COMMENTS TO THE RESPONSE OF THE EDCF-KOREA EXIMBANK TO THE LETTER OF MS. ANA ZBONA AND MS. CHRISTEN DOBSON OF BUSINESS & HUMAN RIGHTS RESOURCE CENTER
Here are our comments to the EDCF-KOREA EXIMBANK letter concerning the issue of the massacre of 9 Tumandoks and the illegal arrests of 16 others in Tapaz town, Capiz province and Calinog town, Iloilo province.
- The victims of the massacre on December 30, 2020 are leaders and members of the TUMANDUK organization and have long been opposing the project for more than a decade. Their communities were among those vocal against the Jalaur megadam construction.
Several documentations have been published in various media organizations on the engagement of the NCIP and the NIA with the TUMANDUK Organization: (links are provided)
▪ Endangering indigenous communities in Panay[i]
▪ Tumandoks rally for life, oppose Jalaur Megadam Project[ii]
▪ Aileen Catamin, defiant vs dams[iii]
▪ Damn the dams: Indigenous peoples say no to destructive energy projects[iv]
▪ Indigenous leader in Philippines 'red-tagged' and killed over dam opposition[v]
There were also video documentaries[vi] on the struggle of the Tumandok people against the destructive mega dam.
If media reports and video documentations are not enough, may we enlighten the Korean Exim Bank of the meeting it had with the JRPM and the several meetings the JRPM and TUMANDUK Organization had with Ms. Grace Eunyoung Lee, CEO of Gaia Consult Inc. and the social safeguard consultant of the Korean Exim Bank for JRMP-II. Some of these meetings were held in 2016 in Iloilo, April 5, 2018 in Seoul, Korea, and May 26, 2018 in Iloilo.
The April 2018 meeting in Seoul was held with Korean Exim Bank’s top executive officers. Back in Iloilo, the May 2018 meeting was with KEXIM EDCF officials and monitoring team.
The official narrative of the NCIP and the NTF-ELCAC is:
And thus KEXIM Bank kowtows to these official narrative, accepting it hook, line and sinker. KEXIM Bank does not even make the effort to differentiate the self-ascription of the Tumandok people and their political organisation TUMANDUK. Of course, the KEXIM Bank does not have any idea on how representations are made in the TUMANDUK organisation. We will not presume to educate the Bank on these matters. If they can fund a multi-billion peso mega-dam, they can afford to do their own / independent research and investigation.
The Tumandok and TUMANDOK leaders that were murdered in the morning of December 30 were active campaigners against the Jalaur River Mega Dam project. They, along with their Calinog Tumandok community counterparts, were at the forefront of the campaign to stop the construction of the dam. It was the TUMANDUK organisation which first pointed out that the project did not even go through a proper FPIC. The NIA submitted the feasibility study to KEXIM Bank in 2011, the TUMANDUK organisation and its advocates protested the lack of the FPIC to conduct such study in early 2012. The actual FPIC process was done only in 2012 [details in point #5 of this Comment].
- The Philippine government under President Duterte has a terrible human rights violation record in his almost five years in office. He is considered one of the worst tyrannical heads of state in the world today.
▪ The ICC (International Criminal Court) is examining the thousands of extrajudicial killings in the context of Duterte administration’s “war on drugs”.
▪ The European Parliament passed a resolution expressing concern on the human rights situation in the Philippines citing the passage of the Anti-Terrorism Law, the series of political killings and attacks on the press and media.
▪ In the United States, there is a pending Philippine Human Rights Act at the US Congress. The author Pennsylvania Rep. Susan Wild cited the recent passage of the widely opposed Anti-Terrorism Act in the Philippines and how it is being used as a pretext to “ramp up efforts targeting labor organizers, workers and political opponents.”
▪ The Global Magnitsky Act, the law now being applied against violators of human rights in the Philippines—those responsible for the massacre of the poor in the war against illegal drugs, those harassing Maria Ressa and Rappler, and those persecuting Senator Leila de Lima.
- The Anti-terrorism Act of 2020 is currently challenged as unconstitutional by 37 petitioners at the Supreme Court. Among other issues raised are the usurpation of the executive branch (through the Anti-Terrorism Council) the authority of the judicial branch to issue warrants of arrests and that warrants of arrests can be issued only upon probable cause.
