Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Malaybalay City (Agenzia Fides) - Jimmy Liguyon was a 37 year-old indigenous leader, village chief of San Fernando, in the province of Bukidnon on the island of Mindanao (southern Philippines). Jimmy was killed cold bloodedly by gunfire by Salusad Aldy, a member of a paramilitary group operating in the area, funded and led by the Philippine Army Battalion earmarked in Bukidnon. The murder took place on March 5, but because of secrecy, threats, attempts to pass over in silence what had happened, only now the news has risen to the headlines. As reported to Fides by the Philippine NGO "Karapatan" ("Alliance for Progress of Peoples"), for a week civil society in Mindanao complains loudly the loss of another leader who courageously opposed the indiscriminate exploitation of territory with new mining projects, which would have destroyed the lives of indigenous tribes. Jimmy Liguyon’s family, and civil society in Mindanao, call for justice and for an end to impunity, recalling another martyr for the rights of indigenous peoples: Fr. Fausto Tentorio killed in October 2011 in Kidapawan.
Currently 19 families of indigenous people who have lost homes, land and livelihoods because of the mines, are occupying, as a sign of protest, the square in front of the Palace of the provincial Government in Malaybalay City, the capital of the province of Bukidnon.
According to information sent to Fides by "Karapatan", a paramilitary group had visited Jimmy and his two brothers, Emelio and Arser, while they were at Jimmy’s house. After a short dialogue, the military asked them to follow them, and out of the house, one of them suddenly shot Jimmy to the chest, killing him instantly. According to local sources, he seems to have been killed for his refusal to ratify the agreement that a local association, the "San Fernando Tribal Datus Association," had made with the mining companies. The association is formed by a group of indigenous who acquired securities owned by the government ("ancestral domain") of large tracts of land in San Fernando, then leasing those rights to large mining companies for mining projects. Jimmy, strongly opposing the entry of large mining companies in his village, was opposed to such agreements. Jimmy had been repeatedly threatened. He leaves a wife and 5 children.
"Karapatan" calls for the arrest of the guilty and protection for the Jimmy’s family, launching the alarm on forced evacuation of hundreds of peasants and indigenous people in Mindanao because of intense military operations in their ancestral lands. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 09/05/2012)
