The Philippine Task Force for Indigenous Peoples’ Rights (TFIP) condemned the killing of a member of the Pulangihon Manobo tribe in Quezon, Bukidnon, after the guards of a ranch shot him and injured two of his companions.
Tata Baito, a member of the Tribal Indigenous Oppressed Group Association (Tindoga), was killed after the security forces of landowner Pablo “Poling” Lorenzo shot them on March 24 in Quezon, Bukidnon. Others severely wounded were Japsem Bagna and Ricky Tumbaga.
The victims were on their way to a communal farming, which they established to assert their claim on the land in Montalvan Ranch.
Tyrone Beyer, policy advocacy officer of TFIP, said Lorenzo and his security group “reacted violently and excessively to the indigenous peoples who are merely fulfilling the most important requirement for the ownership of their ancestral land by working on it and enriching it.”
“The shooting and killing of Tindoga members and indigenous peoples asserting their rights to ancestral land is despicable. The perpetrators of this act must be punished and prevented from causing chaos in indigenous communities again,” he said.
