Indigenous peoples submit cases of rights abuses to UN “More than 100,000 indigenous peoples from 39 tribal groups all over the country will be dislocated or will lose their livelihood as an effect of the all-out mining liberalization under Aquino. Even more indigenous communities will be displaced in energy, water, and plantation projects under the Public-Private Partnership program.”– Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas By DEE AYROSO Bulatlat MANILA — A Kalinga tribe has brought their case against a mining company before the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples (UNSRRIP) – one of the many cases that deluged Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the newly-appointed Special Rapporteur. Speaking at the national consultation with the UNSRRIP, Alex Lingbawan, an indigenous farmer from the Guinaang tribe in Kalinga province, lamented that the Makilala Mining Company Inc. has succeeded in clinching a dubious Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for gold exploration in their ancestral domain, on August 7, just a day before the consultation with the UNSRRIP. “Guinaang is not for sale,” Lingbawan said, and for months, his tribe had insisted that they do not want large-scale mining in their tribal communities. Earlier, on June 23, they had stopped a bogus MOA-signing at a general assembly called by the company and the provincial National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in Kalinga. “Yesterday, they still forced the MOA-signing,” he lamented. Lingbawan also reported before the UNSRRIP that two Guinaang village leaders were harassed by a suspected military agent, during the August 7 MOA-signing between the company and tribal elders selected by the NCIP-Kalinga. Tauli-Corpuz, a native Kankanaey of Cordillera and former chair of the UN Forum on Indigenous Issues, initiated the national consultation with various IP groups at the Sulo Riviera Hotel in Quezon City on August 8, in time for the commemoration of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples today. She received the documents from Lingbawan as well as from other IP groups lamenting violations of their rights to ancestral domain and self-determination. The consultation served as a venue for the UN official to lay out her priorities as special rapporteur, and also to spur cooperation and communication between IP groups, government agencies, NGOs, the academe and other concerned sectors. It was attended by representatives of various indigenous peoples groups, government agencies, the academe, World Bank, foreign dignitaries, other UN officials. bulatlat/main/2014/08/09/indigenous-peoples-submit-cases-of-rights-violations-to-un-special-rapporteur/
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 15:20:11 +0000
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