Cordillera peoples speak up, seek international support

Cordillera peoples speak up, seek international support

Cynthia Dacanay, Springwater Hester-Meawassige, Audrey Beltran and Nelson Salvador

By Artemio Borba

TORONTO – The people remain steadfast, says Audrey Beltran, Cordillera human rights advocate. Lacub, a hinterland town in the mountainous province of Abra, has been the site of “atrocious war crimes” by the government, including the death of Recca Noelle Monte and six other members of the New People’s Army as well as two civilians in the military operations last year.

Nelson Salvador, 52, was among the three delegates speaking to the Filipino-Canadian communities across the country to decry the terror killings and other human rights violations committed by the Philippine military under the present Benigno Aquino III administration. Salvador, together with Beltran and Dr. Cynthia Jaramillo, is seeking international support for the campaign to seek justice for Lacub residents.

“I’m part of this tour because of my wife,” said Salvador, an engineer by profession who turned into development work and advocacy. Pausing at times when he recounted how his wife was tortured before, he shared that it is the reality of the social conditions in the country.

Cynthia Dacanay (Photo: Jen Owatan)

Beltran reported that there are about 200 cases of extrajudicial killings (EJK) under the current president Benigno Simeon Aquino III in the past five years. That’s more than the EJK cases under the previous Gloria Macapagal Arroyo administration.

“But the people are resisting,” said Cynthia Dacanay, whose husband Arnold Jaramillo was one of the New People’s Army (NPA) fighters killed. She pointed that Armand was regarded by the people whom he served and did not deserve the monstrous violence he suffered until his untimely death. He was not given what was due to him as a prisoner of war, she said.

Dacanay’s position was clear: “For the violations committed in the conduct of war by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, they must be made accountable for their crime.”

Springwater Hester-Meawassige, who’s with the Serpent River First Nation but has been residing in Toronto, has been watching how the Cordillera peoples suffer from state oppression since coming back from a learning tour in the Cordillera region in 2014.

National Aboriginal day in Canada is celebrated on June 21 and that’s the reason why it’s significant to have this solidarity relations of First Nations and indigenous peoples in the Philippines.

“We’ve been screaming on top of our lungs–the residential schools, the murdered and missing women and the lack of water and insulation in the Arctic North,” said Hester-Meawassige. ” Reconciliation will not happen if these governments are fighting us.”

The possibilities of strengthening the people-to-people relations is not so distant, said Ricky Esguerra of the Philippine Solidarity Network. “We call for the Canadian government to stop foreign aid until the Philippine regime upholds human rights.”

Ricky Esguerra

Added Salvador: “The immigrant Filipino people are a political force. We are calling on all peace-loving peoples to take part in our struggle so that we can give peace a chance.”

The cases put forward by the speakers are among the dozens of other cases under the Aquino regime to be prosecuted during the International People’s Tribunal (IPT). The tribunal, initiated by non-government organizations, human rights groups and solidarity groups in the Philippines, Canada and elsewhere, is aimed to hold the government to account for formulating and executing policies against the Filipino people.

Esguerra and others behind the sharing session are asking more people to contact them about participating in the IPT and gaining the widest support for the Canada delegates to Washington, DC from July 16-18 2015.

For more info: http://internationalpeoplestribunal.org/