‘Impunity remains king’

The Aquino administration has yet again proved it is totally helpless in stopping extrajudicial killings. This magnifies its habitual failure to solve the many other problems besetting the Filipino people. There is no respite from the misery that the derelict Aquino administration continues to inflict upon the nation.

A 41-year-old human rights defender, Marcelo Monterona, was slain in Maco, Compostela Valley, last Jan. 3. Two men, riding tandem on a motorcycle, shot him several times outside his home in Barangay Esperanza. Monterona, a survivor of Typhoon “Pablo,” was among the prominent leaders of Indog Kautawan, a group demanding decent rehabilitation and services due Pablo survivors.

Military elements are suspected to be behind his killing. Monterona was among the environment activists, peasants and lumad who demanded that Apex Mining Co. pay for the environmental destruction  it caused, which made the impact of Pablo on southern Mindanao far worse.

Lumad, peasants and their advocates find themselves faced with military gun barrels, especially when they go against the interest of large businesses, like mining. Monterona was another victim of this aberration.

Nearly a year has passed since President Aquino convened the “human rights superbody,” an ad hoc group of military, police and local government representatives tasked to probe human rights violations under the Arroyo regime. The superbody has proven itself inutile in resolving extrajudicial killings and preventing new ones.

Monterona was the third indigenous peoples’ rights defender slain during the Aquino administration. Two other indigenous peoples’ rights advocates who became victims of extrajudicial killings under the present administration were Fr. Pops Tentorio and Willem Geertman.

Thirty-seven indigenous peoples have been killed under the Aquino administration.

We are sure that we will find no justice for these victims. Under President Aquino, impunity remains king.

—PIYA MACLIING MALAYAO, spokesperson,

Kalipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (Kamp), National Alliance of Indigenous Peoples Organizations in the Philippines, [email protected]