Tribute to Makoy, a beloved colleague
David Baele
Wednesday, June 14, 2006

He is named Markus Bangit in the newspapers and in the statistics of the human rights organisations he received number 99 on the list of victims of political killings since the beginning of this year. For Joris Smeets and David Baele he is Makoy, a devoted, warm and respected leader of the indigenous peoples in the Cordillera, a mountainous region in the north of the Philippines. Joris and David recently stayed for a couple of months in the Philippines where they worked as volunteers for the Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA), the organisation for which Makoy was working day and night. This is David’s reaction on the murder of Makoy:

Baguio, 13th of December 2005, after the murder of Pepe and Albert I wrote on my weblog:

“In spite of this I succeed in keeping my head cool. After all, as a foreigner I am running the least risk and in 3 months I can again enjoy the Belgian flush, but I will certainly not sleep on both ears because for the people here the struggle continues. They don’t get the opportunity to dream.”

In search for information about the origins of the popular movement in the Cordillera for my thesis I visited the office of the Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA) somewhere in February. That’s where I met Makoy (Rafael Markus Bangit). Very carefully but clear he explained me in his broken English how CPA was founded out of the people’s revolt against dictator Marcos in the beginning of the eighties. Marcos, who threatened the natural resources and the environment of the indigenous peoples of the Cordillera with his mega dam and logging projects faced mass resistance.

It is only with the struggle against the building of the Chico dam that various tribes in Kalinga succeeded to form a united front. Despite increasing militarisation as inevitable response by Marcos the popular movement succeeded to prevent the building of the dam. The result is that since then the Worldbank is not very keen to invest in projects that dispose the natural resources of the Cordillera to free market. A lot of people have sacrificed their life in order to reach that goal. Like Macliing Dulag, a tribal leader who was eliminated in his sleep because of his achievements in uniting tribes of Kalinga against the destructive projects.

Marcos is gone now but the projects that threatened the right to self determination of the indigenous peoples in the Cordillera didn’t. The same policy is carried out by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and on such a terrible scale that she has little to learn from Marcos. On Friday, the 9th of June I received a phone call of Joris, with who I stayed in the Philippines, with the question if I had already checked my mailbox. Makoy, who cleared me up the history of the popular movement, had savagely been murdered the previous day at 7:30 pm on his way from Tabuk (Kalinga) to Baguio. When he finished eating at a stopover and walked to the bus a hooded person appeared out of the dark and shot 4 bullets of a calibre 45 in his chest and stomach. A school principal who coincidentally walked with him was also gunned down with two bullets when she started screaming. After that the murderer ran into a van who drove away at high speed. His son of 15 who was in his company was unhurt.

Makoy, married and father of 4 children, is the 99th victim of political killings in the Philippines since the beginning of this year. Like for his close colleagues and friends this was a great blow to me and Joris. Makoy was coordinator of the Elders Desk at CPA and the Bodong Pongors Association (BPO), a federation of tribal elders. Makoy’s work as an activist started 30 years ago when his village was threatened by the construction of the Chico dam. Since than he has been active in various people organisations. As senior member of the CPA regional secretariat Makoy was considered as big brother and confidante to younger activists. He was much respected because of his competence of mediating in tribal disputes. In other words the popular movement of the Cordillera lost a good friend and one of it’s most devoted colleagues.

Out of the few times I met Makoy I keep the memory of a modest but careful and warm person. It’s crazy when I think of the fact that the person who explained me the heroic deeds of Macliing Dulag will now be remembered and honoured himself as a martyr because of similar reasons. A modest mark of honour I can set is to dedicate my thesis about the popular movement in the Cordillera to Makoy. And just like his colleagues in the Philippines who are daily shadowed while living in fear, this cowardly murder will only make me more determined in my work, a work for which every 2 days an activist dies in the Philippines at the moment!

This article was originally published in Dutch in the International Action for Liberation (INTAL) website on June 13, 2006.