11 April 2023, 15.00hrs (Geneva Time)/21.00hrs (PST), via Zoom

To the Committee Members of the Treaty Body and colleagues from NHRIs from the Russian Federation, Niger, Argentina, Portugal, and Tajikistan.

Assalamualaikum and good evening from Manila, and good afternoon in Geneva. I am Commissioner Faydah Maniri Dumarpa, focal commissioner for the sector of indigenous peoples and cultural communities and head of the NHRI delegation of the Philippines.

On behalf of the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (CHRP), I would like to express our sincere gratitude for giving us the opportunity to engage and share information concerning the Philippines’ compliance with its obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) during this 109th session of the Committee.

The Commission recognizes with much appreciation that tangible progress has been achieved and acknowledges the efforts undertaken by the Philippine government over the past years, especially amid the pandemic. However, there are still perennial concerns that have been documented by and reported to the Commission. While laws, policies, and programs are in place, – indigenous peoples and cultural communities still experience challenges in fully enjoying their civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights.

As such, the Commission would like to stress the following key issues relevant to the promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples and cultural communities:

(1) On the statistics on the ethnic composition of the population and statistics on the enjoyment of economic, social, and cultural rights, disaggregated by ethnic and national origin, and information on data collection.

The Commission, in its 2017 National Inquiry on the Human Rights Situation of Indigenous Peoples (IPs) in the Philippines Report, found that “[t]he state is deficient in gathering and dis-aggregating data on indigenous women, indigenous youth, and children, internally displaced indigenous peoples (IPs) and indigenous elderly to render them specific recipients of government assistance and expenditures. Their invisibility in the national statistics and the inadequacy of information about them limit the basis of the government and other duty bearers for planning and programming to address their issues and concerns appropriately.

There is likewise insufficient monitoring of indigenous peoples’ right to access basic services as well as their collective rights to ancestral domain development. It is always a good policy to have a monitoring mechanism with solid, measurable indicators to build on gains or correct errors and to ensure that indigenous peoples and cultural communities are not denied equal opportunity to avail of government services due to discrimination. Hence, the Commission will continuously urge our concerned authorities to strengthen the system to collect data and generate statistics on indigenous peoples, including indigenous women, children, youth, and older persons, to ensure that the programs are targeted and not fragmented.

(2) On the measures taken to effectively protect civic space and to prevent persecution, harassment, red-tagging, enforced disappearance and killing of human rights defenders, and other violence against members of civil society organizations, indigenous people, human rights defenders, including those working on racial discrimination, and rights of indigenous peoples.

With the creation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) pursuant to Executive Order (E.O. No. 70), the so-called “red-tagging” of and disinformation about activists, human rights defenders, and CSOs, including members of indigenous peoples’ communities have become more systematic, resulting in increased threats, harassment, and targeted killings. Additionally, land and indigenous peoples’ rights defenders, women human rights defenders, and environmental rights defenders face particular challenges and threats in light of the passage of Republic Act No. 11479, otherwise known as the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.

The vague and overbroad definition of “terrorism” under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 provides room for ambiguity in distinguishing an act of terrorism to that from an ordinary crime, creates a chilling effect on the exercise of fundamental rights and freedoms enshrined in the 1987 Philippine Constitution and international human rights laws, carries the potential for unintended (and intended) human rights violations or abuses, and may be misused to target dissenters, critics of the government, civil society organizations, human rights defenders, journalists, minority groups, labor activists, indigenous peoples, and members of the political opposition. This may also result in an unwarranted limitation and suppression of the right to organization, free speech, and privacy, among others. As such, the Commission will continue to engage in open and meaningful dialogue with our national government and stakeholders to revisit the mandate of the NTF-ELCAC and remind the Philippine government to take active steps to ensure that such a mechanism is not improperly used to harass, threaten, or attack civil society organizations, human rights defenders, journalists, minority groups, labor activists, indigenous peoples, dissenters, and members of the political opposition.

(3) Steps taken to effectively respect the right of indigenous peoples to obtain their free, prior, and informed consent before adopting and implementing legislative or administrative measures that may affect them, in particular their lands or territories and other natural resources.

The Commission documented in its 2017 Report that State and non-State duty bearers have uniformly violated the FPIC requirement. The NCIP and all State duty bearers implementing projects or programs affecting IPs have been wanting in the enforcement of and compliance with this right. In the recent consultations conducted by the Commission, IP communities continue to raise the improper implementation of or non-compliance to the FPIC as a major issue in asserting their rights over their ancestral domains. Furthermore, testimonies during the public hearings across all regions reported the absence of FPIC for natural resource extraction businesses, government power generation projects, and tourism projects. Moreover, despite complaints filed by IPs with the NCIP, no remedies were forthcoming. Considering this, we draw NCIP’s attention on this continuous violation of the FPIC process and will urge them to uphold the rights of IPs to be informed and consulted before any development project or activity is implemented in their ancestral domains.

(4) On the situation of internally displaced persons (art. 5), measures taken to ensure internally displaced persons enjoy their rights under article 5 of the Convention, in particular, their right to security and their economic, social and cultural rights, and an update on the status of the reported modified bills concerning the rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs):

There is documented displacement of indigenous peoples, particularly of Lumads, due to heightened military presence in the communities, armed encounters between the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the New People’s Army (NPA), and alleged harassment perpetrated by paramilitary groups. Additionally, the Martial Law declared in Mindanao from 23 May 2017 to 31 December 2019 proliferated the presence of the government military in the rural areas, thus creating an environment of fear in some Lumad families who have been afraid of being caught in an armed skirmish in the event that the NPA attacks the military settlements. And due to the continued armed operations between the government troops and the communist front, the frequent encounters forced the displacement of Lumad communities, mainly affecting the Manobo and Mamanwa tribes in the areas concerned. With no resolution to the conflict in sight, Lumad displacement as a result of sustained military operations against the NPA in CARAGA Region persists.

By the end of 2019, the data gathered by the Commission showed the poor state of IDP rights in prolonged displacements. Though there were improvements, most notably in the relocation of families from evacuation sites to transitory or permanent shelters, the fact remains that durable solutions for these IDPs are still unattainable. Inadequate response and irregular political activities also mire the swift delivery of services to IDP communities. Based on the highlighted issues, the Commission will urge the Philippine Government to (1) provide sustainable livelihood programs for IDPs, especially those in protracted displacement; (2) for the security sector and the local government units to address the root causes of conflict to deter the repeat occurrence of protracted displacement in IP areas; and (3) for the national government to enact an IDP Law and other related laws concerning humanitarian response.

Finally, we respectfully request that the Committee urge the State Party regarding the status of the Commission’s Charter Bill, which is intended to strengthen our mandate to promote and protect the human rights of all persons in the Philippines as well as to enhance our organizational, functional, and fiscal structures. Nevertheless, as the independent national human rights institution (NHRI) of the Philippines, we will continue to perform our constitutional duty in line with the Paris Principles. We will keep engaging with the government and civil society, including indigenous peoples and cultural communities, to ensure that individual and collective rights are respected, protected, and fulfilled.

Thank you; Maraming salamat po.