Human rights violations against national minorities
Violations of the rights of national minorities have become so severe the United Nations (UN) can no longer gloss over them. Rodolfo Stavenhagen, UN rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was stunned by the sorry plight of minority peoples at the hands of the reactionary government and armed forces. He likewise witnessed the widespread violation of their human rights. Stavenhagen arrived in the country on December 2 upon the invitation of the Macapagal-Arroyo regime.
Among the cases he noted are the grabbing of ancestral lands and forced recruitment into paramilitary groups.
In the report he prepared for the UN, Stavenhagen noted that pertinent laws hardly protect the ancestral lands of national minorities. Such laws are either taken for granted or outrightly violated by the government and big businesses. Laws pertaining to national minorities are riddled with loopholes, making it easy for big landlords and foreign businesses who grab their lands. He cited as an example the Mining Act of 1995 which devastates mainly the lands of national minorities.
Stavenhagen said the same of so-called development projects. Many communities are being displaced or forced to accept big projects such as dams, logging concessions, commercial plantations and mines which undermine their traditional economy and livelihood, communal structure and cultural practices. The minorities are also victims of the pollution brought about by big companies, endangering their environment and health.
The violation of the human rights of national minorities by the AFP and paramilitary groups under it is widespread, added Stavenhagen. Among the cases on record are murder, detention, forcible evacuation, harassment and forced recruitment to the CAFGU. Stavenhagen urged the Macapagal-Arroyo regime to pay attention to cases of summary execution, rape and forced enlistment into paramilitary groups especially under the "counter-insurgency" program.
Stavenhagen openly criticized government agencies, especially the Commission on Human Rights, for their negligence. He said the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples is likewise inutile. see �UN Rapporteur�, page 15 Rampant human rights violations against national minorities stun UN rapporteur
Striking cases of human rights violations against national minorities
In their meeting with Stavenhagen, the lumads in Southern Mindanao once more bewailed the grabbing of their lands and the attendant militarization. They are currently waging a struggle against the Philippine National Oil Company's geothermal plant project in Mt. Apo. On December 8, they affirmed their unity against escalating militarization in a d'yandi or blood compact against a common enemy. Such blood compacts are only held to decide on issues that greatly affect the various tribes. As far as they can remember, this is only the third d'yandi, the last having been forged on April 13, 1989 against the geothermal plant.
The lumads also assailed their forced recruitment into vigilante groups like the Alsa Lumad and Alamara (an affront to the Ata-Manobo term alamara which means "quest for justice.")
Due to such militarization, the lumads suffer from numerous cases of hamletting, food blockade, robbery and forced evacuation, among others. This year, up to 87 cases (625 victims) involving the violation of the lumads� human rights have been recorded.
In the Cordillera, Igorots expressed their vehement protest against the continuing construction of the San Roque Multipurpose Dam that has been destroying their fields and bringing about the militarization of their communities. Peasants from Mankayan, Benguet expressed their resistance to the 63-year old copper and gold mines in their area.
In Baguio City, the Ibaloi Cari�o clan reiterated its longstanding petition to reclaim its ancestral land occupied by Camp John Hay, a former US military base. It was Mateo Cari�o, the clan's patriarch, who first filed and won the case against the US government in 1909. The historic court decision, referred to as the Mateo Cari�o Doctrine, was the world's first law recognizing the right of national minorities to their ancestral lands. The doctrine has been used as basis for cases filed by national minorities in Canada, the US and New Zealand to reclaim their ancestral lands. Ironically, the Cari�os are still being deprived of their right to their land.
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