Eusebio Pelayo, 69, a community leader and a Molbog resident in Mariahangin, Bugsuk, Palawan, is summoned to court on December 4 due to a criminal complaint filed by Caesar M. Ortega, described as the “Authorized Representative of Land owners situated within Bowen Island” in the document. Ortega is NCIP’s former OIC executive director of the NCIP and Ancestral Domain Office’s (ADO) former director.
As the Philippines loan burden rises from internationally-funded projects like the P11.8-billion (USD 200, 218, 740) Central Luzon Link Expressway (CLLEX), local farmers are forced to constantly borrow money to sustain their livelihoods and families for day-to-day survival.
“I can’t accept until now. It has been 15 years, but there is still no further action. I lost my trust in the government,” said Catherine Nuñez whose son Victor, a UNTV reporter, was one of the 32 media workers and 26 others killed in the bloody massacre.