KARAPATAN condemns demolition, forced eviction of Mangyan-Iraya community in Mindoro
KARAPATAN Public Information
PRESS RELEASE
June 3, 2026
Reference: Cristina Palabay, KARAPATAN secretary general, 09173162831
KARAPATAN Public Information Desk, 09189790580
KARAPATAN condemns demolition, forced eviction of Mangyan-Iraya community in Mindoro
Human rights alliance KARAPATAN strongly condemns the demolition and forced eviction of the Mangyan-Iraya community in Sitio Malatabako, Abra de Ilog, Occidental Mindoro.
“We condemn the destruction of homes and displacement of Indigenous families from their ancestral land. What is really disturbing is how the company was able to aggressively take control of land that rightfully belongs to the Mangyan-Iraya as part of their ancestral domain,” said Cristina Palabay, KARAPATAN secretary general.
According to Defend Mindoro, security personnel and a demolition team of Pieceland Corporation dismantled and destroyed the remaining 14 homes of the Mangyan-Iraya community in Malatabako. The company asserts that the operation was not a demolition but merely the implementation of a court order.
“We deplore how the Mangyan-Iraya in Malatabako have faced harassment, deprivation of their means of livelihood, threats, and other forms of coercion designed to force them out of their land. We are also enraged by the utter lack of respect shown to the Indigenous People, who themselves have said there was no meaningful consultation. In the first place, they have every right to remain on land where their communities have worked on for decades,” said Palabay.
KARAPATAN noted that the plight of the Mangyan-Iraya is not an isolated case but reflects a broader pattern of land grabbing, displacement, and attacks against indigenous communities throughout the country.
The group has repeatedly raised alarm over the increasing number of demolitions in both urban poor communities and rural areas.
“They drive away people from their communities in the name of development. But development for whom? Demolitions are among the cruelest attacks against the poor amid a worsening economic crisis,” Palabay said.
The group also questioned the role of government agencies such as the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), that allowed the displacement of the Mangyan-Iraya community to continue despite repeated reports of abuses since Pieceland Corporation began its operations in the area in 2024.
For nearly two years, the Mangyan-Iraya community has endured sustained attacks intended to drive them away from their ancestral land. These include the destruction of crops, restrictions on livelihood, the removal of their water source, intimidation, harassment, and other forms of coercion that have made life in the community increasingly difficult.
Members of the community have also faced arrests, torture, and detention, because of their resistance to landgrabbing. It can be remembered that on June 13, 2024, residents and members of the Mangyan community were arrested without warrant, and accused of malicious mischief for allegedly destroying a fence set up on the contested land. Another incident involved a Mangyan resident, Sonny Sinigmayon, who was reportedly taken on August 3, 2024, was tortured and detained for a week.
The repression escalated further on October 18, 2024, with the arrest of the “Iraya 32,” nearly half of whom were minors, after they attempted to bring food and assistance to relatives who had been trapped behind the fenced-off area and were suffering from extreme hunger.
“The arrests, torture, restrictions on food and water, demolition of homes, and forced displacement clearly seek to break the resistance of Indigenous communities against land grabbing. Those who perpetrated these attacks should be held accountable. It is like slowly killing the people day by day. No legal paper or court order can outweigh the inalienable rights of the Mangyan-Iraya and all Indigenous People to their ancestral lands,” Palabay said.
KARAPATAN further stressed that the worsening militarization in Mindoro and the numerous human rights violations documented on the island is in clear connection with the dispossession of indigenous peoples and peasants from their lands.
“Through large-scale military deployment, red-tagging, arbitrary arrests, torture, and other attacks, they want to create an environment of fear and repression so that communities will simply give in to the entry of corporate interests and the seizure of ancestral lands and resources. Land is life for the Indigenous People. They have reason to fight back,” Palabay said.
“We stand in solidarity with the Mangyan-Iraya in their struggle for land, dignity, and self-determination. We call on the public to support their fight and demand accountability for all those responsible for these grave violations of human rights,” Palabay concluded.
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KARAPATAN is an alliance of human rights organizations and programs, human rights desks and committees of people’s organizations, and individual advocates committed to the defense and promotion of people’s rights and civil liberties. It monitors and documents cases of human rights violations, assists and defends victims and conducts education, training and campaign. It was established in 1995.