Moreover, the ATA authorizes warrantless arrests and detention of “suspected terrorists” for a maximum of 24 days without formal charges, contrary to the constitutional provision of a maximum of 3 days without formal charges. Petitioners against the ATL include 2 former Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, a former Vice President of the Philippines, a senator, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, deans and professors of colleges of law, indigenous people’s organizations, local government officials, church leaders, and developmental non-governmental organizations.
▪ Officially, the Police claimed that the massacre and arrests on December 30, 2020 was a police operation where the victims were “served search warrants”[vii]. It is unfair for the EDCF-KOREA EXIMBANK to take the statement of the Philippine government as gospel truth.
▪ Accounts of the families of the victims reveal that search warrants were served only after state forces killed and planted evidence on the victims[viii].
▪ On February 4, 2021 the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Region 6 conducted an investigation of the December 30 massacre and arrests with majority of the relatives of the victims. It was supported by the Iloilo Council for Ecumenism (ICE). All witnesses affirmed their previous statements in the media that their relatives were murdered in cold blood and that “pieces of evidence” were planted by arresting soldiers and policemen to justify the arrest of those who are detained now.
▪ PNP Col. Enrique Ancheta, Chief of PNP Region 6 Crime Laboratory Office) revealed that 7 out of 9 massacre victims were found to be negative of powder burns. He was relieved of his post after this revelation.[ix]
▪ In a joint pastoral letter dated January 15, 2021, two archbishops and seven bishops of the dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church in Panay, Negros and Romblon islands called for a “thorough investigation by an independent body to ascertain what really happened” in the coordination police operations in Tapaz, Capiz and Calinog, Iloilo. [x]
▪ The CIDG (Criminal Investigation and Detection Group) and the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) are pressuring those who are detained to admit the preposterous charges of illegal possession of firearms and explosives (planted by the raiding teams) to avail of probation. Residents of the affected communities in Tapaz, Capiz and Calinog, Iloilo are threatened by 12th IB detachments in the area to have their names “cleared” in military camps and are paraded in turn as “NPA surenderees”.
▪ Congress will investigate the brutal killing of Tumandoks and their leaders.[xi]
- The National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) is part of the machinery of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC)[xii]. This government machinery was created by President Duterte after he stopped the peace negotiations with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines. From engagement to seek a solution to the 51 years of armed struggle led by the Communist Party of the Philippines, Duterte changed track into an all-out military solution. Filipinos are cynical if the government can achieve the strategic defeat of the armed movement which is deeply rooted in the widespread injustice, oppression and serious social problems in society. Even legislators question the wisdom of the all-out war approach amidst the uncontrolled Covid-19 pandemic in the country.[xiii]
▪ It is no wonder therefore that the NCIP maligns the Tumandoks, NCIP is part of the all-out war machinery of the government against perceived dissenters/enemies of the state. The NCIP national chairperson Ret. Col. Allen Capuyan serves as national executive director of the NTF-ELCAC. According to NCIP the Tumandoks are Panay Bukidnon. In a study by Anthropologist F. Landa Jocano, he called the Tumandok people the Sulod society.[xiv] However, long before the NCIP was established by the government, the Tumandok people by self-ascription called themselves Halawodnon, Pan-ayanon, Akeanon and Iraynon. Later they call themselves collectively Tumandok.
▪ In 1996, The Tumandoks from 20 barangays, some of which came from Garangan and Masaroy formed the organization TUMANDUK, Inc. (Tumandok nga Mangunguma nga Nagapangapin sa Duta kag Kabuhi or Indigenous Peasants in Defense of Land and Life). The organization TUMANDUK has been the venue for coordination and sharing of resources and experiences. It also acts as a unified voice in addressing issues that affect the indigenous people in Central Panay.
▪ Under the Philippine Constitution the right to self-organization is guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. People’s organizations are not obliged to be controlled by NCIP in order to be legitimate. The TUMANDUK is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
- The so-called conduct of the FPIC (free prior and informed consent) was flawed from the very start of the Jalaur megadam project. The FPIC process of consultation in 2012 for the feasibility study phase was gravely violated. The NIA (National Irrigation Agency) secretly conducted a study in 2009 on the feasibility of building a megadam in the indigenous peoples area of Brgy. Agcalaga, Calinog along the Jalaur River, without consultation with affected communities. In November 2011, the NIA submitted its final feasibility study to the Korean Eximbank.
