Several thousand indigenous Filipinos are living in evacuation centres in the country’s south, after fleeing their villages following the killing of three of their leaders. They say these men were murdered by a paramilitary group working with the country’s military to grab their ancestral lands for mining.
The killings took place on September 1 in Lianga, in the southern island of Mindanao, which has been wracked by a Muslim separatist conflict for the past four decades.
Three civilians – the director of a local school, a tribal leader and a human rights activist – were all shot dead over the course of a single day in the town of Lianga. By all accounts, these men were never accused of belonging to the armed separatist movement. Residents report that men from the local paramilitary group Magahat-Bagani (which is only 30 men strong) fired the shots, but that elements of the military’s 36th infantry battalion were also in town that day and did nothing to stop them.
UN experts have urged an investigation into the September 1 killings. Army chief Lt. Gen. Eduardo Ano has court-martialed a platoon leader for “what he did or failed to do by not stopping the killing of civilians” in Lianga, but stressed that no soldiers were involved in the murders, which the army blamed on tribal feuds. Though many Filipino human rights groups – as well as the local governor - accuse the military of working side-by-side with murderous paramilitary groups, the military regularly denies any links.
Last weekend, teachers and other supporters of the indigenous Filipinos held protest marches in Quezon, the Philippines’ most populous city, to demand justice. According to locals, the paramilitary are still occupying Lianga.
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