The deaths of Rudolph Dela Cruz Espe and Rico Gonzaga Malubay add to a growing list of activists who have been killed in recent years, including Antonio Diwayan, Elioterio Ugking, and Ali Macalintal.

By Kaizzer Angela Marie Manuba
Bulatlat.com

IMUS CITY, Cavite — Various groups denounced the killing of two environmental defenders in Davao Oriental. 

Two days before President Ferdinand Marcos Jr delivered his fourth state of the nation address (SONA), Rudolph Dela Cruz Espe and Rico Gonzaga Malubay were killed on July 26 in Barangay Puntalinao, Banaybanay, Davao Oriental. The two grassroots paralegals and community leaders were known for their opposition to mining operations and other destructive projects in the province. 

The Environmental Defenders Congress (EDC) said that the killing of Espe and Malubay is a clear example of the political persecution faced by environmental defenders in the country. The group stressed that these murders reflect broader patterns of violence and intimidation that have plagued activists.

The group said that Espe was an outspoken critic of laterite mining operations in his community. Such operations have caused severe pollution in the rivers of Banaybanay, leading to siltation and water contamination that harm both the environment and the local residents’ health. The region, which has long been a hotspot for extractive operations, has seen vast deforestation and displacement of Lumad and peasant communities at the hands of foreign-owned mining companies like Asiaticus Management Corporation and BHP Billiton.

“The government continues to deny the systemic abuse of human rights, despite the mounting evidence of extrajudicial killings and harassment of environmental defenders,” the EDC said in a statement. “The killings of Espe and Mulabay are yet another blow to those fighting for justice and environmental protection in the Philippines.”

EDC said that the deaths of Espe and Malubay stand in stark contrast to recent claims made by Marcos Jr. that the human rights situation is improving in the country. In his previous SONAs, Marcos Jr. boasted about his administration’s “bloodless” approach to human rights. However, the increasing violence against activists, including the recent murders in Davao Oriental, calls into question the sincerity of such claims.

According to Amnesty International Philippines Acting Director Jepie Papa, there is a growing concern that human rights defenders in Mindanao, particularly those working with alternative law groups, people’s organizations, and environmental groups, are being systematically targeted. These defenders are often working in regions where corporate interests like mining, logging, and agribusiness are aggressively pursued with little regard for the rights of local communities or the environment.

On July 28, just hours after Marcos’s speech on human rights, Warren Cahayag, a human rights defender and paralegal of the Union of Peoples Lawyers, was shot multiple times by two unidentified individuals in Barangay Calumpang, General Santos City. He remains in critical condition.

Human rights group Karapatan urged the Commission on Human Rights to conduct a thorough investigation on the recent human rights violations. “These latest killings form part of a larger pattern of violence designed to silence human rights defenders, including lawyers and paralegals,” Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said. 

“We demand justice for these escalating attacks against human rights defenders in Mindanao and elsewhere,” Palabay said in a statement. “The perpetrators and masterminds must not succeed in their attempt to create a chilling effect on human rights advocacy work. They must be held to account and brought to justice,” she said. “Impunity must stop.” 

The deaths of Espe and Mulabay add to a growing list of activists who have been killed in recent years, including Antonio Diwayan, Elioterio Ugking, and Ali Macalintal. The three were Indigenous People and Moro leaders who fought for better living conditions in their communities. (AMU, DAA)