WEBVTT - How the U.S. Got the World to View Environmentalists as "Terrorists" 0:00:03.279 --> 0:00:05.880 We've spent more than a year on Drill's Real Free 0:00:05.880 --> 0:00:10.160 Speech Threat Season looking at all the ways environmental protests 0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:14.000 is being criminalized around the world. We've looked at who's 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:17.919 driving that trend, too, from corporate operatives to right wing 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:22.920 think tanks. There's another network that's been particularly influential where 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:26.360 it comes to repressing environmental fights around the globe, the 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:31.400 US military and its national security agencies. For a coverage 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:34.080 of the Copcity protests, I examined how the post nine 0:00:34.080 --> 0:00:38.160 to eleven War on Terror incentivized a crackdown on environmental 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:43.400 activists who have been labeled eco terrorists and environmental violent extremists. 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:47.400 This is not just true in the US. America's approach 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:49.640 to terrorism, and the way it's been used to crack 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:54.160 down on peaceful protests has spread across the globe. There's 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:57.600 one place that really stands out as a clear example, 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:02.640 the Philippines. The country sits toward the top of lists 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:06.280 of dangerous countries for land defenders. People are killed there 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:09.640 every year for trying to protect the environment. That's because 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:14.640 the Filipino government routinely labels political opponents as communist terrorists, 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:21.240 which can lead to assassinations, disappearances, and abductions. Indigenous organizers 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:26.440 and environmental activists are often the targets. As I started 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:29.520 looking into it, a detail caught my eye. In the 0:01:29.520 --> 0:01:33.120 wake of nine to eleven, the UN Security Council essentially 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:37.280 required that countries pass counter terror laws, and the Philippines 0:01:37.480 --> 0:01:41.440 did just that. At the same time, the US offered 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:45.440 the Philippines military aid to crack down on terror. I 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:48.600 began to realize that a version of what I documented 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:52.640 in the US had also happened in the Philippines. Those 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:56.240 policies I had been investigating from thousands of miles away 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:59.559 were actually rooted right here at home in the US. 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:03.440 To understand what was really going on, I decided to 0:02:03.480 --> 0:02:06.800 get to know one of these so called terrorists that's 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:10.440 coming after the break. I'm Alan Brown, and this is Drilled. 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:25.560 I am a Windo la boulnot the chairperson of the 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:31.800 Cordelliera People's Alliance. I am an indigenous Igoru, the collective 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:37.239 word referring to the indigenous peoples here in the Cordillera, 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:39.600 part of Northern Philippines. 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:43.600 The Cordeliera People's Alliance is one of the most important 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:48.080 indigenous and environmental organizations in the Philippines. They're based in 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:51.080 a part of the archipelago that is defined by lush, 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:55.639 green mountains that have long been a target for extractive industries. 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:59.840 It's also a region where indigenous people have long struggled 0:02:59.840 --> 0:03:04.520 for their rights. That makes his homeland a military hotspot too. 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:09.160 In twenty twenty three, Windel was labeled a terrorists under 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:13.320 a new terrorism law. But his story began much earlier. 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:18.800 Even during my younger days in my home Bayle Age, 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:25.360 I was witnessed to the ongoing civil war and the 0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:26.200 armed conflict. 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:30.560 At times, the military would take over his school's classrooms. 