The consent was not “free” because the information from affected indigenous peoples (IPs) in communities reveals that the NIA is engaged in “giving incentives” thru menial job hiring of people who resist or are reluctant to give consent to the project and coerced by military forces in the area. There were no “prior” consultations because the final feasibility study was already submitted to the EXIMBANK before the FPIC process was conducted. Neither was the consent “informed” because the NIA discussed only the supposed advantages of the project but kept from the people, information about the dangers and negative impacts such as the existence of the active West Panay fault and that several communities will be submerged in water. It was a tainted process.
OPPOSITION TO THE JALAUR MEGA DAM IS NOT WITHOUT FACTS
The opposition of the Tumandok people to the Jalaur mega dam project (JRMP-II) is not without valid reasons. These are based on their daily experiences and existence as a people and as a community. The destruction of their lands and their sources of livelihood and desecration[xv] of their burial sites and sacred grounds are grave violations of their individual and collective rights.
The project will always remind the Tumandok people of their sufferings and the lives that were offered just to stop the project. The next generation of Tumandok people will no longer be able to harvest the bounty of their lands which will be submerged in water.
Who will benefit from the project? Those private water concessionaires, those private sugarcane landlords and those in the government whose agenda is not the welfare of the Tumandok people but their personal interests. The NCIP whose continued denial of the Tumandok their organized representation is consistent with the commission’s violation of their collective rights[xvi]. The KEXIM Bank and contractor Daewoo may add to their list the JRMP-II as an accomplishment but let it be known, that this was constructed with strong opposition and the Tumandok people offered their lives just to stop it.
We will continue the fight so the Tumandok people will be given justice as they also continue to struggle for their land and collective rights which are not respected and have long been violated by the government, its commissions and those of foreign groups whose practices and implementation are not compliant to international humanitarian and human rights standards and principles, as they claimed to be.
Prepared by:
Jalaur River for the People’s Movement (JRPM)
jrpm.panay2013@gmail.com
March 30, 2021
[i] https://opinion.inquirer.net/97120/endangering-indigenous-communities-panay
[ii] https://ichrp.net/tumandoks-rally-for-life-oppose-jalaur-megadam-project/
[iii] https://www.bulatlat.com/2015/03/25/aileen-catamin-defiant-vs-dams/
[iv] https://www.eco-business.com/news/damn-the-dams-indigenous-peoples-say-no-to-destructive-energy-projects/
[v] https://www.eco-business.com/news/indigenous-leader-in-philippines-red-tagged-and-killed-over-dam-opposition/
[vi] https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1EhopyjtiACP04UO8aoqJrvBKJyRTbYkY?usp=sharing
[vii] https://opinion.inquirer.net/136987/probe-tumandok-carnage
[viii] https://indigenousrightsinternational.org/news-and-events/news-and-features/philippines-9-indigenous-tumandok-killed-17-others-arrested-in-police-ops-in-panay
[ix] https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1386614/western-visayas-pnp-crime-lab-chief-sacked-after-saying-9-ips-killed-in-cidg-raid-negative-in-paraffin-tests
[x] https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1384634/w-visayas-romblon-bishops-condemn-killing-of-tumandok-tribe-members-in-iloilo-capiz
[xi] https://congress.gov.ph/legisdocs/basic_18/HR01449.pdf
[xii] https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/downloads/2018/12dec/20181204-EO-70-RRD.pdf
[xiii] https://cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/9/9/Senators-budget-NTF-ELCAC-unemployment.html?fbclid=IwAR1_kN_qcWGmFGubtr4GixcM1jIxM_88vcoxRiCaLsMgrxndhvXmrWCbMKk
[xiv] https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/aa.1970.72.2.02a00270
[xv] https://panaytoday.wordpress.com/2016/07/21/tumandok-burial-and-sacred-sites-to-be-desecrated-by-jalaur-mega-dam-project/
[xvi] https://www.bulatlat.com/2016/08/04/indigenous-peoples-law-violated-our-collective-rights/
<국문번역>
기업과인권자원센터의 아나즈보나(ANA ZBONA)와 크리스틴 돕슨(CHRISTEN DOBSON)의 편지에 대한 한국 대외경제협력기금 수출입은행의 응답에 대한 의견입니다.
이글은 투만도크에서 이루어진 9명 학살건과 카피즈 주 타파즈 타운과 일로일로주 칼리노그 타운에서 이루어진 16명의 불법체포에 관한 한국 대외경제협력기금 수출입은행의 서한에 대한 우리의 논평입니다.
