It has been known that the Bangsamoro, Indigenous Peoples and Mindanao Filipino citizens have suffered the horror of the dictatorship of the late Ferdinand Marcos Sr. 52 years ago. In fact, such atrocities have heightened the armed struggle of the Bangsamoro for the Right to Self-Determination (RSD) and claim justice.

After the long decades of struggle (peaceful and antagonistic), BARMM exists as a political expression of the Bangsamoro people alongside with the billions-worth socio-economic and development track. The struggle after five decades has reached a higher level of autonomous relationship with the Philippine government.

Despite the above positive developments human rights violations and curtailment of basic freedoms persist and the democratic space continues to shrink using the State/government bureaucracy, policies and agencies including inside the new BARMM nowadays. Environment and natural wealth have been commoditized in the name of development and environment defenders are neutralized or murdered. Particularly, the Non-Moro Indigenous Peoples and their leaders are either put under surveillance or red-tagged, endangering their lives.

Four days before the commemoration of the Marcos Sr Martial Law declaration (September 21) 52 years ago (1972) Councilor Elvin Moires, a Non-Moro Indigenous Peoples Teduray leader was murdered (September 17, 2024 at 10 o’clock in the evening) in Barangay Bongo, South Upi, Maguindanao del Sur. The murder took place months after the murder of South Upi Vice Mayor Roldan Benito and bodyguard Weng Marcos on August 2, 2024 while on their way to the Vice Mayor’s residence in Barangay Pandan of the same municipality.

Councilor Moires accounted as the 75^th in the list of murdered NMIP leaders and members, particularly coming from the Teduray and Lambangian tribes according to the documentation made by the Timuay Justice and Governance (TJG) since the year 2018. TJG is the Non-Moro Teduray and Lambangian tribes’ Indigenous Political Structure. Of these 75 deaths, not one case has been resolved.

In 2020, the Tribal Title Holders or the Baglalan of the TJG in a meeting declared that their “Fusaka Inged (ancestral domains) is currently in a state of Guboten (under siege) pertaining to the forced land occupations by non-IPs; attack and killings perpetrated by armed groups; hostage taking; destruction of properties and ritual sites; robberies; harassments and movements of armed groups in different parts of the Ancestral Domain. However, the narratives of recurring displacements in the lives of the Indigenous Peoples in Maguindanao provinces and nearby provinces have been going on since the 70’s.

One infamous incident is the Sitio Tinabon landslide that claimed 27 lives due to heavy rain brought by typhoon Paeng in October 28, 2022 was a concrete and tragic result of the forced eviction of the Indigenous community from their own ancestral land along the coastal areas of Datu Odin Sinsuat town in Maguindanao del Norte and forcibly relocated in the heel of the eroded and landslide-prone mountain that have collapse in that rainy night. The said eviction is for the transformation of the coastal areas into commercial resorts.

The BARMM through the Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) is expected to organize the bureaucracy, provide service delivery mechanisms and install mechanisms to fulfill and protect the basic rights of every person and group of peoples inside the juridical entity. In contrary during the last quarter of 2019, the MILF-led BTA issued Resolution No. 38, or a “Resolution Protesting the Delineation Process in Maguindanao Province Urging the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) to Cease and Desist the Delineation Process and the Proceeding for the Issuance of the Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title in the Province of Maguindanao, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM)”. The resolution halted the delineation process that had gone through for a long-time already even earlier than the installation of the new BARMM. And the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Energy – Mines and Geosciences Services (MENRE-MGS) have undergone studies and soil sampling according to reports since 2022 and proposed to declare a 3,566-hectare mineral reservation inside the ancestral domain claim without undergoing with the RA 8371 prescribed Free, Prior and Informed Consent from the whole NMIP or IP in the community. Again, the FPIC process has not been observed in the Camp Transformation process of the MILF-GPH peace agreement implementation particularly in the camps Omar and Bader that are located inside the Ancestral Domain of the NMIP Teduray and Lambangian according to the NMIPs themselves.

Options for the Non-Moro IPs are now being limited to a watered-down or compromised instrument for NMIP rights protection to nothing under the current President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr and the new BARMM administrations.

In the coming days, the Timuay Justice and Governance on October 1-4, 2024 will have its democratic Timfada Limud or Tribal General Assembly to collectively assess their situation, what have been reached and what needs improvement, elect its new leadership, and lay down the strategic direction for their realization of four bundles of rights enshrined under the laws of the land like Indigenous Peoples Rights Act, Bangsamoro Organic Law, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples, and the 1987 Philippine Constitution.

Human Rights, Peace and Social movements in the world and in Mindanao believe that the Bangsamoro people and its masses deserved justice. But such Justice should not undermine nor add more injustices to other people in the region particularly with those having distinct identity such as the Non-Moro Indigenous Peoples.

In the Philippines and abroad, let us continue to be united and strengthen our solidarity in the push for the sovereignty of occupied and oppressed nations, democracy, sustainable future, empowered citizenry and dignified living!

We call on all human rights, peace and social movements alike not to allow Peace be transformed into fear, subjugation, loss of freedom, and systemic silencing of the voices from the margins.

RECOGNIZE NMIP AS DISTINCT IDENTITY!

PASS GENUINE NMIP RIGHTS PROTECTION ACT!!

INCLUSIVE, DEMOCRATIC AND SUSTAINABLE BANGSAMORO FOR ALL!

September 27, 2024

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References:

TJG 2020 INTERNATIONAL DAY OF WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLES STATEMENT / AUGUST 9, 2020

Peoples’ Rights Matter! Peace and Human Rights Advocates Call for a Democratic, Moral and Inclusive Peace in BARRM. (January 15, 2021)

Statement of Loyukan on the Extension of the Bangsamoro Transition Process / April 26, 2021

AMKP Statement: A Just Bangsamoro for All! Uphold and Defend the Right to peace of NMIPs in BARMM! (October 20, 2023)

Indigenous peoples, settlers say no to mineral reservation in Maguindanao del Sur / Gaea Katreena Cabico - Philstar.com / December 7, 2023

STATEMENT ON SHOOTINGS & KILLINGS in Cotabato City and Maguindanao provinces / March 15, 2024

A Genuine Non-Moro IP Code Recognizes our Identities, our Ancestral Domains, and our Collective Rights / May 2024

Statement: We want justice for Teduray Vice Mayor Roldan Benito MP FROILYN T. MENDOZA/AUGUST 4, 2024

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Signed

1. Timuay Justice and Governance-TJG,

2. Kilusang Maralita sa Kanayunan (KILOS KA),

3. Alyansa ng Mamamayan para sa Karapatang Pantao,

4. Lanao Alliance of Human Rights Advocates - LAHRA,

5. Alliance of TriPeople for the Advancement of Human Rights,

6. I-Defend Iligan,

7. I-Defend Lanao,

8. Zena Bernardo Bernardo, Founder of Bayanihang Marikenyo at Marikenya

9. Judy Ann Miranda Secretary General of Partido Manggagawa

10. Focus on the Global South

11. Europe Solidaire Sans Frontiers (ESSF), France

12. LABAN Kababaihan

13. Mindanao Tri-people Women Resource Center, Inc.

14. Ranao Women and Children Resource Center

#NMIP
#NMIPRightsMatter
#NMIPLivesMatter
#BangsamoroForAll
#EndTheKillings
#GenuineNMIPCodeNOW

𝐒𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞
𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐍𝐌𝐈𝐏𝐬’ 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐭 𝐈𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐲!
𝐏𝐚𝐬𝐬 𝐚 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐮𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐍𝐌𝐈𝐏 𝐑𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐝𝐞 𝐍𝐨𝐰!

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