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:33.200 We were just kids that time, and we don't know 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:37.320 the serious implications of this, but what we saw the 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:41.200 times that the classrooms that we are supposed to use 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:48.760 are occupied by the Philippine military. So sometimes we heard 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:53.160 that near the rights films or just outside the community, 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:58.720 there are firefights and we really hear the shooting and 0:03:58.840 --> 0:03:59.280 the guns. 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:05.400 It was a stark contrast to what Wendell was learning 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:06.720 outside the classroom. 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:09.640 I grew up in an indigenous village. 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:15.240 It was a difficult life, a difficult life, but meaningful. 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:20.680 I attended the activities that boys in our villages do 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:26.800 help with my parents in our economic and home activities, 0:04:27.760 --> 0:04:32.520 join my parents in plowing the fields, planting and harvesting 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:34.960 rice vegetables. 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:37.320 Gathering firewood from the forest. 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:42.040 During Saturdays and Sundays, when there's no classes, I attend. 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:45.360 To the what do you call this? You know, we 0:04:45.440 --> 0:04:46.960 have this author or. 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:53.000 Which is the political and socio cultural center of the village, 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:57.000 and this is led and governed by the Council of elders. 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:02.240 And as indigenous boys, we are there to listen to 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:06.880 stories with the elders, slip there and there we learn 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:13.960 the affairs of the communities. I really realized from those 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:21.120 childhood the teachings that land is life for indigenous peoples. 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:24.960 In our ancestral land, in our ancestral domain, that's where 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:28.320 we stay, that's where we're born, that's where we live 0:05:28.440 --> 0:05:33.279 and die. And this has been defended and nurtured by 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:39.160 our ancestors. Those teachings are very valuable and meaningful, and 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:44.200 it has to be passed on also for future generations. 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:49.000 Window's earliest involvement in protest was less about protecting the 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:53.240 environment and more about fighting the militarization of his community. 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:56.760 So he would soon find that the two went hand 0:05:56.880 --> 0:05:57.760 in hand. 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:00.400 Inside and to us. 0:06:00.440 --> 0:06:06.120 One kid was killed when a soldiers fired and killed 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:11.440 due civilian a child. When there was a protest, Lali 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:14.160 organized I joined. 0:06:15.600 --> 0:06:18.560 Many people outside the Philippines are unaware that the country 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:21.280 has been embroiled in a civil conflict for more than 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:25.200 fifty years. It began during the Cold War under the 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:30.440 brutal dictatorship of Ferdinand Marco's senior. To understand what happened, 0:06:30.520 --> 0:06:32.960 it's useful to look at how the Philippines came to 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:38.680 have a special relationship with the USA. Jason Lambcheck, a 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:42.400 Filipino research fellow at Deacon University in Melbourne who has 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:45.920 researched human rights and counter terrorism in the Philippines, walked 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:46.440 me through it. 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:52.640 After becoming free from Spain and the Americans game through 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:57.040 the Philippines and colonized the Philippines until World War Two, 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:02.080 and after that we became him officially an independent country, 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:06.359 but we maintained so called special relationship with the United States. 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:11.000 For example, we hosted American basis in the Philippines for 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:14.160 a long time. We were like Cold War allies in 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:18.080 that region. All of our governments were like rabbid anti 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:22.320 communist governments supporting the United States in the region. 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:27.280 The most infamous of these rabbid anti communist governments was 0:07:27.360 --> 0:07:28.880 led by Marcos. 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:38.200 As you know, you may know, we had like a 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:42.559 twenty plus year period in which we only had one 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:45.520 president who sort of was the law of the land. 