Philippines: Civil society condemns Panay massacre of Indigenous leaders resisting Jalaur Mega Dam; bank financing the dam responds
On December 30, 2020, Filipino police officers raided Indigenous villages within a military reservation camp in the central Philippines in search of alleged members of the outlawed New People’s Army (NPA). During the raid, authorities attacked unarmed members of the Tumandok community while asleep, killing nine indigenous leaders and arresting at least seventeen other people. The operation displaced around 500 people from their homes.
Local groups deny affiliations to the NPA and claim that those who were killed had been red-tagged for their opposition to the ongoing construction of the Jalaur Mega Dam in the nearby municipality of Calinog. The project is financed by a loan from the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (KEDF) of South Korea, issued through the Export-Import Bank of Korea in 2012, and is to be implemented by Daewoo Engineering and Construction.
Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited the Export-Import Bank of Korea and Daewoo E&C to respond. Export-Import Bank's response can be read in full below. Daewoo E&C did not respond.