Liyang Network is a local to global advocacy network that amplifies the calls to action of frontline environmental and human rights defenders in Mindanao, which was started at the request of Sabokahan Unity of Lumad Women. Sabokahan is an intergenerational, intertribal grassroots organization for and by Lumad Indigenous women and LGBTQ people. 

Across the Pacific Ocean, just South of the eastern coast of China, lies the archipelagic country of the Philippines. Just under a thousand miles north of the equator, the tropical nation is mostly known in the US as its source for coconuts, or for nurses; or as a destination where tourists can enjoy its sunny beaches and exotic fruits. However, what few know about the Philippines is that this archipelago, with a total landmass a little under the size of Arizona, is home to an untold wealth of natural resources, landscapes, and invaluable biodiversity; and that its lush forests and verdant mountains may hold a key to our global efforts to preserve the environment and combat climate change. Specifically–the island of Mindanao. (Photo caption: Lumad farming community in Andap Valley, Mindanao. It maintains its beauty thanks to the community’s long-standing resistance to the encroachment of gold mining on its lands.)

Mindanao is the southernmost region of the Philippines, and its second-largest island. It contains an ecoregion of old growth rainforest called Pantaron Mountain Range, known as a backbone of biodiversity, not only of the island but of the entire archipelago. More than 30% of its native species are endemic to the area, including tree shrews, lizards, moonrats, and various bird species like the iconic Philippine Eagle. Starting in the 20th century, people have flocked to Mindanao from far and wide to settle in the “land of promise”, a nickname that the island retains even to this day thanks to its vast natural riches. In the decades since, it’s gained a few more monikers: “breadbasket of the Philippines” because of the fertility of the soil that nurtures the food of the entire country; “mining capital of Asia” because of the mineral richness that can be found underground.

What’s Mindanao’s secret? How has it been able to preserve its beauty and vitality for so long, even in the face of multiple colonial powers who have set their hungry eyes on the island’s wealth?

The secret lies in the people who have made their homes there. The Indigenous people of Mindanao have resisted the destruction of their land throughout successive waves of colonization–first by the Spanish, then by the United States. Mindanao’s native peoples were able to maintain stewardship of their ancestral land for centuries, while other regions of the archipelago were systematically plundered. It’s thanks to the sustained land defense of the Indigenous people of Mindanao, collectively known as the Lumad, that the destruction of Mindanao has historically been kept at bay.

HISTORIC UNITY AND VICTORY AGAINST THE LOGGERS

Most famous is the story of successful Lumad resistance to the logging company Alcantara and Sons in the 1990s. Alsons, as they are known, began logging on the ancestral domain of the Manobo, a Lumad tribe whose home is the Pantaron Mountain Range. Despite numerous warnings from the Lumad people there to stop, Alsons continued cutting down huge swaths of forest. Until, united by chief Bai Bibyaon Ligkayan Bigkay, the tribes of the Pantaron came together in defense of their ancestral land.

Bai Bibyaon is the first woman chieftain of her tribe, defying the customs that would have girls married off as early as fourteen to become a community leader. She unified her people and other tribes in the region to successfully wage tribal warfare against Alcantara and Sons, and through this war, they were able to stop the encroachment of the logging company on their ancestral lands, the rainforests of the Pantaron in the heart of Mindanao.

For her leadership, Bai Bibyaon Ligkayan Bigkay has attained a sort of celebrity status in the Philippines especially in socially- and environmentally-conscious circles. Today, she continues to assert that her people’s “identity is directly connected to Pantaron [Mountain Range] and how Pantaron itself cannot survive without our continued struggle” (from Sabokahan’s self-published book We Call Her Ina Bai).

THREATS TO THE LAND AND PEOPLE, IN THE THIRD DEADLIEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENDERS

Despite the success in kicking out the loggers in the 90s, today logging and mining corporations, palm oil investors, and the monocrop plantation industry all have once again set their targets on the resources in Mindanao, threatening to place the health of the ecosystems on the island and in the whole region in jeopardy.

Open-pit mining is an especially pressing threat. The practice decimates forests, causes extreme erosion, landslides, and water siltation, and leeches processing chemicals into water systems and soil. After years of Lumad resistance to mining projects, a ban was finally placed on granting licenses for new open-pit mining projects about 10 years ago. However, in 2021 under the guise of economic stimulation, President Duterte’s government declared Executive Order 130 which lifted this nearly decade-long ban on the creation of new mines, allowing new mines to seek permits to start operations.

The danger of these extractive corporations’ interests in Mindanao is not only related to environmental degradation or the hazardous labor conditions, but also to the forms of militarization that accompany them. President Duterte is infamous for his War on Drugs, which every year kills thousands of usually poor people living in cities. The lesser-known but no-less-violent flipside to this “war”, is the extreme militarization in the countryside. Currently, over 75% of the Philippine military is stationed in Mindanao. Bolstered by hundreds of millions of dollars of military “aid” from the US every year, these tens of thousands of troops come equipped with machine guns, heavy artillery, and military drones.  

