Philippines: Violations against indigenous peoples soar under Aquino administration, rights groups claim
Human rights violations against indigenous peoples in the Philippines are continuing, rights groups are warning.
According to Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP), also known as the National Alliance of Indigenous Peoples' Organisations in the Philippines, the government of President Benigno Aquino III has done little to stem violence against indigenous activists.
"In the 18-months-old Aquino administration, 13 indigenous people became victims of extrajudicial killings, while thousands of Lumad people in Mindanao were driven away from their homes," KAMP spokeswoman Piya Macliing Malayao said.
KAMP says the violence against indigenous people is the direct result of Aquino's controversial counter-insurgency programme, which have been partially aimed at protecting divisive mining developments.
Of the 13 indigenous people killed, at least four were related to mining, KAMP says. Father Fausto Tentorio, a prominent advocate for the Lumad and a critic of destructive mining practices, was shot and killed in October.
The counter-insurgency, Malayao said, "places the lives of civilians in danger by deploying armed community development teams to implement so-called development projects."
KAMP says there have been more than 160 extrajudicial killings of indigenous people over the last decade.
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