AN URGENT CALL FOR AN IMMEDIATE INVESTIGATION ON THE AMBUSH OF TIMUAY LUCENIO AND JORDAN MANDA

Last September 5, at 7:20 am, Timuay Lucenio Manda, a Subanen leader, was riding his motorbike with his 11-year old son, Jordan, to bring him to school, when a group of masked men fired at them. Jordan was hit at the back, killing him instantly. Timuay Lucenio survived the ambush wounded, both physically and emotionally.

Jordan was his eldest son, actively involved in their Subanen community in the Municipality of Bayog, Zamboanga del Sur. He was being groomed to follow the leadership of his father.

The ambush happened on the road between Barangays Conacon and Bubuan of the Municipality of Bayog. Timuay Manda is the Barangay Chair of Barangay Conacon. The ambush site was 5 kilometers away from their residence in Conacon.

Timuay Manda is a strong defender of Subanen rights to their land and right to self-determination.

Timuay Manda has been leading his tribe in claiming and protecting their ancestral domain in the last 10 years after his cousin Timuay Giovanni Umbang was assassinated in 2002. Both Timuay Giovanni and Timuay Manda questioned the entry of logging and mining in their ancestral domain without their Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) as required under national and international laws. Timuay Manda has been receiving threats of his life in the last three years.

Early in August, Timuay Manda led a group of Timuays from Bayog and neighboring ancestral domains in calling for a moratorium of all forms of mining in their ancestral domains until they could have their Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) and Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development and Protection Plan (ADSDPP) of their domains. Such effort was supported by the local office of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).

Timuay Manda is also leading an effort to strengthen and unify the efforts of the Subanens in the Central Zamboanga Peninsula to claim and protect their remaining contiguous ancestral domain. He, along with Catholic Bishops and concerned groups, is one of the petitioners for the Writ of Kalikasan in protection of the Pinukis Range Forest, among the last untouched forest region in the Zamboanga Peninsula which is unfortunately included in the mining claims of several companies. Mt. Pinukis is considered by the Subanen people of Zamboanga Peninsula as among their Sacred Mountains. The Pinukis Range Forest serves as watershed of three major rice-growing regions in the Peninsula that produces about 30 percent of the rice in the region.

Jason Manda was in Grade 6, a candidate for valedictorian in his batch. As his father is busy with his responsibilities as Timuay, Jordan was the main help of his mother, Delma, in tending to their animals and rice farm, for food.

The killing of Jordan is such a big loss to the family, and to the community.

The killing of Jordan is a mindless, senseless act of violence.

The attempt to kill Timuay Manda is an attempt to silence a staunch defender of ancestral domain against the encroachment of logging and mining operations.