Soldiers of the 203rd IBde three Mangyan illegally arrested minorities in Oriental Mindoro in the second week of July. They remain detained on criminal charges arbitrarily filed against them by state forces.

On July 11, the 203rd IBde arrested the leader of Sitio Lukban, Barangay Panaytayan, Mansalay, G. Itaw Ramunyan. He is being implicated in the encounter between a unit of the 203rd IBde and the New People’s Army (NPA) in that site that morning.

A few days later, soldiers arrested and detained two more Mangyan-Hanunuo indigenous people along with their two passengers while travelling in Sityo Tambangan, San Roque, Bulalacao. They were stopped at a military checkpoint and detained on the arbitrary charge that their passengers were NPA members.

The military has not released the identity of the two minorities they arrested or even announced about it up to the present. Meanwhile, the 4th IB announced on July 15 the arrest of farmers’ rights advocates Joy Laguardia and another companion on July 13 in the town of Bulalacao. They are being accused of being high officials of the NPA and the Communist Party of the Philippines.

MINDORO, the revolutionary organization of the Mangyan indigenous people, condemned the successive arrests of their fellow indigenous people.

“The executioner 203rd Bde can very easily fabricate a fictitious case whenever they want to repress the Mangyan minority people. The cases are countless but we have a clear memory of the bloody hands of the AFP-PNP just for its treatment of the Mangyan people,” the group said.

“We are calling on our fellow Mangyans to demand the release of our detained fellow people, and to visit them while they are in prison. We will convey our demands and requests to the concerned authorities for their release,” the group added. The group also demanded the immediate release of their three fellow indigenous people. The victims are detained at the Roxas District Jail, Oriental Mindoro.