uphold, assert and defend all human rights for all!
uphold, assert and defend all human rights for all!
Alyansa Tigil Mina Statement on the Remembrance of the 40th Anniversary of the Declaration of Martial Law
In remembering the 40th anniversary of the declaration of martial law, Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM) is in solidarity with all the victims, their families and the activists who resisted, struggled and mobilized against the dictatorship. As we honor the heroes who fought martial law, we also remember and honor the environmental heroes and martyrs who fought against destructive largescale mining.
It was political repression then, and it is environmental and ecological genocide now.
With the growing list of extra judicial killings related to mining and the destructions it has caused to the environment, the mining industry is perhaps one of the main abusers of human rights, particularly of the rights of indigenous peoples. The destruction brought by mining also deny people their basic rights for food, safe and comfortable lives, water and the right to selfdetermination for IPs.
If many people suffered during the times of Martial law, our generation now is in the same fate with the mining law – the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 or RA 7942.
ATM asserts that just like what happened to Martial law, the Mining Act has to be scrapped and replaced with the Alternative Minerals Management Bill (AMMB), now known as the Philippine Mineral Reosurces Act of 2012, pending in Congress. AMMB is a proposed legislation that will rationalize the management and utilization of minerals in the country and Congress must pass this law to avoid the continuing violation of human rights.
ATM also stands by and with the people in various mining communities all over the country who are experiencing similar atrocities at the time of martial law rule - militarization, harassment from authorities and large corporations and human rights abuse.
In general, indigenous communities continue to be victims of land grabbing and coercion. Their ways of living are often disregarded in business decisions of these mining companies, and these mining projects often being forced to them by the government and the industry. In particular, B’laan communities in South Cotabato and Sarangani provinces and the Mamanwas in Agusan del Sur are just some of the IP groups who are now struggling to defend their ancestral domains against the proposed mining projects in their respective communities. This same situation is reflected in the Aetas of Zambales, Mangyans of Mindoro and the Ifugaos in Nueva Vizcaya.
Based on the monitoring of ATM, there are ast least eight cases of extra-judicial killings that were committed against leaders of our alliance, and their families. The latest addition to these cases is the shooting incidence to a subanen tribal chieftain, Timuay Lucencio Manda in Zambonga del Sur last Sept. 4 that ended the life of his 11-year old son Jordan Manda, who was riding with him in a motor vehicle when a gunman rained bullets on them. What is more frustrating is that justice is being denied for the families of the victims. The killings of Armin Marin from Sibuyan Island in Romblon and Dr. Gerry Ortega from Palawan, comes to mind. In other cases, anti-mining activists are harassed, sometimes even by legal tactics, to scare them off or force them to be quiet in their resistance.
ATM will not forget the bitter lessons of martial law. And we will not rest until the same atrocious repression and abuse by destructive large-scale mining against the rural poor and the environment is stopped.
Alyansa Tigil Mina is an alliance of mining-affected communities and their support groups of NGOs/POs and other civil society organizations who are opposing the aggressive promotion of large-scale mining in the Philippines. The alliance is currently pushing for a moratorium on mining, revocation of Executive Order 270-A, repeal of the Mining Act of 1995 and passage of the AMMB.
