Indigenous people slam AFP on killings of ‘Lumad’ leaders

The indigenous people under the banner of Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP) held a picket rally at the gate of Camp Aguinaldo to condemn the recent extrajudicial killings against the indigenous people.

Two Lumad leaders were brutally assassinated in a span of two weeks. One is Kapis Butod, 20 years old son of a Datu in Talaingod Davao Oriental, and the other is Ludenio Monson, chairman of Nigkasinabot koy Mag-uumata Boston, an indigenous peoples organization in Bonton, Davao Oriental. The two were known and identified as indigenous human rights activists and active defenders of the ancestral land against encroachment of foreign funded projects.

According to Joan Jaime, national coordinator of KAMP, “the violations on the rights of the indigenous people continues without letup and these new cases of extrajudicial killings are an evidence that the state continued with its policy of neutralizing militants and activists despite the outpouring of protests of national and international organizations,” Jaime said.

“These new cases of extrajudicial killings are yet another example of how the government treated indigenous people and activists that stood up for what is rightfully for them,” Jaime said. –Manila Times