Attached is a document that was presented to the Vancouver Consular General of Government of Philippines and addressed to the President of Philippines by the Executive Kamal Gautam of Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 15. Kamal presented this document on behalf of the CUPE President.

Dear President Benigno Aquino III

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE local 15) is writing to express our urgent concerns regarding the violent attacks on Indigenous Peoples (Lumads) in Mindanao allegedly perpetrated by members of the Philippine Armed Forces and by paramilitary groups that are reportedly created and armed by the military and operating under its command. Human Rights Watch reports that "these forces are committing killings, torture, forced displacement and harassment of residents, students and educators with impunity."

 We are deeply alarmed by the systematic escalation of the campaign of attack on Lumads in recent months.

We strongly condemn the use of local paramilitary groups to sow terror among their own people resulting in mass displacement and evacuation of approximately 40,000 Lumads.

Since April of 2014, 25 Lumad schools have reportedly been forced to halt operations due to military harassment and on the orders of the Department of Education. At least 84 separate attacks on 57 schools have displaced and disrupted the education of over 3,000 Lumad children. We strongly condemn this grave violation of children’s right to education.

As Canadians, we are concerned by reports that the Philippine government is sanctioning these military operations under its counter-insurgency program, Operation Plan Bayanihan, in order to suppress the resistance of Indigenous communities and clear the way for the entry of mining and other resource extraction companies.

We are deeply troubled to learn that Canadian companies are among those having mining exploration or applications in these Lumad villages now under severe military and paramilitary attacks.

We support the rights of Lumad Peoples to struggle for social justice and self-determination within their ancestral territories, as embodied in the UN declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

We call on the Philippine government to respect the Lumads’ right to determine their own path to prosperity and to resist development plans on their land they believe will not benefit their communities.

We support the call of the indigenous peoples of Mindanao for the termination of the counter-insurgency program that justifies the systematic attacks on Indigenous Peoples.

Mr. President, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, we call you to order the immediate pull out of military troops from Lumad territories, to dismantle the paramilitary groups, to end the militarization of Lumad schools, to prosecute and convict the perpetrators of the killings as well as those in the chain of command, and to indemnify the victims of these atrocities. 

For more information on CUPE Local 15, click here.