No More Land-Grabbing From the Ati Community in Boracay
No More Land-Grabbing From the Ati Community in Boracay
The Issue
The Ati are recognized as a Negrito ethnic group in Visayas, and their small numbers are principally concentrated in the island of Boracay. As one of the members of the Indigenous People in the country, the Ati community have suffered from certain types of distress such as oppression, massacres, land grabbing, discrimination, and numerous violations of human rights from the local elites, companies involved in mining and forestry, restaurant and hotel businesses, and non-Ati individuals surrounding their cultural communities.
It is an evident fact that like other IPs in the country, the Ati have also experienced oppression that led to the brutal killing of Dexter Condez in 2013, an Ati youth, leader, and spokesperson of the Boracay Island Ati community. The killer was reportedly identified as one of the security guards of a multi-national business owner who was one of the claimants of the 2.1 hectares of land that was legitimately granted as part of their ancestral territory to the Ati community in Boracay.
Due to the urbanization and economic globalization in Panay, especially in Boracay, the Ati communities have been displaced from their inhabited land for more than three decades. Despite the enactment of Republic Act No. 8371, also known as the 1997 Indigenous Peoples Act, microaggressions and wide-scale discrimination like land grabbing and government indifference still trouble the Ati community.
These problems that they are still experiencing has led to the feeling of hopelessness of the Ati community because the government leaders, whom they expected to protect and uphold their rights, are also committing injustice to them.
It is time to give them justice, it is time to save their lands— it is time we hold people accountable for their aggression and discrimination against the Ati community. This time, amplify your voices, fight injustice, and stand for what is right. Protect the Ati community and their ancestral land from corporate greed. Sign this petition now!
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The Issue
The Ati are recognized as a Negrito ethnic group in Visayas, and their small numbers are principally concentrated in the island of Boracay. As one of the members of the Indigenous People in the country, the Ati community have suffered from certain types of distress such as oppression, massacres, land grabbing, discrimination, and numerous violations of human rights from the local elites, companies involved in mining and forestry, restaurant and hotel businesses, and non-Ati individuals surrounding their cultural communities.
It is an evident fact that like other IPs in the country, the Ati have also experienced oppression that led to the brutal killing of Dexter Condez in 2013, an Ati youth, leader, and spokesperson of the Boracay Island Ati community. The killer was reportedly identified as one of the security guards of a multi-national business owner who was one of the claimants of the 2.1 hectares of land that was legitimately granted as part of their ancestral territory to the Ati community in Boracay.
Due to the urbanization and economic globalization in Panay, especially in Boracay, the Ati communities have been displaced from their inhabited land for more than three decades. Despite the enactment of Republic Act No. 8371, also known as the 1997 Indigenous Peoples Act, microaggressions and wide-scale discrimination like land grabbing and government indifference still trouble the Ati community.
These problems that they are still experiencing has led to the feeling of hopelessness of the Ati community because the government leaders, whom they expected to protect and uphold their rights, are also committing injustice to them.
It is time to give them justice, it is time to save their lands— it is time we hold people accountable for their aggression and discrimination against the Ati community. This time, amplify your voices, fight injustice, and stand for what is right. Protect the Ati community and their ancestral land from corporate greed. Sign this petition now!
13
Petition created on February 8, 2021