The newly formed Peace Brigades International-Southeast Asia Project has shared the video a presentation they did for the “Intersectionality as a Diagnostic Tool” webinar organized by PBI-Spanish State and PBI-Kenya.
Intersectionality is seen as vital to build inclusive protection systems given human rights defenders experience risks differently.
The PBI-Southeast Asia presentation highlights Angelika Moral, an Indigenous Lumad woman, a youth leader, a displaced learner, a human rights defender, a member of the Save Our Schools Network, and a supporter of the Talaingod 13.
The Lumad are situated across the Mindanao region in the southern Philippines. Talaingood is located about 100 kilometres north of Davao City, the third-most-populous city in the Philippines after Quezon City and Manila.
Inquirer.net has reported: “Over 200 Lumad schools were forcibly closed [between 2019 and 2022] upon the orders of then President Rodrigo Duterte, who had also threatened to [have the Air Force] bomb these schools in July 2017. He claimed that they had no permit from the Department of Education and were teaching children about communism and to oppose the government.”
PBI-Southeast Asia notes the Lumad school teachers and community educators were “red-tagged”, described as “a process – which falsely brands legitimate activists as terrorists – used to silence land and environmental defenders.”
Moral says: “We were deprived of free education and also of our ancestral lands. Because of this, more than 10,000 students were unable to continue their studies. Most of us were subjected to arranged marriages [to stop political activism].”
The news article continues: “Moral defended the Talaingod 13, saying they only tried to help the Lumad communities.”
Moral has also stated: “Years passed when the solidarity team rescued us, but we still could not move forward. Instead of going after the Alamara [paramilitary group] and the military, the government filed charges [in November 2018] against the likes of [Bayan Muna representative] Ka Satur [Ocampo] and [former Alliance of Concerned Teachers/ACT Teachers Party representative] Ma’am France [Castro].”
Bulatlat.com has also reported: “The Save Our Schools (SOS) Network declared that their Lumad schools were subject to militarization in Talaingod. Government soldiers and Alamara used these schools as temporary military camps, barracks, shelters, outposts, or storage of weapons and belongings…”
You can follow the Save Our Schools Network on Instagram here.
Extraction & conflict: Canadian mining in the Philippines
The Trade Commissioner Service of Canada has published on their website that there are six Canadian mining companies operating in the Philippines with $895 million of mining assets held in the country.
Initial research indicates that Canadian-owned mines in the Mindanao region include the Siana Gold Project (Surigao Del Norte), the Balabag Gold-Silver Project (Zamboanga del Sur), and previously the Canatuan Mine (Zamboanga del Norte).
Global Witness and Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) have reported: “Since 2012, the Philippines has been ranked as the deadliest country in Asia for people protecting land and the environment, with mining linked to a third of all killings documented by Global Witness. …The military has been linked to the highest number of documented killings and detentions of land and environmental defenders in the Philippines over the past decade. These abuses have gone unchecked.”
We additionally note that a delegation from the Philippines recently attended the CANSEC “defence, security & emerging technology event” this past May 2026 in Ottawa.
Malaysia and Thailand were also present at CANSEC 2026.
We continue to follow this.
