PAGADIAN CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Sept. 4, 2012) – Unidentified gunmen ambushed a tribal leader and his son on Monday in the southern Philippine province of Zamboanga del Sur, military and an anti-mining group said.
The Alyansa Tigil Mina (ATM) said the attack killed Jordan Manda, a 12-year old son of Timuay Locenio Manda, who was also wounded in the ambush that occurred near the village of Matin-ao in Bayog town.
It said Manda, a Subanon leader, was heading to school with his son on a motorcycle when gunmen ambushed them at around 7.20 a.m. just 5 kilometers away from their house. No individual or group claimed responsibility for the ambush.
“Timuay Manda’s 12-year old son, Jordan Manda, suffered a fatal wound on his back and instantly killing him. While Timuay Manda suffered minor wounds and is now out of danger,” the ATM said in a statement sent to the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner.
The 1st Infantry Division has confirmed the attack and condemned the killing of the boy and the attempt on the life of Manda.
Maj. Gen. Ricardo Rainier Cruz III, the regional army commander, has deployed soldiers to help the local police hunt down the assailants, according to Capt. Albert Caber, an army spokesman.
“General Cruz has condemned the attack and ordered troops to help the police in tracking down the attackers. We are supporting police investigation to give justice to the murder of the boy and the attempt on the life of tribal leader Manda,” Caber told the Mindanao Examiner.
The young Manda was being groomed by his clan to be a tribal leader.
Manda is also the village chieftain of Conacon and is a leading figure in the campaign of indigenous people in claiming and protecting their ancestral domain in the past decade.
“In my effort to assert our rights and to protect our people and ancestral domain, my beloved son was sacrificed. It is very painful and I thirst for justice. I vow to continue my struggle in order not to make my son’s death in vain. I need your support in this most trying time of my life as a father and a leader,” ATM quoting Manda’s text message to the group, said.
ATM said Manda’s cousin, Timuay Giovanni Umbang, who was also fighting for their ancestral rights, was also assassinated in 2002, according to ATM, adding both leaders had questioned the entry of logging and mining firms in their ancestral domain without the so-called Free Prior and Informed Consent as required under national and international laws.
It said Manda has been receiving death threats the last three years.
The anti-mining group said at present, the ancestral domain of the Subanon’s in Bayog town has 8 mining permit applications and that 3 of them were granted Mineral Production Sharing Agreements and an exploration permit – and numerous illegal small-scale mining operations.
Just last month, Manda led a group of tribal leaders from Bayog and neighboring ancestral domains in calling for a moratorium of all forms of mining in their ancestral domains until they have been issued Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title and Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development and Protection Plan. The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples supported the move.
Manda is also leading an effort to strengthen and unify the efforts of the Subanons in Zamboanga Peninsula to protect their remaining contiguous ancestral domain. He is also actively meeting with other tribal leaders, mostly his relatives, from the towns of Sindangan, Bacungan, Siayan, Godod in Zamboanga del Norte; and Lakewood and Kumalarang towns in Zamboanga del Sur.
He, along with Catholic bishops and environmental groups, are petitioners for the Writ of Kalikasan to protect the Mount Pinukis and its forests which is among the last untouched forest region in Zamboanga Peninsula, and is now being claimed by several mining companies.
The Subanon people consider Mount Pinukis as sacred and also serve as watershed in Zamboanga peninsula. (Mindanao Examiner.With a report from Ely Dumaboc )
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