IS ABRA DE ILOG UNDER A DE FACTO MARTIAL LAW REGIME?

IS ABRA DE ILOG UNDER A DE FACTO MARTIAL LAW REGIME?

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan condemns the escalating human rights abuses in Abra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro, brought about by indiscriminate bombing and overkill military operations of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

We hold the US-Marcos Jr. regime responsible for the clear violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed by state security forces. State policy unleashing another iteration of a fascist counterinsurgency program, instead of addressing the roots of armed conflict between the government and armed rebels, has unleashed horrific consequences in rural communities, especially in lands inhabited by indigenous peoples.

The state terror we are witnessing in Mindoro today reflects the situation in various communities nationwide where the people are fiercely opposing the destruction and plunder of their ancestral lands. After invalidating the mining moratorium of LGUs, capitalists colluded with despotic landlords and corrupt officials in extracting superprofits from our lands. State security forces are deployed to protect the interests of plunderers, landgrabbers, and bureaucrat capitalists. In Mindoro, the mining resurgence and so-called renewable energy projects are fueling the tyranny that seeks to suppress the resistance of the local communities.

Marcos Jr. has to be made accountable for enacting a budget that institutionalizes not just corruption in the AFP and PNP but also the procurement of weapons of destruction that are now being used in the bombing operations in civilian communities.

The courts have greenlighted mining plunder, local authorities are whitewashing the terror committed by state troops, humanitarian teams are prevented from delivering assistance and services to displaced villagers, human rights defenders are red-tagged and harassed, and a news blackout is imposed on the unfolding human rights emergency. Is Abra de Ilog under a de facto Martial Law regime?

Bayan calls for solidarity for the indigenous people of Abra de Ilog and the people of Mindoro who are rising in defense of their communities from capitalist plunderers and fascist forces.

We demand a cessation of offensive military operations by the AFP to allow the entry of humanitarian aid into the affected areas. An independent probe on the impact of these military operations in the communities of Abra de Ilog is urgently needed.

The government should also review and ultimately reverse the real estate, mining, and “renewable energy” projects that have displaced the local population and threaten to destroy the environment and ancestral lands of indigenous peoples.

Bayan enjoins fellow Filipinos and all peace and human rights advocates to speak out and express concern over the worsening human rights situation in Abra de Ilog and to denounce the Marcos Jr. administration for inflicting this brutality not just in Mindoro but also in other parts of the country.

Defend Abra de Ilog!
Itigil ang pagbomba sa Mindoro!
Pondo sa serbisyo, hindi sa pasistang dahas at korapsyon!