One year ago today, 8 T’boli and Manobo community members in Barangay Ned, Lake Sebu, South Cotabato were killed in an alleged military operations against communist rebels. But to tag them as “rebels” is to disregard their rights as defenders of their land and ancestral domain. For more than 28 years, they have struggled struggled, with Datu Victor, to protect their ancestral domain from the encroachment of coffee plantations and coal mining.
We demand justice for the killings!
We demand for the cancellation of the IFMA, and the ancestral domains to be returned to the community!
We demand a stop to all forms of harassment and human rights violations towards indigenous communities and defenders of territories!