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:49.679 He was a dictator, so there was not much room 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:56.480 for resisting the regime through open, you know, political contestations 0:07:56.520 --> 0:07:59.640 such as true elections, and so a lot of people, 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.640 you know, I thought it was illogical to resist the 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:07.360 Marcus regime true armed resistance, and that's why you have 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:12.920 the NBA and the CPP. The CPP stands for Communist 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:17.160 Party of the Philippines, and it has an armed wing 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:21.080 called the New People's Army, and they arose in the 0:08:21.200 --> 0:08:25.960 nineteen sixties in resistance to the Marcus dictatorship. 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:30.239 Years of martial law and human rights violations didn't stop 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:34.079 the US government from providing hundreds of millions of dollars 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:38.360 in aid to the Marcos government. The dictator was seen 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:41.600 as a strategic ally and fighting communism in the region. 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:45.640 It was during these same years that the Filipino environmental 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:49.320 movement was born. So right from the beginning the easiest 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:52.240 way to undermine it was to paint it communist red. 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:56.240 One of the biggest environmental battles in the Philippines during 0:08:56.280 --> 0:08:59.760 those years was the fight the Cordeliera people put up 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:01.760 again the Chico River dam project. 0:09:02.600 --> 0:09:06.960 The Cordelliera peoples were threatened with the building of big 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:12.640 hydropower dams under the dictator Marcos, whose son now the 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:17.080 junior is now the president. Unfortunately, that was to be 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:20.640 funded by the World Bank. If the project was not 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:24.800 a successfully stopped, then it would have displaced around the 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:28.080 one hundred thousand people along the Chico River. 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:36.199 The indigenous people of the Cordelier region organized the obstructed construction, 0:09:36.679 --> 0:09:40.680 participated in acts of sabotage, and were at times joined 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:44.200 by armed members of the New People's Army. The dam 0:09:44.280 --> 0:09:47.520 project was never completed, however. One of the leaders of 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:50.800 the resistance to the dams, machli In Dulag, was shot 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:54.319 and killed in his home in nineteen eighty and remains 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:57.839 a symbol of the indigenous and environmental movement in the Philippines. 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:05.200 Historic and brave resistance of these communities in the face 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:10.959 of Martialllow was really inspiring. I learned that it's really 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:16.439 their right to defend and it was a just cause 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:18.120 to resist. 0:10:18.960 --> 0:10:21.920 The Chico River Dam wouldn't be the last project the 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:24.240 Cordeliera people would fight on their land. 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:31.440 The Cordillera is targeted again of several big mining projects 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:38.480 by local and foreign corporations, big hydro power dump projectstermal 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:44.000 geothermal power projects with milk or with farm projects again 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:48.000 to provide energy, when in fact the ordeal is already 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:52.440 host to several big dumb projects. So we are not 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:56.680 taking this sitting down. It is our collective obligation to 0:10:57.000 --> 0:11:01.400 defend and nurtured the environment for the future nations. It 0:11:01.480 --> 0:11:04.920 is in indigenous communities where you can find biodiversity, the 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:09.400 remaining rich forests and the environment, because we have always 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:11.600 believed that land is life and the land should not 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:16.240 be endangered for the sake of profit, because that's not 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:21.000 how indigenous peoples look at land in resources. 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:24.920 When he left college in nineteen ninety six, Windows started 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:28.200 working for the Cordelier People's Alliance, which grew out of 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:29.880 the fight against the Chico River Dam. 