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Killings Tearing Filipino Society Apart: UCCP

The United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) General Assembly, the highest decision-making body of the UCCP, has adopted a resolution and statement denouncing the deteriorating human-rights condition in the country.

?We are aghast that these killings are happening with such obvious connection and direction.? We must speak the truth and name them appropriately as assassinations/extra-judicial killings,? said Bishop Elmer M. Bolocon, the UCCP general secretary, in a statement.

?Many of our members strongly believe that these killings are being perpetrated by elements of the Philippine National Police and/or Armed Forces of the Philippines,? he said.

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Coffee Plantation Pushes T?bolis to the Fringe

What was once a farming village of indigenous peoples is now a vast coffee plantation that straddles six towns in three provinces. The plantation prevents the T?boli villagers from expanding their own farmland.

By Keith Bacongco

LAKE SEBU, South Cotabato — Nestled on top of the rugged mountains of Daguma Mountain Range, sitio Datal Bonlangon of barangay Ned in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato, is a home to T?boli villagers who have been robbed of their rights to their ancestral land and deprived of livelihood.

What was once a farming village of indigenous peoples is now a vast coffee plantation that straddles six towns in three provinces. The plantation prevents the T?boli villagers from expanding their own farmland.

In 1991, the Department of Environment Natural Resources (DENR) issued an Industrial Tree Plantation License Agreement (ITPLA) to Silvicultural Industries Inc. (SII) but a year later it was converted into Industrial Forest Plantation Management Agreement (IFMA). The agreement, which will expire on December 2016, covers 11,862 hectares.

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