International League of People’s Struggles (ILPS) chairperson and Communist Party of the Philippines founder, Prof. Jose Maria Sison, told the indigenous peoples to continue their struggle against the destruction of their ancestral lands.
Speaking on his video message during the opening of the 4th National Congress of the alipunan ng mga Katutubong Mamamayan ng Pilipinas (KAMP) in Quezon City on Tuesday, Sison stressed the justness of the indigenous peoples’ intensifying struggle.
Sison, who is based in the Netherlands, said “it is just for the indigenous peoples to intensify their struggle against their massive dislocation and destruction of their ancestral lands which the national government escalated in the name of what they call ‘development’.”
These projects and investments include large-scale mining, logging, dam and energy projects, plantations, real estate and tourism projects, Sison said.
Sison also discussed how the indigenous peoples have become victims of physical and economic dislocation in the creation of special economic zones encroaching on ancestral lands. He also cited the effects of the de facto return of United States bases due to the enactment of Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) entered into by the Aquino administration.