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:37.439 We do barricades to prevent the equipments of these companies 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:42.960 to come inside. We bardicade to prevent them from operations. 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:49.240 We organize mass mobilizations and protest actions. We engage international 0:11:49.400 --> 0:11:54.040 governmental bodies as the United Nations. But most important is 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:59.000 community organizing, and not just the organizing of affected communities, 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:04.640 but also so the different sectors of youth, women, farmers, 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:07.040 and even the elders. 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:10.880 Unlike some of the Chico River Dam activists, the land 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:14.920 defenders with the Cordelier People's Alliance are not armed, but 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:18.800 those opposing their work are. Wendell couldn't have known when 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:20.920 he began this work what he would face in the 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:26.400 years ahead. The Filipino government branded Windel an armed communist. 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:29.719 They charged him with murder, They put him on a 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:35.360 hit list. Most recently, they officially labeled him a terrorist. 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:40.600 Several of my colleagues in CPA have been killed by 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:45.720 state forces, abducted, and several of them are not yet 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:51.000 surfaced until now illegally detained because of what we do. 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:55.679 About two hundred and ten landed environmental defenders were killed 0:12:55.679 --> 0:13:00.960 in the Philippines between twenty fourteen and twenty twenty four alone. 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:04.120 There's evidence of state involvement in one hundred and nine 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:07.760 of those cases. According to a recent investigation by in 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:11.840 These Times magazine. Wendell joined the CPA at a turning 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:15.800 point for Filipino environmental defenders. A few years after he 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:19.200 was hired, Global events would provide the Filipino government with 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:21.880 a cover to pursue him as a terrorist. 0:13:27.600 --> 0:13:32.160 Every nation in every region now has a decision to 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:37.000 make either you are with us or you are with 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:37.760 the terrorists. 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:42.840 A little over a week after nine to eleven, US 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:47.080 President George Bush gave a speech to Congress launching what 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:50.319 would become known as the Global War on Terror. 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:55.560 From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor 0:13:55.720 --> 0:14:00.160 or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:04.640 is a hostile regime. Our nation has been put on notice. 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:10.160 We're not immune from attack. We will take defensive measures 0:14:10.160 --> 0:14:15.080 against terrorism to protect Americans today, dozens of federal departments 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:18.360 and agencies, as well as state and local governments, have 0:14:18.520 --> 0:14:24.400 responsibilities affecting home land security. These efforts must be coordinated 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:28.840 at the highest level, So tonight I announced the creation 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:33.600 of a cabinet level position reporting directly to me the 0:14:33.680 --> 0:14:37.480 Office of Homeland Security, and tonight I also announced that 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:39.320 distinguished American to lead this effort. 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:43.200 It's difficult to overstate the role of the US led 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:47.000 a global war on terror in the global criminalization of 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:51.280 land defenders. In the US, corporations had spent the nineteen 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:55.360 nineties trying to get police to pursue eco saboteurs as terrorists. 