Terrorist-tagged in Philippines: New surge in arrest of indigenous activists, advocates

Statement by the Global Secretariat, International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation

***

In just one day, several Indigenous Peoples and advocates in the Philippines were arrested, terrorist-tagged, and issued criminal charges, including doctor-to-the-Lumad Natividad “Naty” Castro; three Indigenous Igorot leaders of Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) Jennifer Awingan, Windel Bolinget, and Steve Tauli; and development workers Sarah Abellon, Lourdes Gimenez, Florence Kang, Niño Oconer, and two other individuals.
The Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) announced on January 30 the designation of community health worker Doctor “Naty” Castro as a “terrorist individual” under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA). Also, last January 30, Jennifer Awingan was arrested on the grounds of Rebellion or Insurrection, a non-bailable offense, with a Warrant of Arrest issued on January 24, 2023, by the Regional Court in Abra Province. Included in the warrant were Bolinget, Tauli, and six others from North Luzon.
“We express our condemnation and utmost concern over this arbitrary terrorist tagging and the rebellion charges. When was it ever an act of terrorism to be a community doctor in far-flung Indigenous Lumad communities? Why is the government criminalizing Igorot leaders with a long track record of defending Indigenous lands and rights?” says Jiten Yumnam, International Coordinating Council member of the International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL).
CPA Chairperson Bolinget faced a trumped-up murder charge and a shoot-to-kill order last 2020. Tauli, a CPA regional council member, was abducted in August 2022 by what CPA believed to be state security forces.
Similarly, on February 18, 2022, Dr. Naty was also arrested over charges of alleged kidnapping and serious illegal detention. Her charges were dismissed by March 2022 for violation of her right to due process and lack of evidence and probable cause.
“From the former Philippine President Duterte to the new one, Marcos Jr., what remains the same is the practice of weaponizing the law to vilify and silence any perceived enemies of the government. For Indigenous activists vocal against land grabbing by multinational corporations, political elites, and states, against heavy militarization and repressive government policies, we are the number one target of judicial harassment and attacks,” Yumnam stressed.
Dr. Naty’s tagging as a “terrorist individual” and freezing of her property or funds, including her related accounts, operates under the draconian Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 2020, which was signed into law under former president Rodrigo Duterte. The United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee earlier expressed concern on how the Anti-Terror Law (ATL) “legitimize the targeting of government critics, human rights defenders, and journalists, including through ‘red-tagging,’ and its consequent chilling effects on freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and association.”
“We will hold the government, the ATC, the police, and military accountable for any danger and harm that may happen towards our Indigenous Peoples and activist colleagues. In its most extreme, terror-tagging often leads to torture, enforced disappearances, or extrajudicial killings,” Beverly Longid, IPMSDL Global coordinator, warns.
“Jennifer, Doc Naty, Windel, and all these terrorist-tagged and maligned Indigenous rights defenders who serve the underprivileged are not terrorists but heroes. The modus of using the courts and laws against those exercising their democratic right to dissent must stop,” she added.
“Terrorist-tagging or ‘red-tagging’ endangers our lives, our families and colleagues, our organization, and our entire community. It reeks of a tyrant and fascist dictatorship government eager to silence all dissenters instead of addressing the root cause of discontents like poverty, corruption, and injustice,” Longid said.
The International IPMSDL issued its global call for international human rights groups and institutions, including the UN and the International Criminal Court mechanisms, to investigate the surge of attacks on Indigenous Peoples’ Human Rights Defenders. It also called for the immediate dropping of all charges, terrorist designations against these activists, and the junking of the ATA.

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Search This Blog