Members of progressive groups gathered and lit candles in Quezon City on December 30 to mark the fifth anniversary of the Tumandok Massacre. Led by Katribu Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas, they called for justice for the Tumandok leaders in Capiz and Iloilo killed on December 30, 2020.

Police and military forces massacred Tumandok leaders and farmers who opposed the destructive Jalaur Mega Dam project in Panay. They also arrested 16 other mass leaders that day.

State forces conducted the coordinated operation under the framework of the then Synchronized Enhanced Management of Police Operations (SEMPO). The then Philippine National Police (PNP) Regional Director Debold Sinas and former PNP Chief Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa were identified as the operators behind it. To justify the massacre and mass arrests, the PNP and military portrayed their victims as New People’s Army (NPA) members.

Indigenous groups and human rights defenders also condemned the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) and the National Task Force-Elcac for their involvement in the crime. They said that instead of defending the indigenous people and their rights, the NCIP fostered Red-tagging and the militarization of indigenous communities.

The groups and the Tumandok people also declared December 30 as Tumandok Day. “Tumandok Day is a collective declaration that the people will not be silenced or driven away from their ancestral land,” Katribu’s Beverly Longid said. She added that the struggle of the Tumandok and all Indigenous peoples in the country for land, life, and self-determination continues amid repression.

In Iloilo City, progressive groups launched a memorial activity on that day at St. Clements Church. A documentary about the struggle of the communities and families of the victims of the Tumandok Massacre was also shown at the National Museum of the Philippines-Western Visayas in Iloilo City on December 27. Defend Panay Network led these commemorations.