0:14:56.560 --> 0:15:01.040 After nine to eleven, their wishes were granted. Across the US. 0:15:01.280 --> 0:15:05.360 Facilities called fusion centers popped up in state after state, 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:10.320 Operating under the newly created Department of Homeland Security. They 0:15:10.320 --> 0:15:13.840 brought together national security officials and local and federal law 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:19.160 enforcement to surveil environmental activists. The agency developed a whole 0:15:19.280 --> 0:15:23.840 language for classifying activists that damaged property as domestic terrorists 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:28.880 or environmental violent extremists. At the same time, new law 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:33.320 enforcement resources and incentives encouraged policing of those activities, and 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:37.400 new penalties like the Terrorism Sentencing Enhancement meant they faced 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:42.720 even more severe punishments then. Soldiers trained in counterinsurgency during 0:15:42.720 --> 0:15:46.680 the US anti terror wars in Afghanistan and Iraq brought 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:51.600 wartime tactics into private security companies hired by corporations to 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:59.800 protect everything from factory farms to pipelines. Nearly twenty five 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:03.120 year years after nine to eleven, the US government's aggressive 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:06.880 push for a crackdown on terrorism continues to play an 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:11.600 indelible role in US struggles for land and water. In 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:14.400 the rest of the world. A similar pattern played out, 0:16:14.720 --> 0:16:18.400 driven by US foreign policy as. 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:22.000 The ash was smoldering, as the Twin Towers had fallen. 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:26.360 Security Council meets and in that first month they create 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:32.400 a new resolution UN Security Council Resolution thirteen seventy three. 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:39.720 We have adopted a very ambitious, comprehensive strategy to find 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:44.200 theorism in all its form throughout the world. 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:47.400 The meeting is a job, but there's no agreed definition 0:16:47.480 --> 0:16:51.080 of terrorism. So each state essentially has got to define 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:56.520 what terrorism is on its own terms. And the absence 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:59.880 of a common definition has meant that there's been this 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:02.520 real ripeness for abuse. 0:17:02.640 --> 0:17:06.480 That was Finula Nieline, the recently departed UN Special Rapperture 0:17:06.600 --> 0:17:09.879 on Counter Terrorism and Human Rights, speaking in a short 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:11.639 UN documentary. 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:14.560 States get to define whomever they like as a terrorist 0:17:14.600 --> 0:17:18.119 with almost no consequence at the domestic level. And so 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:21.840 what we're seeing around the globe is the imprisonment of 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:26.280 civil society. Actor we're seeing direct targeting. In some cases, 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:30.280 they're killing by the permissive framework of counter terrorism. 0:17:32.240 --> 0:17:34.879 The documentary was made to go with a damning report 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:37.720 that was released in twenty twenty three on the impact 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:40.560 for human rights defenders of over twenty years of counter 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:45.159 terror efforts. The report underlined that in every region of 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:49.040 the world, defenders are targeted with legislation and other measures 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:53.639 purportedly designed to counter terrorism. The United States drafted that 0:17:53.760 --> 0:18:00.520 United Nations resolution that she mentioned. The US also pushed 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:04.720 another international body, called the Financial Action Task Force, to 0:18:04.800 --> 0:18:08.720 create new standards meant to prevent terrorism funding. The Task 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:13.600 Force explicitly called on governments to ensure that nonprofit organizations 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:18.399 cannot be misused to finance terrorism. It encouraged countries to 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:24.240 pass laws freezing accounts linked to terrorism. A complex architecture 0:18:24.320 --> 0:18:30.160 of international anti terrorism institutions and policies was being constructed, 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:35.880 and it continues to justify repressive measures today. Here's Jason 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:37.840 from Deacon University again. 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:41.639 The legacy of the warrant there in the Philippines, you know, 0:18:42.119 --> 0:18:46.240 is really profound. When the war error started at the 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:49.160 Philippine government was one of the first to sign up 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:54.200 to the so called Coalition of the Willing President Arroya. 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:59.640 Then I saw that as an opportunity to reignite military 0:18:59.640 --> 0:19:04.000 relations with the United States. The Communists were in peacetocks 0:19:04.080 --> 0:19:07.880 with the Philippine government, but that broke down because eventually 0:19:08.040 --> 0:19:13.640 the nits the States tagged the cpp NPA as therorists. 