At least 17 land defenders killed in 2023 in the Philippines
The latest Global Witness report highlights the deadly trend. Although the worse cases are in Latin America, the Philippine government is increasingly using the law to intimidate and enforced disappearances to end the activities of land defenders. Most of the victims belong to indigenous communities.
Milan (AsiaNews) – At least 196 climate activists were killed in 2023, land defenders, in most cases from Indigenous communities, murdered for opposing environmental exploitation in their country, a trend Global Witness documents in its recently released report.
For the international NGO, the actual number of murders could be higher with most killings taking place in Latin America, with Colombia at the top. In Asia, the Philippines holds this sad record, with 17 activists killed in 2023, followed by India with five, and Indonesia with three.
Considering that Global Witness began monitoring activities in 2012, these figures rise to 298 for the Philippines over the 11-year period, 86 in India, and 20 in Indonesia (461 in Colombia).
Since 2012, 468 environmental activists have been assassinated across Asia, compared to 116 in Africa, most in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As for groups targeted, 36 per cent were committed against Indigenous people.
Global Witness also notes that non-lethal attacks against human rights defenders have become commonplace in the Philippines.
According to the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development, legal pressures were the most used tool between 2021 and 2022 across the continent, with 1,033 documented cases.
Another common practice in the Philippines is enforced disappearances, a phenomenon that is also spreading to other countries in the region.
“The abduction of land and environmental defenders in Southeast Asia has emerged as a critical issue, reflecting broader systemic efforts by power holders to suppress dissent and maintain control over land and resources,” writes Global Witness.
Jhed Tamano and Jonila Castro, 22- and 23-year-old environmental activists, say they were kidnapped on 2 September 2023. Both are from the Manila Bay area, where they backed local fishing communities against land reclamation projects for the construction of a new airport.
Their ordeal lasted 17 days and suspicions have fallen on the Philippine military. After their release, the government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. held a press conference, which, according to activists, was a "set up".
“The government, our kidnappers, had organised it so we could publicly confess to being communist rebels – even though we were not. We had been given a couple of pages with the 'official' story we were expected to tell and the answers we were expected to give,” the two women said. “Instead, we told the truth.”
The truth is that the two women were trying to raise awareness about what was happening to fishing communities. Jhed is coordinator for the Ecumenical Bishops' Forum and Jonila is an advocacy officer for reclamation and water at Kalikasan’s People’s Network for the Environment.
“For a couple of weeks, we were certain that a handful of men had been quietly watching us and asking about us. One of them had gone as far as taking our picture without our consent. But now we were in the community, and we were feeling good about our work,” said Jhed e Jonila.
When they were abducted, they immediately realised “that these men were military. They knew too much: they knew our families, our addresses.”
They were let go after days of accusations, threats, and psychological torture. They agreed to participate in the press conference, aware that telling their story would have been dangerous.
In December 2023, the Philippine Department of Justice filed charges against the two women for embarrassing and “putting [the Armed Forces of the Philippines] in bad light” during the press conference.
A local court issued an arrest warrant, while an appeal court rejected their petition for protection, overturning an earlier Supreme Court ruling, thus undermining protections for environment defenders across the country.
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21/09/2022
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