Philippines is deadliest country in Asia for environment defenders for a decade now — report

The Philippines has been ranked as the worst place in Asia for land and environmental defenders for 10 consecutive years since 2012, a report of watchdog group Global Witness showed Wednesday.

Based on the 2022 findings, there were 16 defenders in Asia who lost their lives protecting the planet. Eleven of these deaths were in the Philippines, three took place in Indonesia, while two were in India.

Global Witness listed the following names of land and environmental defenders murdered in the Philippines in 2022:

• Richard Mendoza
• Chad Errol Booc
• Gelejurain Ngujo II
• Elgyn Balonga
• Robert Aragon
• Tirso Añar
• Joseph Jimenez
• Ericson Acosta
• Silvestre Fortades Jr
• Rose Marie Galias
• Eugene Lastrella

This brought the nationwide death toll to 281 in the past decade.

The watchdog group said a third of these killings were associated with defenders speaking out against company operations linked to the mining sector.

At least 177 land and environmental defenders around the world were also reportedly killed in 2022, bringing the total number to 1,910 since 2012.

“On average, a defender was killed every other day in 2022, just as was the case in 2021. Although the overall figure is slightly lower last year than in 2021, when we recorded 200 killings, this does not mean that the situation has significantly improved,” Global Witness said.

The group also noted that almost nine in 10 recorded killings in 2022 were in Latin America, with 60 or more than a third of all fatal attacks happening in Colombia.

One in five murders of defenders worldwide also took place in the Amazon Rainforest last year. About 36% of these killings were of indigenous peoples. — LA, GMA Integrated News