Monson’s death ironically comes exactly one year after the killing of fellow outspoken leader Datu Dominador Diarog, the K’lata-Manobo leader of Kahusayan, Brgy. Guianga, Tugbok, Davao City who resisted the land-grabbing activities of a local evangelist.
Like Diarog, Monson led his community’s struggle against encroachments on their ancestral domain, this time against large-scale mining activities of Australian-owned Omega Gold Mining Company.
The killing of Monson and Diarog shows that Lumad leaders who fight “development aggression” in the form of large-scale mining, logging, and other expansion projects of landlords and transnational corporations, are treated with impunity by government forces.
We blame his assassination on the Arroyo government’s National Internal Security Plan on Indigenous Peoples (NISP).
The NISP-IP is a counter-insurgency doctrine directed at indigenous communities. It involves various forms of repression including hamletting, food blockades, forced recruitment to paramilitary groups, the establishment of the Integrated Tribal Defense System such as the Task Force Gantangan, and the neutralization of outspoken indigenous leaders.
Monson became the target of harassment by the military after leading a community barricade of Mandaya and Mansakas on December 2007 against drilling operations of Omega Gold. The military responded to this resistance with aerial bombardment on civilian populations in Boston and ground operations by early January of 2008 in the guise of counterinsurgency operations. Monson and his family were harassed by soldiers around that time, and he was tagged by the military as a supporter of the NPA.
Monson never retreated from these attacks on him and his community. Rather, he further exposed these during the Kalumaran Mindanao Assembly last February 2009 in Davao City.
We blame Monson’s death on the AFP’s 10th Infantry Division and on the Arroyo government for unleashing brutal campaigns against Lumad communities in Southern Mindanao, including the establishment of Investment Defense Forces (IDFs) which protect mining investments. Monson’s death is a consequence of the NISP-IP which seeks to divide and destroy the Lumads for the advancement of capitalist investments.
We are angered by the killing of Monson. However, his death will not be in vain as we are more emboldened to continue defending our ancestral domains and asserting our right to self-determination.
Justice for Leodinio Monson!
Defend ancestral domains and assert the right to self-determination!
Oppose the National Internal Security Plan Application on Indigenous Peoples Sector (NISP-IP) and the Investment Defense Force!
Signed by the Kalumaran Executive Committee
DATU MONICO CAYOG
Chairperson
(Bagobo)
NORMA CAPUYAN
Vice Chairperson
(Manobo)
JOMORITO GUAYNON
Deputy Secretary General
(Higaonon)
LORNA MORA
Treasurer
(B’laan)
KERLAN FANAGEL
Auditor
(B’laan)
GENASQUE ENRIQUEZ
Public Information Officer
(Manobo)
For reference:
DULPHING OGAN
Secretary General
(B’laan)
