Laudato Si’ Philippines.
“The involvement of politicians and their families who hold business interests creates a more dangerous environment for defenders speaking out in the Philippines.
Real-estate, mining, large-scale agriculture and many of the reclamation projects we see across the country are connected to decision-makers with a vested interest to turn a profit, leading them to cut corners and importantly to prioritize laws and practices that benefit industry over people and planet.”
The continued existence of laws like the Anti-Terrorism Act and Executive Order 70 threatens the safety of environmental defenders who resist industrial or mining projects by arbitrarily branding them as terrorists and criminalizing them, Galicha tells Mongabay by email.
These policies established a national task force to address insurgency-driven security threats, granting broad powers to the police and military, which legal experts warn may lead to discriminatory enforcement, privacy violations, and the stifling of nonviolent oppositions.
The Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (CHRP), an independent government agency, acknowledged the ongoing red-tagging problem in an email to Mongabay and called it a “systematic attack” on defenders.
human rights defender.
to undermine and even vilify those who promote them.
Children swim across a river at a mine in Bicol, Philippines.About a third of the 281 deaths of land and environmental defenders recorded in the Philippines over the past decade were linked to mining.
Image by ILO/Joseph Fortin via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
Extensive criminalization and red tagging
Even before Global Witness began tracking attacks on land and environmental defenders, the Philippines had a notable example in Macli-ing Dulag, an indigenous Butbut tribal leader in Cordillera region.
Under the dictatorial rule of former President Marcos Sr., Dulag’s resistance and his assassination by government soldiers in 1980 caused the World Bank to abandon a major dam project.
Dulag’s case has since inspired environmental movements and policies in the Philippines and beyond for generations.
More than 40 years later, under the chairmanship of Marcos’s son, land and ecological defenders continue to live in a dangerous environment, marked by widespread criminalization and “red tagging.” aimed at silencing them, Global Witness said.
“Red tagging” is the act of accusing critics of being involved in Asia’s longest communist insurgency, which began under the Marcos Sr.dictatorship.
According to Amnesty International, once “stigmatized,” activists, often affiliated with groups considered enemies of the state, face threats of intimidation and violence, often leading to deadly attacks.
Many people in rural and mountainous areas of the country have been shot dead in broad daylight, by unknown assailants or state forces, as seen in 11 cases in 2022.
11 Philippine defenders died in 2022
Ose Marie Galias and Silvestre Fortades Jr. , a married couple, are both members of Anakpawis, a progressive party that defends the rights of farmers and workers in the Philippine Congress.
On January 15, four unidentified men on two motorbikes approached the couple at their store in Sorsogon province, eastern Philippines, shooting at them as they were selling garlic, onions and other vegetables.
other agricultural vegetables.
The identities of the men remain unknown and the pair’s murder is considered politically motivated.
According to the National Union of Agricultural Workers, UMA, Philippine farm activists are being targeted because they oppose feudal exploitation and demand democratic reforms, including better wages, fair working conditions, reduced low-interest loans and land rights.
To the west, in the central Philippine province of Masbate, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) accused the police and military of kidnapping and killing Richard Mendoza, a civilian farmer, falsely portraying him as a communist.
property died in a military clash. in February. 9.
Mendoza’s body was found in a rice field.
He is a member of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Bicol, a local organization promoting farmers’ rights and affiliated with the national progressive group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas.
Chad Booc, a human rights and environmental activist and community school teacher, met a tragic end in what the military called an “encounter” in Davao de Oro province, southern Philippines, on February 1, 2017.
In early 2021, Booc was accused of having ties to the rebel group New People’s Army and training students to fight.
Booc and others were charged with child trafficking, but a court later dismissed those charges, allowing him to be released from prison.
Gelejurain Ngujo II, another volunteer teacher in Lumad (indigenous) schools, suffered the same fate as Booc.
They were part of a team that conducted field research in Lumad schools to raise awareness of their concerns, with the aim of lobbying the new Philippine government on these issues after the year’s election. 2022.
Along with them, community health worker Elegyn Balong and drivers Robert Aragon and Tirso Añar also died.
According to Global Witness, Aragon and Añar support indigenous communities.
The military accuses the schools of being breeding grounds for communist insurgents, but students and teachers have always denied the accusations. In the southern Philippines province of South Cotabato, village councilor and former president Eugene Lastrella was ambushed on April 27 while driving a utility vehicle to help a relative who was about to give birth. His assassination occurred before the May 9 election in the Philippines, but police said it was not related to the election.
An active member of the activist group Bayan Muna, Lastrella is a prominent leader and activist who strongly opposes mining and aerial spraying by multinational plantation companies in the province. mine.
Artist and poet Ericson Acosta lost his life in a “clash” with state forces in the province of Negros Occidental, central Philippines, on November 30, along with his companion, leader – farmer organization Joseph Jimenez.
Acosta, of the National Democratic Front, the CPP’s political wing, was killed while advising farmers on the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reform, a key document of the peace talks.
peace began in 1986, aimed at fighting poverty and devising an end to Asia’s longest-running communist insurgency.
Mineral exploration and exploitation in Asia
Building on his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to lift the ban on new mining activities in 2021, Marcos emphasized the importance of mineral exploration and exploitation to boost his administration’s economic plan to Switch to green technology and renewable energy.
Global Witness notes: “[Ferdinand Marcos Jr.] has focused his agenda on trade and economic interests, raising persistent concerns about increased mining and other resource extraction harming the human rights and security of defenders”.
Global Witness attributes the spike to manufacturers of green transition technologies, such as wind turbines and electric cars, racing to obtain rare earth minerals to power them in Southeast Asia .
These technologies rely primarily on nickel and copper, both of which have untapped reserves in the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia.
According to Global Witness, as demand for minerals outstrips supply, this is pushing governments and companies to exploit new mining opportunities in the region, leading to increased investment in Asia through domestic efforts and international partnerships.“For defenders whose communities are under threat, the impact of global markets at the local level speaks to the legacy of colonial exploitation across the region,” the group added.
CHRP is promoting the Human Rights Defenders Protection Bill to combat red-tagging, retaliation, murder and disinformation targeting environmental defenders, and establish a legal framework to protect environmental defenders.
protect them and their communities, especially in a changing climate that significantly affects their rights.
“CHRP strongly calls on the State to support and provide full legal protection to
environmental defenders, climate activists, land rights defenders and human rights defenders ,” the agency said.
