The indigenous peoples in Mindanao declared this week a full-blown war against the communist New People’s Army (NPA), in a ceremony in Davao City organized by the Armed Forces of the Philippines Eastern Mindanao Command (AFP-EastMinCom).
Led by Datu Joel Onad, chair of the Mindanao Indigenous Peoples Conference for Peace and Development (MIPCPD), tribal leaders from 18 indigenous tribes in Mindanao, also appealed to President Gloria Arroyo to probe the forced conscription of tribal natives by the NPA into the rebel movement.
The tribal leaders vowed to support the military all-out campaign against rebels they accused of stirring trouble in ancestral domains, before EastMinCom commander Major General Armando Cunanan.
The NPAs are stripping us of our right to own and possess our ancestral domain by establishing guerilla fronts in our homeland, said Onad, also former head of the Davao City Supreme Tribal Council for Peace and Development (SPCPD), which has been assisting military campaigns against the NPA in the hinterlands of Davao City.
Onad created a stir last month when he organized tribal natives in Compostela Valley province into anti-communist vigilante groups. Rey Navarro, mayor of Laak town, has filed a complaint with the provincial government and the military following reports that Onad also had been encouraging the natives to drive away Christian farmers settling in ancestral domains.
The tribal leader said economic opportunities among indigenous peoples are being denied by rebels who block “our inherent rights to self-governance and self-determination” and violate our customs and traditions.
Philippine tribal natives have been access to ancestral domains through the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA). A government body, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) has been issuing certificates of ancestral domain titles to tribal communities, who are mandated to protect and develop the ancestral lands.
The tribal leaders also accused the NPA of murder and harassment through its Kangaroo Court (Peoples Court) which supplanted the indigenous people social justice system that led to summary killings of the tribal people.
Filed under: Military, NEW PEOPLES ARMY, NPA, davao city, human rights violations, indigenous peoples | Tagged: ancestral domain, davao city, indigenous peoples, JOEL ONAD, NEW PEOPLES ARMY