- 2020년 12월 30일 학살의 희생자들은 TUMANDUK 조직의 리더이자 구성원으로 10년 넘게 이 프로젝트에 반대해 왔습니다. 그들의 커뮤니티는 잘라우르(Jalaur) 대형댐 건축에 반대하고 있었습니다.
TUMANDUK과 함께 NCIP와 NIA에 참여하는 방법에 대한 여러 가지 문서가 여러 미디어 조직에 게시되었습니다. (링크 제공)
▪️ 파나이 원주민 공동체를 위험에 빠뜨림
▪️ Tumandoks 생명 중시 집회, Jalaur 대형댐 반대
▪️ Aileen Catamin, 저항 vs 댐
▪️ 빌어먹을 댐: 원주민들은 파괴적인 에너지 프로젝트에 반대함
▪️ 필리핀의 원주민 지도자가 댐 반대 운동을 하다가 '빨갱이'로 낙인 찍혀 살해됨
파괴적인 거대 댐에 대항하는 투만도크 사람들의 투쟁에 관한 비디오 다큐멘터리도 있었습니다.
언론 보도와 영상 자료로 충분하지 않다면, 한국 수출입은행이 JRPM과 했던 회의, JRPM 및 TUMANDUK이 Gaia Consultant Inc.의 CEO이자 JRMP-II를 위한 한국수출입은행의 사회 보호 컨설턴트인 그레이스 은영 이와 가졌던 몇 번의 회의 결과를 한국 수출입은행에 상기시킬까요? 이러한 회의 중 일부는 2016년 일로일로에서, 2018년 4월 5일 서울에서, 2018년 5월 26일 일로일로에서 열린 것입니다.
2018년 4월 서울에서 한국수출입은행 최고 경영진과 간담회가 열렸습니다. 2018년 5월 일로일로에서 한국수출입은행 대회경제협력기금 관계자 및 모니터링팀과의 회의가 있었습니다.
국가토착민위원회(NCIP:National Commission on Native People)와 무장지역공동체분쟁대책위원회(NTF-ELCAC: National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict)의 공식 설명은 다음과 같습니다.
한국수출입은행은 이러한 공식적인 이야기에 굽실거리며, 그것을 곧이곧대로 받아들였습니다. 한국수출입은행은 스스로를 '투만덕사람'이라고 부르는 그룹과 정치 조직인 '투만덕(TUMANDUK)'을 구분하려는 노력조차 하지 않고 있습니다. 물론 한국수출입은행은 TUMANDUK이라는 조직이 어떤 사람들에 의해 대표되는지 전혀 알지 못합니다. 우리는 이러한 문제들에 대해 은행을 교육하려고 하지 않을 것입니다. 만약 그들이 수십억 페소 대형댐에 자금을 댈 수 있다면, 그들은 독립적인 연구와 조사를 할 수 있습니다.
12월 30일 아침에 살해된 투만덕과 투만덕 지도자들은 잘라우르 강 대형댐 프로젝트에 반대하는 활동적인 운동가였습니다. 그들은 칼리노그 투만덕 지역 주민들과 함께 댐 건설 중단 캠페인의 선두에 섰습니다. 이 프로젝트가 제대로 된 FPIC조차 거치지 않았다고 처음 지적한 것은 TUMANDUK이라는 단체였습니다. NIA는 2011년 타당성 조사 결과를 한국수출입은행에 제출했습니다. TUMANDUK과 활동가들은 2012년 초에 그러한 연구를 수행하기에는 FPIC이 부족하다고 항의했습니다. 실제 FPIC 프로세스는 2012년에서야 수행되었습니다 [세부 정보는 본 논평의 #5 참고].
- 두테르테 대통령 휘하의 필리핀 정부는 그의 임기 거의 5년 동안 끔찍한 인권 침해 기록을 가지고 있습니다. 그는 오늘날 세계 최악의 독재 국가 원수 중 한 명으로 여겨지고 있습니다.
▪️ 국제형사재판소(ICC)는 두테르테 행정부가 '마약과의 전쟁'이라는 명목아래 저지른 수천 건의 사법절차에 의거하지 않은 살해에 대해 조사하고 있습니다.
▪️ 유럽의회는 테러방지법의 통과, 일련의 정치적 살해, 언론과 언론에 대한 공격 등을 인용하면서 필리핀의 인권상황에 우려를 표명하는 결의안을 통과시켰습니다.
