The Anak Mindanao (AMIN ) party-list today condemns in the strongest possible terms the brutal murder of anti-logging lumad leader and urges authorities in Gingoog City to immediately arrest the killers to give justice to him and other Higaonon people who have been killed fighting for their Constitutional and lawful rights defending their ancestral domain.
Higaonon leader Alberto “Berting” Pinagawa, who organized his community to move for the immediate cancellation of the Industrial Forest Management Agreement (IFMA) awarded to Southwood Timber Corporation (STC) in May 2008 covering 11,476 hectares of land in Barangay Anakan in Gingoog City and Minalwang in Claveria town was brutally killed while waiting for a habal-habal ride to a get-together in Barangay Kalipayan, Gingoog City on December 24.
His body was riddled with at least 20 bullets from high-powered guns that shattered his abdomen and right arm. He was with his 13-year-old nephew when he was killed.
The STC logging concession is within the Higaonon’s ancestral domain claim.
Berting’s murder is the latest of unsolved killings of at least 140 lumads since May 2001 who were only defending their ancestral domains against government-sponsored development aggressions like mining, corporate plantations, logging concessions and large-scale dams in Misamis Oriental and Bukidnon.
Among those killed were 14 women, 4 of which were pregnant; 7 children and 16 key lumad leaders.
Today, AMIN joins in solidarity with the Higaonon nation in calling for justice for Berting Pinagawa.
His cowardly murder last December 24 is the latest of unsolved killings of Higaonons perpetrated by those who allowed themselves to be used to further the inequities against the lumads and unlawful travesty of their ancestral domain.
Last November 21, 2009 Higaonon Datu Elvie Binungkasan was also killed by people who use the guns to silence those who cry against state-sponsored violence against the lumads.
Datu Binungkasan was the 48th Higaonon datu who was killed fighting for their ancestral domain since the 1980s.
As Anak Mindanao representative, I am not only representing Mindanao in Congress, but more so the tri-peoples of Mindanao: the Christian settlers, our Muslim brothers and sisters and most importantly our lumad brethren whose rights have up to now been sidelined in the name of development.
I and my colleagues in the Anak Mindanao party-list echo the call of the Higaonon and all lumad nations to bring to the bar of justice the cowards who orchestrated Berting Pinagawa and Datu Binungkasan’s murders and the killings of the other Higaonon datus.
To the masterminds of Pinagawa and Binungkasan’s murders, I tell you this: You may have killed them, but you have not killed their cause! Not now! Not ever!
I call on the government agencies, especially our law enforcement authorities, to redouble their efforts to bring to justice not only the butchers of Pinagawa and Binungkasan and all the victims of extra-judicial killings perpetrated by non-state armed groups used by the state and its partners in the private sector but more importantly the masterminds behind these ruthless slaughters!
My native city, Gingoog, had seen the worst flood in its history twice this year, in January and last November. And we cannot afford to let the city and its people drown in another future deluge brought about by typhoons because no forest trees will absorb the rainwaters cascading from a bare mountain in Claveria to the city poblacion.
I, therefore, call on Environment Secretary Lito Atienza to immediately review the IFMA awarded to STC and cancel it immediately in favor of our Higaonon brethren and the environment.
I also call on the Gingoog City government, most especially Mayor Ruthie Guingona and the honorable members of the City Council, to listen to the cries of our lumad brethren in Barangay Anakan whose already hard lives have been made worst by the logging operations of STC. Look at their plight, empathized and immediately act in their favor. Spare the city and all Gingoognons of future floodings and other nature-induced calamities by immediately passing a resolution urging the DENR to immediately cancel the IFMA awarded to STC.
And to STC, spare us, Gingoognons, Misamisnons and Mindanawons a bleak future especially for our children and their children’s children by leaving our forests alone! Stop your unwelcomed and unwanted logging operations in our midst! Go home and never ever return!
Today, AMIN honors Berting Pinagawa and Datu Binungkasan by reaffirming our unwavering support to the lumads’ struggle for their ancestral domain and emancipation from feudal and capital bondage as AMIN unwaveringly struggles for genuine social transformation and equity for all in Mindanao be they Christian settlers, Muslims and lumads.
Pagpugay kaninyo Berting Pinagawa and Datu Binungkasan sa inyong kusganong pakigbisog ug pagpaningkamot alang sa mga lumad. Ang binhi nga inyong gitanom ug gibisbisan sa inyong kaugalingong dugo among amumahon aron motubo ug mamunga ug mahimong sumbanan alang kanamo sa pagpadayon sa inyong nasugdan nga pakigbisog alang sa usa ka Mindanao ng atong gipangandoy diin walay Muslim, Kristiyano o Lumad man kundili kitang tanan mga Mindanawon nga malinawon ug mabungahon nga nanginabuhi sa atong kaugalingon yuta nga gipasa kanato sa atong mga katigulangan.
Mabuhi kamo Berting Pinagawa ug Datu Binungkasan!
Ariel Caringal Hernandez, Representative -Anak Mindanao Party List
(PR Anak Mindanao)
PHILIP JAMES MONGAYA TREMEDAL
CALL OR TEXT ME : 0939-293-2727
OR E-MAIL ME : pjtremedal@gmail.com
visit my website: www.pag-enews.tk
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