CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Oct. 3, 2012) – A leader of a Higaonon indigenous tribe, who was fighting for their ancestral rights, had been killed in an attack Wednesday in the southern province of Misamis Oriental.
Gilbert Paborada, also the chairman of the organization called Pangalasag, was brutally killed inside a house that has become his sanctuary for months now, according to the Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights.
The group cited the news of Paborada’s death on a report by the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines in Northern Mindanao (RMP-NMR). It said Paborada was a human rights defender at-risk.
An initial report by Jonah Jumagbas, of the RMP-NMR, who rushed to the area, said Paborada’s body was peppered with bullets.
Paborada, who had been previously threatened by gunmen, was also a member of Kalumbay, a sub-regional alliance on indigenous people in Northern Mindanao.
His group, Pangalasag, which literally means “indigenous shield,” has been at the forefront in the fight against land grabbing and expansion of palm oil plantations in the town of Opol.
No individual or group claimed responsibility for the attack and the motive of the gruesome murder is still unknown, but extrajudicial killings is not not uncommon in the Philippines where dozens of tribal leaders and activists had been silenced over the years.(Mindanao Examiner)
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