Solidarity Statement on Tumandok Day 2025

Katribu Kalipunan ng Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas extends its warmest greetings of solidarity to the Tumandok people as they commemorate December 30 as Tumandok Day, a collective declaration forged from struggle, memory, and resistance.

This year’s commemoration boldly affirms that Tumandok Day is not only an act of remembrance but a conscious declaration of the Tumandok people’s continuing struggle for land, life, and self-determination. It is a collective assertion to overcome fear brought about by militarization, red-tagging, and sustained attacks against Indigenous communities. In the face of repression, Tumandok Day stands as a political statement: that the people refuse to be silenced, intimidated, or driven away from their ancestral lands.

We remember that December 30, 2020, marked one of the darkest days in the recent history of the Indigenous Peoples of Panay. On that day, a joint operation of the Philippine National Police, the Philippine Army, and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) was conducted in Tumandok communities across Panay Island. This operation resulted in the killing of nine Tumandok leaders and the arrest of sixteen others. Those who were killed were respected leaders in their respective villages—farmers, organizers, and defenders of their ancestral land. They were civilians. They were unarmed. They were not combatants, but victims of a brutal campaign of state violence and repression.

In reclaiming December 30 as Tumandok Day, the Tumandok people have transformed a day of massacre and mourning into a day of remembrance, resistance, and collective strength. This act echoes the Cordillera people’s reclamation of the death anniversary of Macliing Dulag, which has become a powerful day of militancy and commemoration of Indigenous resistance against the Marcos dictatorship. It also resonates with the assertion of December 8, the death anniversary of Dumagat leader Nicanor “Ka Kano” Delos Santos, now observed as Indigenous Peoples and Moro Human Rights Day—honoring the sacrifices of national minorities and their continuing struggle for rights and justice. These acts of reclamation embody political courage and historical assertion: a refusal to allow state terror to erase memory, silence dissent, or break the spirit of resistance.

The declaration of Tumandok Day stands as a living symbol of continuing resistance amid persistent fascism, militarization, and red-tagging in Indigenous territories. It affirms that despite killings, arrests, and relentless attacks, Indigenous Peoples continue to stand their ground, defend their ancestral lands, and assert their right to self-determination. The Tumandok people remind us of the meaning of revolutionary optimism—not the absence of oppression, but the people’s unwavering resolve to resist it. From grief grows collective courage, and from sacrifice emerges a deeper commitment to struggle. Tumandok Day is not only a commemoration of lives lost—it is a declaration that the fight for land, life, and dignity continues.

We stand in firm solidarity with the Tumandok people in their call for justice for the victims of the December 30 massacre, an end to militarization in Indigenous communities, and the defense of ancestral lands against destructive projects such as the Jalaur Dams. Let us continue to defend the rights of Indigenous Peoples, strengthen collective resistance, and reclaim our narratives through struggle.

Reference:

Beverly Longid

National Convener, Katribu