Three Activists Killed Before Human Rights Day

MANILA – One farmer and two envi­ron­men­tal advo­cates have been killed in two sep­a­rate inci­dents on Decem­ber 7.

Rolan­do Qui­jano, a farmer and active mem­ber of Alliance of Farm­ers Union in Zam­boan­ga Del Sur (AFUZS) was shot to death at around 12:00 noon last Fri­day at purok 4, Oca­pan vil­lage, San Miguel town in the province of Zam­boan­ga Del Sur by sus­pect­ed ele­ments of the 53rd Infantry Bat­tal­ion – Philip­pine Army, accord­ing to ini­tial data gath­ered by Kilu­sang Mag­bubukid ng Pilip­inas (KMP).

Anto­nio Flo­res, KMP spokesman, said: “Quijano’s rel­a­tives and col­leagues believe his death was due to his active oppo­si­tion to large-scale min­ing and ille­gal log­ging in Zam­boan­ga Del Sur.” KMP said 53rd IBPA has built a mil­i­tary detach­ment inside the vil­lage.

On the same day at around 6 p.m., two anti-min­ing advo­cates– Cheryl Ananayo, a mem­ber of Didi­pio Earth­savers’ Mul­ti­pur­pose Asso­ci­a­tion (Desama), and her cousin-in-law Randy Nabayay — were also killed by uniden­ti­fied assailants in Didi­pio, Nue­va Viz­caya.

Accord­ing to ini­tial data gath­ered by the Kalikasan People’s Net­work for the Envi­ron­ment (PNE), Ananayo was car­ry­ing her three-month-old baby and her four year-old child when the assas­sins attacked. Both chil­dren are unharmed.

Desama is a people’s orga­ni­za­tion opposed to the ongo­ing imple­men­ta­tion of the 17,626-hectare Didi­pio gold-cop­per project in Kasi­bu, Nue­va Viz­caya owned by Aus­tralian large-scale min­er OceanaGold Cor­po­ra­tion. The Finan­cial and Tech­ni­cal Assis­tance Agree­ment (FTAA) of Oceana Gold in Didi­pio com­menced only this Novem­ber.

“Oceana Gold’s crimes to the envi­ron­ment and the peo­ple start­ed way before its com­mence­ment this last Novem­ber, and it con­tin­ues to grow,” Clemente Bautista, nation­al coor­di­na­tor of Kalikasan PNE. “As ear­ly as dur­ing its mine devel­op­ment stage, it has already caused mas­sive sil­ta­tion that led to the dis­ap­pear­ance of aquat­ic species in some affect­ed rivers. Its cam­paign of attri­tion towards the indige­nous people’s com­mu­ni­ties includ­ed threats of bull­doz­ing homes, actu­al demo­li­tion oper­a­tions, and let­ting loose gun­fire upon civil­ians. We can think of no oth­er per­son or insti­tu­tion with a track record and motive.”

“The cli­mate of impuni­ty remains and it’s a blood-stained Human Rights Day for the Aquino admin­is­tra­tion,” Flo­res said.

Impuni­ty

“It seems that the min­ing regime per­pe­trat­ed by the Aquino gov­ern­ment is not con­tent with the death toll of envi­ron­men­tal activists this year, now pegged at 15 cas­es in 2012 alone. Is this how Aquino wants to cel­e­brate Human Rights Day, with more impuni­ty towards our belea­guered envi­ron­ment defend­ers?” said Fr. Oliv­er Cas­tor, spokesper­son of Task Force-Jus­tice for Envi­ron­ment Defend­ers (TF-JED).

“We can­not con­tin­ue turn­ing a blind eye on the killings of envi­ron­men­tal advo­cates. We have seen how destruc­tive large-scale log­ging and min­ing activ­i­ties have result­ed in the inten­si­fied dis­as­ter impacts of haz­ards such as the most recent Typhoon Pablo that hit Min­danao. If we allow this impuni­ty towards the likes of Ananayo to con­tin­ue, who will be left to ensure the integri­ty of the envi­ron­ment that nur­tures and pro­tects us?” Bautista said.

Mean­while, KMP’s Flo­res not­ed that Quijano’s death occurred while 74 farm­ers and Lumad from Min­danao are here in Mani­la for Mani­lak­bayan (Jour­ney to Mani­la) to protest the unabat­ed killings linked to the large-scale min­ing in the South.”

Aida Seiesa, sec­re­tary gen­er­al of KMP-South­ern Min­danao, expressed out­rage over the killing of Qui­jano.

“While we are here call­ing on gov­ern­ment agen­cies to stop the killings in Min­danao, state secu­ri­ty forces killed one of our col­leagues,” Seiesa said in Fil­ipino in an inter­view with Bulatlat.com.

She said she and Qui­jano attend­ed a Con­gres­sion­al inquiry on the spate of extra­ju­di­cial killings held in Davao City a few months ago. “We came face to face with the mil­i­tary high­er-ups,” she said.

Oplan Bayani­han

The KMP attrib­uted the killing of Qui­jano as part of the Aquino administration’s counter-insur­gency oper­a­tion plan Bayani­han.

“Oplan Bayani­han enjoy the bless­ings of the hacien­dero pres­i­dent because it con­ceals the esca­lat­ing ter­ror and human rights abus­es per­pe­trat­ed by the mil­i­tary against farm­ers with the very same anti-peas­ant peace and devel­op­ment projects by the gov­ern­ment,” Flo­res said.

Accord­ing to the yearend report of Kara­p­atan, of the 129 vic­tims of extra­ju­di­cial killings since July 2010 to Octo­ber this year, 71 were peas­ants and 25 were indige­nous peo­ples.

“Aquino’s human rights record is taint­ed by the blood of the Fil­ipino peas­antry,” Flo­res said. “We hold Aquino as com­man­der-in-chief of the armed forces respon­si­ble for the death of Qui­jano and all oth­er farm­ers killed under his admin­is­tra­tion.”