Suspects in attack vs anti-mining tribal leader arrested

MANILA, Philippines – Two suspects in the ambush of the Subanen tribe chieftain that led to the death of his 12-year old son in Zamboanga del Sur have been arrested, the authorities reported.

The suspects, identified as Coloy Entag and Marlon Luao, were arrested at 8:20 am on Friday, August 7, by members of the Bayog police and the 53rd Infantry Battalion, according to Capt Alberto Caber, spokesman of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division.

Entag and Luao are both residents of Barangay Conacon, Bayog town, where the attack against Timuay Locencio Manda and his son, Jordan Manda, took place at 7:20 am on September 4.

Authorities filed murder and frustrated murder charges against the suspects, Caber said.

Caber revealed that a home-made shotgun and a caliber .45 pistol were seized from the suspects.

Claimant of ancestral domain claim

Timuay Manda was the leader of his tribe’s efforts to protect their ancestral domain from mining and logging operations.

He is one of the head claimants of the Subanen Indigenous Community Ancestral Domain in Bayog, Zamboanga del Sur.

The ancestral domain of the Subanens in Bayog has 8 mining permit applications, 3 approved Mineral Production Sharing Agreements (MPSA), one approved Exploration Permit, and numerous illegal small-scale mining operations

Timuay Manda’s cousin, Timuay Giovanni Umbang, was also assassinated in 2002, indigenous peoples groups said.

The two indigenous leaders have actively opposed extractive industries in their area and blocked efforts of mining and logging companies to secure the tribe’s free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) to various mining and logging companies, according to Beverly Longid, president of the indigenous partlylist group Katribu.

Together with Catholic bishops and concerned groups, Manda also led the filing of the Writ of Kalikasan to protect the Pinukis Forest Range, one of the remaining forest frontiers in the Peninsula that is covered by various mining applications. — Rappler.com