Justice sought for 9 slain in Panay raids. Inquirer Newsletter. January 1, 2021

No images? Click here   May the New Year bring us huge doses of faith, hope and courage!  —Photo by Richard A. Reyes     World Sinopharm first to get China's nod BEIJING—A vaccine developed by an affiliate of state-backed pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm is the first injection against the new coronavirus approved by China. The approval is “regulatory,” a conditional green light that the government gives to vaccines deemed urgently needed to cope with major public health emergencies even though complete clinical trials have yet to be completed. —STORY BY REUTERS Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net/World   News Senate to probe PSG vaccinations The commander of the Presidential Security Group (PSG) will be summoned to a Senate investigation to explain the inoculation of his troops with an unregistered vaccine for COVID-19 from China. Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon says Brig. Gen. Jesus Durante III must shed light on the “who” and “how”—who gave the vaccine to the PSG and how it was brought into the country—which remain a mystery. —STORY BY MELVIN GASCON Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net   Newsletter / Join us Has this been forwarded by a friend? Subscribe now to the Philippine Daily Inquirer Newsletter and get your latest news and important updates on COVID-19 and the enhanced community quarantine. Subscribe   Subscribe     Banner story Justice sought for 9 slain in Panay raids By Krixia Subingsubing, Nestor Corrales and Nestor P. Burgos Jr. Members of progressive groups on Thursday condemned the Rizal Day killings of nine members of an indigenous community that is opposed to a dam project on Panay Island and demanded justice for the victims of what they called a “massacre.” The Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives said it would seek a congressional investigation of the predawn raids on Dec. 30 by police and soldiers that led to the deaths of several leaders and members of the Tumandok, the largest ethnic group in the hinterlands of Panay. “The year-end spate of killings in Panay is a chilling conclusion of a year marred by bloody attacks on rights defenders and ordinary citizens amid the pandemic,” said Rep. Arlene Brosas of Gabriela Women party list. “These butchers in uniform have long been terrorizing communities since time immemorial. Now, under a bloodthirsty Commander in Chief, they have ramped up their efforts to silence the growing number of Filipinos calling for justice and opposing development aggression,” Brosas said. She said the Gabriela Women’s Party and her colleagues in the Makabayan bloc would file a resolution to investigate the police and military operation. The nine people were killed in separate raids in seven hinterland villages in Tapaz town, Capiz province, on Wednesday. One of them was Roy Giganto, chair of Tumanduk nga Mangunguma nga Nagapangapin sang Duta kag Kabuhi (Tumanduk), a former village chief and an incumbent village councilor of Barangay Lahug. Tumanduk is an alliance of 17 indigenous communities in Tapaz and Jamindan towns in Capiz and Calinog in Iloilo. It is a member of Sandugo, an alliance of indigenous peoples organizations under Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan). NPA rebels? The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National Police said those killed were New People’s Army (NPA) rebels who fought back when the officers served search warrants and found firearms, ammunition and explosives in their houses. Police said 16 other villagers in Tapaz and neighboring Calinog were arrested. Lahug village chief Jobelyn Giganto, Roy’s sister-in-law and neighbor, said policemen barged into his house around 4 a.m. and “dragged his wife out [of the house] and shot him.” “We are not armed and how can they say he fought back when all of us were asleep when they came,” Jobelyn told the Inquirer by phone on Thursday. Another villager who was killed, Eliseo Gayas Jr. of Barangay Aglinab, was reportedly “tortured to the point of vomiting blood prior to his death,” according to Angelo Suarez, coconvener and spokesperson for Sama-samang Artista para sa Kilusang Agraryo. Also killed in Lahug were Mario Aguirre and Reynaldo Katipunan. The other fatalities were Garson Catamin and Rolando Diaz of Nayawan village, Maurito Diaz of Tacayan, Artilito Katipunan of Acuña and Jomar Vidal of Daan-Sur. Fear on New Year’s Eve Jobelyn said villagers were afraid to sleep in their own homes and planned to spend New Year’s Eve at the barangay day care center after most of their community and tribe leaders were killed. “We fear that something will happen again while we are sleeping,” Jobelyn said. “I have been telling the people here that despite what happened, we should continue to unite and face our situation together,” she said. According to Danilo Ramos, chair of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, the Tumanduk leaders were fighting against the construction of the multibillion-peso Jalaur megadam in Calinog, Iloilo province, which would submerge their homes and farmlands in their ancestral land. Some of them were also previously harassed and put under surveillance by the military, and most were accused of being rebels, Ramos said. A month before the raids, the Tumanduk leaders were told by the military to sign up as NPA surrenderers, said Defend Negros spokesperson Ariel Casilao. When they refused, he said, they were warned that they could be charged under the new antiterrorism law. ‘Killed Negros-style’ “True enough, they were killed Negros-style,” he added, referring to the brutal massacre of farmers in Negros Oriental in 2018 and 2019. ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro condemned the killing of indigenous peoples who were just protecting their ancestral lands “from destructive projects that do more harm than good for the Filipino people.” “The Tumandok indigenous community has been vocal in resisting the construction of the Jalaur Mega Dam in Calinog, Iloilo. Because of their resistance and voices of dissent, they have been victims of Red-tagging and now EJKs (extrajudicial killings) and arrests on trumped-up charges,” Castro said. “The Tumandok massacre proves further how Red-tagging kills and how the Duterte administration is determined to silence all voices of dissent,” she said. The National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) said the Rizal Day killings showed that the Duterte administration “does not choose any time to sow terror” in rural communities. “Innocent civilians and indigenous peoples continue to suffer due to the culture of impunity that remains even as the year is about to end,” the group said. Dam opponents The activist science group Agham, which helped conduct an environmental investigation of the dam project, demanded justice for the Tumandok and the punishment of state forces for their “heinous crimes.” The Jalaur River Multipurpose Project Phase II (JRMPP), locally called the Jalaur Dam, was designed to produce hydropower and supply water for irrigation in the province of Iloilo. Agham said that in partnership with the Jalaur River for the People Movement, it found that the project proponent “failed to establish a detailed geological mapping and subsurface investigations that are crucial in determining the potential natural hazards that will affect the dam, particularly with regards to the stability of the structure and its foundation.” It said that geologic hazards, such as earthquakes posed dangers to the dam, which may lead to massive flooding. Agham said there also was no “free and prior informed consent” from the tribe, which is required by law for such projects in ancestral lands. “Also, risks and possible negative impacts were still not addressed and were not communicated to the stakeholders. These key findings have validated the fears and concerns of the Tumandok people who are valiantly fighting for the protection of the people and the environment,” Agham said. —WITH A REPORT FROM AND MEG ADONIS Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net   Editorial Valiantly hopeful Call it projection, a fervent prayer, natural optimism, maybe even wishful thinking, but 91 percent of Filipinos told a recent survey that they would face the new year with hope despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.  The Pulse Asia survey was conducted Nov. 23 to Dec. 2 among 2,400 representative respondents aged 18 and above. For most people who can’t wait for 2020 to be over, looking decidedly ahead is a survival mechanism preferable to looking back on a year filled with mortal dread over an unforgiving virus that has since wreaked havoc on people’s lives and livelihoods. But hope, to be empowering, must at the very least be shared with others for whom it is considered unattainable luxury.  For 2021 to be a year of hope, the technological advantages, the scientific breakthroughs, the possible cure for the virus, the plain capability of those in power to mobilize relief and resources, must be shared unstintingly—not just to deepen our humanity, but more practically, to promote mass immunity, protect everyone, and save communities and society. The unrestrained habit, in this country at least, among government officials to arrogate special treatment to themselves, from jumping the testing line during the first months of the crisis and now to inoculating themselves in secret ahead of everyone else, is a betrayal of the solidarity and collective sacrifice that must be forged if the country is to win decisively against the pandemic. The powers-that-be that declared 'We heal as one' must understand: If that promise ends up as yet another lie, all the valiant hope and optimism that Filipinos are bringing to the fight despite everything would be for naught, and 2021 would unreel for the country as if it had learned nothing from the accursed year just past. Read full story: opinion.inquirer.net     Copyright © 2020 PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: P.O. Box 2353, Makati Central Post Office, 1263 Makati City, Philippines.   Share    Tweet    Share    Forward  Preferences  |  Unsubscribe