GUN ATTACK. Medical personnel of the Cotabato Regional Medical Center try to revive Jocelyn Palao, a Teduray leader and officer of the Ministry of the Indigenous Peoples Affairs in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, after she was shot in Barangay Rosario Heights XI, Cotabato City on Dec. 20, 2022. Senator Robinhood Padila on Friday (Sept. 20, 2024) said he had filed a Senate resolution condemning the killings of Teduray tribe leaders and members for advocating against land encroachment and displacement from their ancestral lands. (Photo courtesy of DXMS Radyo Bida)
MANILA – Senator Robinhood Padilla has filed a resolution condemning the killings of Teduray tribe leaders and members in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) following the recent ambush of chieftain Elvin Moires.
In a news release on Friday, Padilla said he filed Senate Resolution No. 1203 to highlight the alarming number of tribe members being killed.
“Teduray and Teduray-Lambingan leaders have faced threats, intimidation, and killings for advocating against land encroachment and displacement from their ancestral lands,” the resolution noted.
Moires, died in an ambush at a stretch of an unlit farm-to-market road in Barangay Bongo in South Upi, a hinterland town in Maguindanao del Sur last Sept. 17.
Moires, who was also a barangay councilor in Bongo, was involved extensively in activities promoting religious and cultural solidarity among Maguindanaon Moro Muslims and non-Muslim Tedurays in South Upi.
Other Teduray leaders recently killed include Roldan Benito, Juanito Promboy, and Jocelyn Palao.
Benito, the vice mayor of South Upi, Maguindanao del Sur, was killed last Aug. 2; Promboy a village councilor in Datu Hoffer town, Maguindanao del Sur was killed last April 29; while Palao, chief of the ancestral domain division of the BARMM Ministry of the Indigenous Peoples Affairs, was gunned down on Dec. 20, 2022.
"The rising number of killings within the Teduray tribe is alarming, with the latest count of defenseless individuals killed reaching seventy-five. It must be emphasized that injustice and violence do not have a place in any civilized society and no just cause justifies brutalities against the lives of all persons," Padilla said.
"Section 22, Article 2 of the 1987 Constitution clearly provides that 'the State recognizes and promotes the rights of indigenous cultural communities within the framework of national unity and development," he added.
The Teduray tribe is a recognized indigenous cultural community in the provinces of Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, and Sultan Kudarat. (PNA)
