BAGUIO CITY , Philippines – An anti-mining activist and her cousin-in-law were killed by unidentified gunmen in Nueva Vizcaya last Friday night, ahead of the observance of the International Human Rights Day today, according to an environmental group.
Reports said Cheryl Ananayo, a member of the Didipio Earthsavers’ Multipurpose Association (DESAMA), and her cousin-in-law Randy Nabayay were headed to Didipio town when they were shot at around 6 p.m. Friday.
DESAMA is a people’s organization opposing the 17,626-hectare Didipio gold-copper project of Australian mining firm OceanaGold Corp. in Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya.
Nabayay was a small-scale miner who had differences with OceanaGold over his property.
Ananayo was with her four-year-old child and three-month-old baby during the attack, but the two were both unharmed.
With the killing of Ananayo, the Kalikasan green network placed the death toll of environmental activists this year at 15.
“Is this how (President) Aquino wants to celebrate Human Rights Day, with more impunity toward our beleaguered environment defenders?” said Fr. Oliver Castor, spokesman of Task Force-Justice for Environment Defenders.
Castor said 27 environmentalists have been killed under the Aquino administration.
The list included B’laan anti-mining advocate Juvy Capion who was slain together with her two sons in Davao del Sur last October, he said.
“It angers us how not a single case of extrajudicial and politically motivated killing toward environmentalists has ever been resolved since 2001, and still the number has risen with the killing of Ananayo and Nabayay,” Castor said.
“We call for an immediate independent investigation into the killings, as already the police are initially looking at the angle of a holdup incident. We cannot allow yet another case of whitewash in the making,” he said.