National Indigenous Peoples Month: Another killing

The Philippines again observes National Indigenous Peoples Month this October. This commemoration recognizes, promotes, and protects the rights of indigenous cultural communities/indigenous peoples (ICCs/IPs). It should also serve as a reckoning with their ongoing struggles and the structural injustices that deny them their rights.

Among the gravest concerns are the murders committed against the Teduray and Lambangian peoples in the Bangsamoro. On Sept. 30, 2025, Ramon Lupos was beheaded by armed groups in Barangay Limpongo, Datu Hofer, Maguindanao del Sur. He was reportedly ambushed while tending his farm. Lupos is the 86th Teduray killed since the 2019 Bangsamoro autonomy plebiscite.

How can there be a celebration when ICCs/IPs live under constant threat? The Office of the Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation, and Unity, led by Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., must fulfill its promise to the Teduray and Lambangian peoples. It should prevent violence and the displacement of these communities. On July 3, 2025, Opapru pledged to work with the sixth Infantry Brigade and the Municipal Task Forces to End Local Armed Conflict, but the killings go on.

Without action, the government’s slogans for Indigenous Peoples Month will remain empty gestures, simple box-ticking exercises rather than genuine commitments. Without life, no other indigenous right—be it representation, free, prior, and informed consent, or cultural integrity can be exercised.

Let the refrain not be one of mourning but of change. There can be no true Indigenous Peoples Month until indigenous lives are protected.