This week, human rights groups wanted the international press focused on the fact that palm oil plantations in Indonesia and commercial fruit orchards in the Philippines have uprooted indigenous people and rural communities from their land. This is being done despite laws put in place to protect them. Powerful businesses, corrupt officials and paramilitary groups are fuelling violence against rural communities in the Philippines.
“Businesses from coal to agribusiness, from mining to tourism, are allowed to run rampant and irreparably damage the lives of ordinary Filipinos,” Ben Leather, a senior campaigner at Global Witness, said in a report. “International companies are still not carrying out proper due diligence to avoid conflicts, particularly in countries like the Philippines, where laws protecting land and indigenous rights are often not enforced.”
The human rights group earlier this year said the country was the deadliest in the world for land rights activists in 2018, with killings spiking under President Rodrigo Duterte.
On the western Palawan Island, at least 12 land rights activists have been killed since 2004 trying to prevent illegal timber logging to build hotels, many of them linked to politicians, Global Witness said, citing local green groups.
Source: freemalaysiatoday.com