▪️ 미국 의회에는 현재 계류 중인 필리핀 인권법이 있습니다. 펜실베이니아 의원인 수잔 와일드가 입법자입니다. 수잔 와일드는 최근 필리핀에서 광범위하게 반대 의견을 받고 있는 테러방지법이 통과된 것과 그법이 "노동 조직자, 노동자, 정적들을 겨냥하는 일을 수월하게 만드는데" 어떻게 사용되고 있는지를 언급했습니다.
▪️ 글로벌 마그니츠키 법(The Global Magnitsky Act)은 현재 필리핀의 인권 침해자들에게 적용되고 있습니다. 불법 마약과의 전쟁에서 가난한 사람들을 학살한 책임이 있는 자들, 마리아 레사(Maria Ressa)와 라플러(Rappler)를 괴롭히는 자들, 그리고 레일라 드 리마(Leila de Lima) 상원의원을 박해하는 자들입니다.
- 현재 대법원에서 37명의 청원자가 2020년 테러방지법을 위헌으로 규정하고 있습니다. 그 밖에 제기된 쟁점들 가운데는 체포영장을 발부할 행정부의 권한을 (테러방지위원회를 통해) 박탈하는 것과 체포영장은 가능한 사유가 있어야만 발부될 수 있도록 하는 것입니다.
또한, ATA는 정식 기소 없이 최대 3일을 구금할 수 있다는 헌법 규정과 달리, 공식 기소 없이 최대 24일 동안 "테러 용의자들"을 체포하고 구금하는 것을 허가합니다. ATL에 반대하는 청원자에는 전직 대법관 2명, 필리핀 전 부통령, 필리핀 통합 변호사, 법대 학장과 교수, 원주민 단체, 지방 정부 관계자, 교회 지도자, 개발 비정부 단체 등이 포함되어 있습니다.
▪️ 공식적으로 경찰은 2020년 12월 30일 발생한 학살과 체포는 경찰의 작전이며 희생자들이 "수색영장을 발부받은" 사람들이라고 주장했습니다. 한국수출입은행 대외경제협력기금이 필리핀 정부의 일방적인 성명을 복음적 진리처럼 받아들이는 것은 부당합니다.
▪️ 희생자 가족들의 진술에 따르면 수색영장은 국군이 희생자들을 살해하고 증거물을 심은 후에야 제공되었다고 합니다.
▪️ 2021년 2월 4일 인권위원회(CHR) 6구역에서는 12월 30일 희생자 친인척 대다수가 참석한 가운데 학살과 체포에 대한 조사를 실시하였습니다. 그것은 Ililo Council for Ecumenism(ICE)의 지원을 받았습니다. 모든 목격자들은 언론을 통해 "친척이 냉혹하게 살해됐다"며 "지금 구금된 이들의 구속을 정당화하기 위해 군인과 경찰을 체포해 '증거물'을 심었다"고 진술했습니다.
▪️ PNP 6구역 범죄연구소장이자 PNP 대령인 엔리케 안체타는 학살 피해자 9명 중 7명의 몸에서 총기에 의한 화상이 발견되지 않았다고 밝혔습니다. 그는 이 폭로가 있은 후 직위에서 물러났습니다.
▪️ 2021년 1월 15일자 공동 성직자 서한에서 파나이, 네그로스, 롬블론 섬의 로마 가톨릭교회 교구장 주교 2명과 주교 7명은 일로일로의 타파즈, 카피즈, 칼리노그에서의 조정 경찰 작전에서 "진짜 무슨 일이 일어났는지를 확인하기 위한 독립 기구의 철저한 조사"를 촉구했습니다.
▪️ 형사수사본부와(CIDG) 검찰청(PAO)은 구속된 이들에게 총기 및 폭발물 불법 소지 혐의(강제추행팀)에 대해 보호관찰을 받도록 압박하고 있습니다. 타파즈, 카피즈, 칼리노그, 일로일로의 피해 지역 주민들은 이 지역의 12번째 IB 파건대에 의해 군 캠프에서 자신들의 이름이 "삭제"될 위협을 받고 차례로 "NPA 항복자"로 퍼레이드를 벌입니다.
▪️ 의회는 투만독과 그 지도자들의 잔혹한 살해 사건을 조사할 예정입니다.