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:18.840 The Philippine government recast not the way it saw these 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:24.760 centers first armed the centers armed groups who were you know, 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:28.959 locked in arms struggled with the Philippine government as terrorists. 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:33.840 So at first it was just the Abusa group which 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:37.480 was which was sort of like this kidnapper ransom group, 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:41.840 which was also engaged in bombings, and then eventually the 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:47.240 leftist the communists, so the National Democratic Front, the new 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:50.520 People's arm in the Communist Party if the Philippines were 0:19:50.760 --> 0:19:57.360 branded as therorists. And then besides these groups who are 0:19:57.400 --> 0:20:01.680 engaged in armed conflict with the government, people who were 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:08.440 engaged in peacepool dissent, such as the above ground leftist 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:13.120 organizations who were ideologically aligned in the Communist Party but 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:19.840 not organizationally aligned, were also considered part of this so 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:26.120 called communist terrorist movement, just. 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:28.639 As it had in the US, in the Philippines, this 0:20:28.760 --> 0:20:32.200 new approach to terrorism meant a massive expansion of who 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:33.639 was considered a terrorist. 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:38.440 Above ground activists have always been sort of like fair game, 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:42.959 but with the War on Terror, you also had an 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:49.000 added dimension that this was all sort of like legitimate 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:52.400 from an international point of view, because, as you know, 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:59.600 the United States also engaged in a diplomatic slash legal campaign. 0:21:00.960 --> 0:21:04.760 The notion of countering terrorism became sort of like an 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:07.760 international obligation on everyone. 0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:12.720 Right in the midst of the Filipino government newly revamped 0:21:12.720 --> 0:21:17.159 counterinsurgency crackdown, Windle got his first serious taste of repression. 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:22.119 In two thousand and six, my name appeared in a 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:26.520 military hit list. This military hit list was a list 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:31.720 of some leaders of CPA and the Cordella People's Movement 0:21:31.880 --> 0:21:36.720 targeted for assassination, and some of my colleagues who were 0:21:36.760 --> 0:21:42.960 in that list were killed. For example, Marcus Bangitt, one 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:47.480 of my colleagues in CIPA, was killed in June two 0:21:47.520 --> 0:21:50.880 thousand and six in front of his son when they 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:57.160 were bound from Tabuk to Baggio and accompany his son 0:21:57.320 --> 0:22:00.600 supposedly to enroll in tali Age, but. 0:22:00.720 --> 0:22:04.280 When the bus stopped for the passengers. 0:22:03.600 --> 0:22:10.280 To rest and eat, a military assasin fired several shots 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:12.080 against Marcus Bangit. 0:22:13.359 --> 0:22:14.200 I was afraid. 0:22:16.160 --> 0:22:23.000 The normal and expected reaction was we fear for our security, 0:22:23.119 --> 0:22:27.600 and not just us individually, but also our family and 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:30.879 colleagues in the organization as a whole. 0:22:31.920 --> 0:22:34.960 We knows of the killings and threats. Made him seriously 0:22:35.040 --> 0:22:37.400 consider stepping away from his activism. 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:39.040 Of course, to. 0:22:39.080 --> 0:22:43.040 Be honest about it, because I have four children, I 0:22:43.080 --> 0:22:47.320 have a wife, I have siblings and parents, and my 0:22:47.400 --> 0:22:53.399 parents advised me, why don't you just stop before being 0:22:53.600 --> 0:22:59.479 killed like your colleagues, because the killings and abjuccess are 0:22:59.520 --> 0:23:03.639 really high opining. It's not just a public statement of 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:10.480 the state. The reign of peror is really there. Yeah, 0:23:10.880 --> 0:23:17.440 but I resolved to myself that this is precisely why 0:23:17.560 --> 0:23:22.480 they are doing this, to stop us from what we 0:23:22.560 --> 0:23:28.400 are doing, to silence us from the cause we are advancing, 0:23:29.480 --> 0:23:31.760 and we should not allow what they want. 0:23:33.440 --> 0:23:33.920 It is. 0:23:35.440 --> 0:23:39.160 A difficult process that I really have to process within myself, 0:23:39.200 --> 0:23:44.320 my family and convince my siblings and of course my parents. 0:23:46.960 --> 0:23:51.119 Amid growing anxiety among environmental and human rights defenders, and 0:23:51.160 --> 0:23:54.960 with encouragement from the US government, the Philippines passed a 0:23:55.080 --> 0:23:58.840 new anti terrorism law, the Human Security Act of two 0:23:58.840 --> 0:24:02.119 thousand and seven. It would soon be followed by a 0:24:02.240 --> 0:24:07.360 terrorism financing law in twenty twelve. The legal foundations were 0:24:07.400 --> 0:24:12.360 being laid to formalize repression against government dissenters like Windel. 