statement

For several years now, the Indigenous peoples and surrounding communities of Bugsuk in Southern Palawan have been at the forefront of combating luxury tourism projects by the San Miguel Corporation (SMC). In the latest episode, the people of Marihangin, Bugsuk, Palawan have been resisting the latest attack on their land that has been ongoing for several weeks now. SMC has repeatedly hired armed goons from the Jewelmer Corporation and JMV Security Services to invade and pillage land in sitio Marihangin for their nefarious project. SMC is aided and abetted by the Philippine National Police (PNP), the courts, and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in a holy alliance to steal the ancestral domains of the Molbog, Palaw’an, and Cagayanen peoples of Bugsuk. To this end, the State incarcerated and charged the Marihangin 10, leaders in the Marihangin community, on charges of “grave coercion” for defending their lands from the goons of former NCIP executive Caesar Ortega and the SMC’s own Ramon S. Ang.

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Ang pag-aresto kay Dr. Walden Bello ay patunay na ang libel, sistema ng pagpiyansa, at pre-trial detention (ang pangungulong habang hindi pa nadidinig ang kaso sa korte) ay mga sandata ng panunupil ng estado. Mariin naming kinukundena ang kawalang-katarungang ito at nakikiisa kami sa panawagang #HandsOffWaldenBello!

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