HUMAN RIGHTS | Bayan Muna wants deep probe on arrest of Lumad leader in North Cotabato

March 28, 2022 , 09:48 AM

By Beatrice Puente

(March 28, 2022) – Lawmakers sought an investigation into the arrest of a Lumad council leader in North Cotabato who was accused of attempted murder, rebellion, and drug use, with advocacy groups describing them as merely fabricated charges.

Bayan Muna urged the committee on human rights at the House of Representatives to look into the arrest of Edwin Oribawan Sr. who was taken into police custody last March 18. Citing reports, the party-list said local authorities “planted bullets in his residence to justify the arrest.”

“The arrest of Oribawan is one among numerous unlawful arrests against indigenous leaders,” said Bayan Muna, which is part of the Makabayan bloc, in a resolution. “Leaders of indigenous communities who are active in forwarding the defense of ancestral lands and the right to self-determination are among the targets of state-sponsored harassment.”

In 2017, reports said Oribawan was also implicated in an ambush in Sitio Gambodes but sectoral groups said the allegation was false.

Oribawan, an officer of the Tinananon Kulamanon Lumadnon Panaghiusa, was one of the individuals who helped establish the Mindanao Interfaith School Foundation, Inc. (MISFI) in Arakan, North Cotabato. MISFI is a Lumad school that strives to make education more accessible to indigenous communities.

Bayan Muna pointed out that the attacks against members of the Parent Teachers Community Association of MISFI are not new, citing the cases of Beverly Geronimo and Esteban Empong who were gunned down in separate instances in 2018.

Save Our Schools Network called for an end to the hostilities against the members of indigenous communities, urging the people to “unite with the Lumad in the fight to defend their ancestral lands.”

“SOS Network vehemently condemns the illegal arrest of Oribawan. We also urge everyone to stand with us in condemning the intensified attacks on Lumad schools and communities,” said the group in a statement.

Just last February, Lumad teacher Chad Booc and four others were killed by soldiers in what the military alleged as an encounter but groups described as a massacre in Davao de Oro.

So far, the government has arrested at least 36 indigenous political prisoners, including 28 Lumad, according to advocacy group Sandugo. Lumad schools, which President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to bomb in 2017, have also suffered continued attacks, forcing some 215 of them to close down.

Bayan Muna, which consists of Rep. Carlos Zarate, Rep. Eufemia Cullamat, and Rep. Ferdinand Gaite, said their colleagues at the House of Representatives should step up to identify the legality of Oribawan’s arrest, noting that the planting of evidence has been a familiar move.

“Indigenous people’s resistance against the entry of business interest in resource-rich ancestral lands has often been met with force by the state,” said Bayan Muna. “The unabated harassment, killings, and unlawful arrests against the Lumad to silence and stifle the assertion of their rights are highly condemnable.”

(PM)

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