0:24:13.800 --> 0:24:19.040 The role of the US in this so called counter 0:24:19.359 --> 0:24:21.760 terror legislations is clear. 0:24:21.840 --> 0:24:23.320 So the US is also to. 0:24:23.320 --> 0:24:28.080 Be blamed about the impacts of this so called terror 0:24:28.160 --> 0:24:35.080 laws in committing serious and widespread violations of human rights 0:24:35.119 --> 0:24:40.640 and international humanitarian law in the Philippines. And that is 0:24:40.880 --> 0:24:44.800 happening now, and that is even happening to me. 0:24:47.359 --> 0:24:50.440 You'd think being put on a military hit list would 0:24:50.440 --> 0:24:53.880 be about as bad as government repression gets. But more 0:24:53.880 --> 0:24:57.640 than a decade later, under the authoritarian leadership of President 0:24:57.720 --> 0:25:02.520 Rodrigo Duterte, things not even worse for Filipino land defenders. 0:25:03.480 --> 0:25:06.960 In twenty eighteen, du Tert's Department of Justice filed a 0:25:07.000 --> 0:25:11.000 petition declaring over six hundred people terrorists under the Human 0:25:11.040 --> 0:25:15.320 Security Act. The list included not only Wendel, but also 0:25:15.359 --> 0:25:18.480 the UN Special Rappertoire on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 0:25:19.040 --> 0:25:23.360 Victoria Taui Corpus, as well as several former Catholic priests 0:25:23.400 --> 0:25:32.520 and a former lawmaker. The court was unconvinced, and several names, 0:25:32.560 --> 0:25:37.080 including Windells, were dropped, But the Duterte administration didn't give up. 0:25:37.400 --> 0:25:41.400 They started passing more severe laws and policies. First, there 0:25:41.440 --> 0:25:45.199 was Executive Order seventy in twenty eighteen, which introduced a 0:25:45.240 --> 0:25:49.160 so called whole of nation approach to crushing the perceived 0:25:49.200 --> 0:25:53.359 communist resistance movement in the country. The order established the 0:25:53.480 --> 0:25:57.560 National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, a 0:25:57.600 --> 0:26:02.119 body that now routinely labels Induvadi jewels and groups as communists. 0:26:02.840 --> 0:26:06.320 This is the practice I mentioned before. It's called red tagging, 0:26:06.720 --> 0:26:10.840 and the country's environmental movement is often the target. Then 0:26:11.040 --> 0:26:15.120 the pandemic hit. The new crisis provided to Terairt's government 0:26:15.160 --> 0:26:19.200 an opportunity to hit land defenders harder than Windell had 0:26:19.200 --> 0:26:20.400 seen in his lifetime. 0:26:23.040 --> 0:26:30.280 We mobilized distributing medicines, medical equipment against COVID, distributing rice 0:26:30.520 --> 0:26:36.400 supplies and groceries because during that time, the economic impact 0:26:36.400 --> 0:26:41.919 of pandemic was really hard, especially to the poor people 0:26:41.960 --> 0:26:43.120 and indigenous peoples. 0:26:43.880 --> 0:26:47.359 At the same time, Wendell and his family began experiencing 0:26:47.720 --> 0:26:52.520 escalating attacks. In April twenty twenty, photos of his children 0:26:52.560 --> 0:26:56.400 in indigenous attire began circulating on Facebook. 0:26:56.760 --> 0:27:01.800 Then made a layout like a collad then posted it 0:27:02.200 --> 0:27:04.719 stating that these are the children of an in pay 0:27:04.760 --> 0:27:09.920 of a terrorist like that, and that time my youngest 0:27:10.040 --> 0:27:13.119 was still a minor sixteen years. All that time, he 0:27:13.280 --> 0:27:19.520 received some bad messages in his messenger, of course, being 0:27:19.680 --> 0:27:22.800 tagged or branded a son of an m pay, son 0:27:22.880 --> 0:27:25.960 of a terrorist, and being. 0:27:27.080 --> 0:27:27.600 Just a kid. 0:27:27.680 --> 0:27:29.960 He does not know how to respond to that, or 0:27:30.440 --> 0:27:33.960 he does not know anything about that, but he knows 0:27:34.000 --> 0:27:38.679 that he's being bullied or being persecuted, and sometimes he 0:27:38.720 --> 0:27:42.480 will just cry, and it was really traumatic for him. 0:27:42.680 --> 0:27:47.480 This all happened at a time that our movements are restricted. 0:27:48.080 --> 0:27:53.080 The state forces are are the ones free rooming around, 0:27:53.119 --> 0:27:56.560 and they are more in control because they have weaponized 0:27:56.840 --> 0:28:03.320 the pandemic for state prosecution against activists like us. 0:28:04.920 --> 0:28:08.119 Then, in December twenty twenty, someone who worked with the 0:28:08.160 --> 0:28:10.760 government leaked some disturbing news to Windle. 0:28:11.680 --> 0:28:15.280 I was surprised and shocked to learn that I was 0:28:15.400 --> 0:28:19.720 charged with murder along with several people in a regional 0:28:19.800 --> 0:28:23.760 trial court in Tagum City in Dabou del Norti, which 0:28:23.800 --> 0:28:27.399 I have never been to in my entire life, so 0:28:28.320 --> 0:28:33.680 I have to go for a sanctuary away from my family. 0:28:33.800 --> 0:28:39.000 So during the Christmas break and the new year of 0:28:39.120 --> 0:28:44.360 twenty twenty one, I was away from my colleagues's family. 0:28:45.000 --> 0:28:48.000 With Window and hiding. The chief of the Philippines National 0:28:48.040 --> 0:28:52.920 Police publicly issued a shoot kill order against Windle. They 0:28:53.000 --> 0:28:56.880 hung a wanted poster near Window's home featuring his photo 0:28:56.960 --> 0:28:58.600 and a bounty, so it. 0:28:58.640 --> 0:29:04.240 Was really deleted to bareify me and even to terrorize 0:29:03.880 --> 0:29:05.680 my neighbors. 0:29:05.240 --> 0:29:07.040 That I am a terrorist. I am a one ped 0:29:07.200 --> 0:29:08.520 you know that. 0:29:08.680 --> 0:29:20.320 July, the charges were simply dismissed, but de Terte's onslaught continued. 0:29:21.000 --> 0:29:25.120