The National Democratic Front (NDF)-Palawan has supported anew the struggle of the indigenous people and residents of Sitio Mariahangin in Barangay Bugsuk, Balabac, Palawan. The indigenous people are standing firm against state forces harassment and the San Miguel Corporation’s (SMC) land grabbing of their ancestral land.

On May 15, police arrested 10 residents and Molbog indigenous people in Sitio Mariahangin in connection with a grave coercion case filed by former National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) director Atty. Caesar Ortega. The complaint stemmed from an incident on June 27, 2024, when residents allegedly blocked his personnel from landing on the sitio’s shore. The residents were able to post bail on May 17.

Meanwhile, at 3 a.m. on May 18, more than forty armed private blue guards sneaked into the island, sent by JMV Security Services. This is the same agency that sent eighty armed private blue guards to their community on April 4 during the same hours.

The paid thugs harassed and intimidated the residents. They also threatened to send more guards to the area. Five guards threatened and aimed a gun at a Molbog resident.

“Mariahangin residents must intensify their struggle against the occupation and land grabbing… and the accomplices and personnel of these private armed goons and the NCIP against the residents and indigenous Molbog and Palaw’an in Mariahangin,” NDF-Palawan spokesperson Leona Paragua said.

Ka Leona said SMC is now doing a new modus operandi after Ortega failed to achieve his aim to buy the Molbog indigenous people’s land in June 2024 and to evict the residents out of their community, Ka Leona said.

She said that these incidents further expose and prove the NCIP’s extremely reactionary, fascist, and anti-indigenous character. “NCIP is being unmasked and it is clear who it truly serves–the private interests of the ruling classes such as landlord-big comprador bourgeoisie like SMC’s Ramon Ang,” she added.

The brave and unwavering struggle and defense of the Sitio Mariahangin people for their land is praiseworthy. “Ramon Ang, the big comprador bourgeoisie, and SMC, together with the Marcos regime, must be held accountable as land grabbers and perpetrators of all human rights violations against the residents of Bugsuk,” she said.

NDF-Palawan also calls on the indigenous people of the province to establish the Supok group as an underground national-democratic organization supporting the armed revolution and as the backbone of the indigenous people’s struggle in Palawan.

Bricktree Properties, a subsidiary company of SMC, is grabbing the said land to pave the way for the construction of Bugsuk Island Resort, an ecotourism project covering more than 5,500 hectares.

SMC is colluding with local agencies and officials to push its grand project to the detriment of the indigenous people. The DAR delisted 10,821 hectares of land in Barangay Bugsuk and Pandanan from the agrarian reform program to make way for the construction of the resort.