Katribu lambasts Marcos Jr. for escalating attacks in Southern Tagalog Indigenous Communities ahead of Indigenous Peoples Day

August 8, 2025 Katribu Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas strongly condemns the intensifying state terror in the Southern Tagalog region, particularly in Mindoro, Quezon, and Rizal. Military encampments, aerial bombings, harassment, and extrajudicial killings continue to terrorize Indigenous communities, as confirmed by recent fact-finding and humanitarian missions in the area.

The real terrorists are not the people defending their rights, but the state itself that wages war on its citizens. The Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Marcos Jr administration, and all those complicit in these atrocities must be held fully accountable.

In San Jose, Occidental Mindoro, 50-year-old Maranao farmer Juan Sumilhig was arrested, tortured, and brutally killed by elements of the 4th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army. In a blatant attempt to justify this merciless killing, the 4th IBPA falsely accused Sumilhig of being a member of the New People’s Army (NPA), an allegation denied by the local community he lived with. Even the spokesperson of the National Democratic Front-Mindoro confirmed that Sumilhig was not an NPA member, as no such unit exists in the area.

A humanitarian mission led by Karapatan Timog Katagalugan found that the military withheld Sumilhig’s remains for several days, only allowing his burial on August 6. Sumilhig is now the third civilian victim of extrajudicial killing in Mindoro this year, following the killing of Hulyo Aytag and Jay-el Maligday last year. He lived for more than a decade among the Mangyan-Buhid and Mangyan-Hanunuo. 

Meanwhile, Mangyan communities in Mindoro continue to endure military harassment, which causes constant fear and disrupts their ways of life.

Dumagat community members from Tanay, Rizal, who joined the SONA 2025 protests in Manila, were harassed by soldiers of the 80th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army to prevent them from joining. This harassment is yet another example of the sustained attacks against Indigenous Peoples in Rizal.

In the Sierra Madre mountains, Dumagat communities remain steadfast in opposing the destructive Kaliwa-Kanan-Laiban dam project, which encroaches upon their ancestral lands. State violence in the area is not new: during the March 2021 “Bloody Sunday” massacre, two Dumagats, Randy and Puroy dela Cruz, were among those killed.

On August 2, 2025, in Brgy. Maguibuay, Tagkawayan, Quezon, the 16th Infantry Battalion, and the 2nd Infantry Division of the Armed Forces of the Philippines conducted aerial strafing and bombings, terrifying farmers with deafening explosions. This is not an isolated incident. Last year, the same barangay was bombed, almost killing farmers who were in the area.

These incidents happen just days before the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. This is the reality confronting Indigenous communities in Southern Tagalog. These atrocities are not isolated incidents; they form part of a systematic campaign to silence Indigenous resistance. They are blatant violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, carried out in the very month when these principles are supposed to be upheld and celebrated.

Katribu calls on all freedom-loving Filipinos and the international community to stand with the Indigenous Peoples of Southern Tagalog. Stop the attacks against Indigenous Peoples. Justice for all victims of the Marcos regime’s war on the people!

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Reference:

Beverly Longid

National Convener

Katribu Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas

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