Karapatan warns of ‘Lake Sebu massacre’ repeat after martial-law extension

Human rights group Karapatan on Friday warned that the alleged December 3 killing of eight indigenous people in Lake Sebu could happen again due to the extension of martial law in Mindanao and other government policies.

“The Lake Sebu massacre is a carnage waiting to happen again, especially with martial law and the Duterte regime’s counter-insurgency program Oplan Kapayapaan in tow," Karapatan deputy Sec. Gen. Roneo Clamor claimed. during a press conference.

“This latest massacre is a vivid picture of the indignity of martial law. This is a sample of how such policies can gravely affect indigenous communities fighting and asserting their right to self-determination," Clamor added.

"The enraging thing is that all this need not have happened, if only this President chose to resolve the socioeconomic roots of the armed conflict."

The Philippine military had explained earlier that the deaths in Lake Sebu's Barangay Ned was from a firefight between the 27th Infantry Battalion and alleged New People's Army gunmen. 

However, Karapatan claimed that the alleged NPA gunmen were actually T'boli and Dulangan Manobo tribesmen from Sitio Datal Bong Langon.

Karapatan explained that the area in which the killings took place was being claimed by both a major corporation, which wanted to build a coffee plantation, and tribesmen who see it as an ancestral domain.

Clamor also alleged that President Rodrigo Duterte had "goaded" military and paramilitary forces to "intimidate, harass and threaten the indigenous peoples’ communities" in favor of corporations which wanted to develop the area.

"All forms of resistance, in the eyes of this fascist regime, merits the term ‘enemy of the State.’ With the extension of martial law, violations against the civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights of indigenous communities will undoubtedly intensify," he said.

Clamor argued that martial law in Mindanao would railroad measures that would allow an authoritarian regime to thrive and allow foreign ownership of businesses in the Philippines.

"Such a set-up would allow the easy infringement of  foreign corporations in the ancestral lands of indigenous peoples; it would allow 100% foreign ownership of land, resources and enterprises; it would enable the uninhibited selling off of the entire country to imperialist exploits,” Clamor added.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief General Rey Leonardo Guerrero had said earlier that he had not received complaints of human rights violations linked to the implementation of martial law in Mindanao.

Guerrero added that the AFP had proven itself worthy of the people’s trust, and that the military had mechanisms to keep itself "accountable and responsible" for its actions. — DVM, GMA News