RP gov't not yet off the hook in UN racism case

GENEVA, Switzerland – Even as it had responded in February this year to charges of state racism against an indigenous community in Mindanao, the Philippine government is not yet off the hook.

The racism case will again be discussed during the 73rd session of the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UN CERD) here, from July 28 to August 15 this year.

In a letter to Erlinda Basilio of the Philippine Permanent Mission here, UN CERD told the Philippine government that it was gravely concerned "about recent information suggesting that the situation in Mt. Canatuan, Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte is not an isolated case but indicative of many similar cases happening to indigenous communities in the country."

Lumad shadow report
Meanwhile, a national network of indigenous groups, which met in June, said recently that some 40 people’s organizations are drafting together an alternative report on the government’s crimes against indigenous peoples or the Lumad, particularly those who are against ming and other extractive industries.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had referred to mining as the country’s sunshine industry that is projected to bring in foreign investments worth at least US$9 to 10.4 billion by 2010. In her recent State of the Nation address, however, she mentioned that she said that "mining industries should ensure that host communities benefit substantially from their investments, and with no environmental damage from operations."

The Philippine government as state party to the International Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) was first directed August last year by the CERD to respond to a complaint detailing a pattern of racial discrimination against the Subanens in Mt. Canatuan in Barangay Tabayo, Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte.

The complaint was filed under the CERD’s urgent action procedure by Timuay (leader) Jose "Boy" Anoy in behalf of seven groups, including that of Gukom Sog Pito Kobogolalan Sog Pito Kadulongan (Gukom of the Seven Traditional Councils of the Seven Rivers).

Other concerns
In its recent communiqué, CERD chair Fatimatah Binta Victoire Dah further reminded the Philippine government that "free, prior and informed consent of indigenous communities is required for any development projects on ancestral lands as provided for in the state party's (the Philippines') 1997 Indigenous Peoples Act."

Victoire Dah also asked the Philippine government to clarify further on points raised by the Subanen, including:
•giving a mining concession to a mining company without free, prior and informed consent from the indigenous community;
•continued recognition of a bogus Council of Elders despite the community's repudiation of this council; and
•government actions to protect the community from violence, harassment and attacks by military and paramilitary forces

Overdue reports
The Philippine government was reminded to submit five overdue biannual reports, from 1998 onwards, on its implementation of the ICERD. The Philippines is among the ICERD’s 173 state parties that ratified the treaty in 1967.

The Philippine government’s earlier defense was discussed at the 72nd Session of the CERD last February, under its urgent action procedures. The government report denied massive human rights violations against the Subanen. Instead the government report submitted by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), pointed at "internal strife and division" among the Subanen as the cause behind the lumad’s woes.

Last year, the CERD considered the complaint filed by the Subanen, the indigenous peoples of Zamboanga peninsula. Since the 1990s, the Subanen had been resisting big-scale open-pit gold mining right on their ancestral domain in Mt. Canatuan, Barangay Tabaco, Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte.

Human rights violations
The Subanen sought relief from the CERD under its urgent action procedures. In their complaint, the Subanen and their support groups detailed "a persistent pattern of acts of hatred and violence and discrimination tantamount to discrimination" against the Subanen race.

They submitted Mining a Sacred Mountain, a comprehensive human rights assessment report by an international team of anthropologists, which detailed violations of human rights.

According to the anthropologists, their months-long study indicated that the government has violated the lumad’s right to self-determination, right to security of the person, right to adequate housing, education and just wages for work as their sacred mountain became the site of a gold mining development by TVI Resource Development, a subsidiary of TVI Pacific, a Canadian mining company.

The TVIRD has recently announced its plan to to continue its mining expansion in the Zamboanga Peninsula for gold, silver and sulphide as it sought for a $40-million loan from BNP Paribas.

Timuay Anoy said that “government agencies, including the military and police, were accomplices in violating the right of the indigenous peoples to self-determination.”

Last resort
The CERD urgent procedures respond to problems requiring immediate attention to prevent or limit the scale or number of violations or serious violations to the Convention.

"A criterion for initiating an urgent procedure could include, for example, the presence of a serious massive or persistent pattern of racial discrimination," explained Azherwina Mosqueda, paralegal of the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC), one of the signatories of the case against the Philippine government.

The LRC is one of the support groups of the Subanen, one of the country's indigenous peoples, numbering about 330,000, and mostly inhabiting the Zamboanga peninsula.

In presenting the indigenous people’s complaint before the CERD, Anoy offered suggestions on what can be done to remedy their ordeal as a people. Among Anoy's recommendations are for the CERD to adopt some measures, including urging the Philippine government immediately to resolve the problems in Mt. Canatuan.

Mosqueda explained that bringing the Subanen case to an international forum like the CERD is the people's last recourse.

"The Subanen have pursued every avenue within the law since 1987 to gain government recognition of the rights to their ancestral domain. But even as they were given an ancestral domain title, still mining was permitted to proceed on their very lands, without prior consent, resulting in the violation of their human rights to land and resources, to culture and self-determination," Mosqueda said.

The CERD is one of the seven treaty-based bodies created under the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner. It is composed of an 18-member panel of independent experts monitoring the implementation of the ICERD by state party signatories.

Indigenous peoples from other parts of the world are also facing the onslaught of development aggression and government inaction and had presented their cases before the CERD under the early warning measures and urgent action procedures against their own governments. Aside from the Subanen, other indigenous peoples whose cases were considered by CERD at its 71st session last year are: the Maya people of Belize, Mapuches of Chile and the Mapuxi, Wapichana of Brazil.