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GMA guilty!

For crimes vs. Cordi peoples

LUBUAGAN, Kalinga (April 24) — The Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration was found guilty of state terrorism and national oppression by the Cordillera Peoples Tribunal composed of indigenous peoples in the region including national and international delegates during the 22nd Cordillera Day celebration in Ag-agama, Western Uma here. GMA was sentenced to step down from the presidency and be held accountable for the charges against her.

Provincial and sectoral delegates from Abra, Apayao, Mt. Province, Ifugao, Benguet and the host province, Kalinga, including Metro Baguio, presented seven cases against GMA.

The cases include violation of indigenous peoples’ collective rights over ancestral lands and livelihood resources (manifested by development aggression, such as large-scale mining and large dams); violation of indigenous peasants’ rights through agricultural liberalization, commercialization of indigenous culture, violation of economic rights against the urban poor and workers; government neglect and denial of basic services; militarization; ethnocide, political repression and killings against the Cordillera mass movement.

This year’s Cordillera Day gathered some 4,000 delegates nationwide, with some 70 observers from Taiwan, Belgium, Malaysia, Japan, United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, and Denmark.

The Tribunal not only served as a political statement, but also provided the alternative venue for Cordillera IPs to register their grievances against the GMA administration.

“Having no other recourse and no hope in the justice framework of the government, the Cordillera Peoples Tribunal is the venue for the indigenous peoples to have their demands heard and have the accused tried and charged,” said Windel Bolinget, Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) secretary-general.

The Tribunal’s Panel of Judges (Jurors) included prominent elders-leaders of the Cordillera peoples movement, like Petra Macliing and Lakay Banag Sinumplag; sectoral representatives, including Kilusang Mambubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) Secretary General Danilo “Ka Daning” Ramos.

The Tribunal ended with the call to fetad (people’s militant mobilization to defend the Cordillera land against imperialist and corporate plunder) by Mother Petra Macliing. To affirm the call, the war dance was executed by tribal leaders against the GMA regime. An effigy of GMA was symbolically speared by the tribe leaders.

Meanwhile after the Tribunal, a tribute was held to honor the martyrs of the Cordillera peoples movement, including the recent three victims of political killings — Romeo Sanchez, Jose “Pepe” Manegdeg, and Albert Terredaño.

The participants also passed resolutions calling for the scrapping of the Mining Act of 1995; to stop militarization and ethnocide, political repression and Oplan Bantay Laya, and a resolution to bare and oppose Charter Change, among others.

This year’s Cordillera Day was hosted by the Uma Tribal Alliance for Peace and Development (UTAPD). Local government officials of Kalinga delivered welcome remarks and solidarity messages during the two-day celebration, including Lubuagan Mayor Johnny Dikpus, and former governor Macario Duguiang. The Batasan five also sent their solidarity messages in video. # Abigail T. Bengwayan for NORDIS

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