Lumad communities often talk about how they know a corporation has set its sights on their land when they see the military start to enter their community. Their presence means incessant surveillance and harassment of community members and even threats or killings of key leaders who are active in resisting the theft of their land. Last year, the military massacred 3 Lumad farmers, including a 12-year-old girl, while they were tending to their crops, in a mineral-rich area in northern Mindanao. All three had been active in their communities’ defense of land from mining corporations. This was only the latest in a long string of violence and brutality waged on the land defenders of Mindanao; as one of the top 3 most dangerous countries in the world for environmental defenders, the Philippines and Mindanao specifically has been the location for countless human rights abuses against Lumad community leaders, teachers, and children alike. (Photo Caption: Intergenerational members of Sabokahan Unity of Lumad Women at an evacuation center, holding signs in protest of the targeting of environmental defenders.)

The attempts to destroy resistance became even more abundantly clear last month, in another bloody page in the history of the Lumad struggle. On February 23, 2022, five activists were abducted, brutally tortured and killed at a military checkpoint in New Bataan, in the eastern region of Mindanao. They were two volunteer teachers for Lumad schools, Chad Booc and Jurain Ngujo, as well as Elegyn Balonga, a community health worker who had served Lumad communities in evacuation for free, and their two drivers Robert Aragon and Tirso Añar. Chad and Jurain had faced relentless persecution and threats from the government for years, until finally the military made good on their promises this last February.

The New Bataan 5, as they’ve come to be known, were targeted because of the far-reaching impact of their service to support the Lumad struggle for self-determination. Despite not being Lumad, they dedicated themselves to supporting the Lumad cause. They, like many other advocates in the country and around the world, understood that the fight for self-determination against profit-hungry corporations in Mindanao benefits all people fighting against the destruction of land worldwide.

WEAVING SOLIDARITY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE AND RESILIENCY

Lumad communities have responded to these attacks by taking the battle to the government’s own doorstep. A few years back, they evacuated en masse to urban centers like Davao City and Manila, not only to flee the dangers posed by the military, but also to bring awareness of their situation to a broader audience, and make alliances who would support them in their cause. This is where the second key to Lumad efforts of environmental defense and conservation come in: solidarity.

Through their presence in the cities, the Lumad forged bonds of solidarity with groups and individuals who learned of their plight and wanted to support. They re-established Sabokahan, an organization founded in 2005 by Bai Bibyaon Ligkayan Bigkay to bring together Lumad women to be leaders in their communities. Today, Sabokahan is a thriving intertribal and intergenerational organization, that focuses on strengthening Lumad women’s role in the defense of their ancestral lands by confronting external threats like militarization, as well as internal challenges like patriarchal practices in their communities.

Last year, Sabokahan accomplished a major milestone in their struggle: they self-published a book about their intergenerational fight for their land, told from the perspective of Bai Bibyaon Ligkayan Bigkay and her grandniece Sharmaine Dausay. Taken from real interviews between the two activists, We Call Her Ina Bai: How Strong Women Are Made chronicles the stories of defense against the logging corporation in the 90s, and how that legacy continues through the activism of young Lumad women today.

A few decades back, few people in Mindanao, much less in the Philippines or around the world, knew anything about the Lumad. Today, thanks to Lumad communities and Sabokahan’s advocacy, there is a thriving web of people around the world staying updated and lending support to their struggle–which is how these stories reached even the Sierra Club now! Many of us mobilize through Liyang Network, an international advocacy network formed in response to Sabokahan’s calls. I personally became inspired to support the Lumad cause after an on-campus teach-in in 2019, where I was struck by how interconnected struggles for environmental protection are, from California to the Philippines. Since then, the character of this struggle for land and life has made itself clear to me: it is vigorous, sustained, multigenerational and invaluable to the future of our planet. 

While being an example for all global movements of environmental protection, the Lumad struggle also benefits all people on earth who face mounting climate change and destruction. Here in the US, we are in a unique position to speak about these stories without facing the same threats as those who have given their life for this cause in the Philippines. How can we continue mobilizing people to support frontline communities? Killed at only 26 years old, Chad Booc’s words echo across mountains and rivers:

“Seeing the Lumad people continue to fight back, and continue to struggle, despite all the life-threatening experiences they underwent… It also gives me hope and optimism that there is freedom, that there is victory awaiting ahead of us. It gives us a lot of moral support to see that there are a lot of people [around the world] fighting with us.”

(Photo caption: Slain advocate and Lumad school teacher Chad Booc with one of his students, at her graduation from ALCADEV, a Lumad school in northern Mindanao that taught generations of Lumad youth sustainable farming practices and tools to aid in their defense of land.)

Let’s give thanks to all frontline environmental defenders, and continue to be in solidarity with the Lumad.

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP RIGHT NOW?

• Sign the petition for an immediate investigation into the New Bataan 5 massacre: tinyurl.com/NewBataan5Petition 
• Donate to the New Bataan 5 Memorial Fund: fundly.com/memorial-for-new-bataan-5
• Buy a copy of Sabokahan’s book “We Call Her Ina Bai: How Strong Women Are Made”: https://www.facebook.com/InaBaiBook/

To connect with Liyang’s committee in Northern California, email us at liyang.network@gmail.com

Thank you!