46 Environmental Activists Killed In 2019 In Philippines; World's Deadliest Place For Activists
Named the most dangerous country in the world for land and environmental defenders, the Philippines has become an even deadlier place for activists in 2019, with 46 recorded deaths so far this year, according to the Kalikasan Peoples Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE), a local NGO. The same organization recorded 28 killings of land and environmental defenders in 2018. Global Witness, an environmental watchdog, tallied 30 such killings in the Philippines that year and designated the country the most dangerous in the world for defenders based on sheer number of deaths.
The situation has pushed green groups to call for the immediate passage of the Human Rights Defenders Bill, which will grant defenders, including those fighting for their land and environment, freedom from intimidation and reprisals, establish a sanctuary for victims and their families, and be given effective remedy and reparation.
The death toll has only escalated this year. In a report released to Mongabay by the Kalikasan PNE, which keeps an annual tally of environmental defenders deaths, 63% comprise agribusiness workers and farmers, followed by government officials and forest rangers (35%), indigenous peoples (20%), and lawyers and church workers (4%).
Agribusiness, land grabs and plantations accounted for 70% of the killings, with 32 cases in 2019, 19 of them occurring on the island of Negros. This comes after President Rodrigo Duterte enforced an executive order placing the island under a state of emergency from lawless violence and where he sent seven infantry battalions and around 300 police personnel in July, with the stated aim of fighting a long-running communist insurgency.
EDIT
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/killings-of-environmental-defenders-on-the-rise-in-the-philippines/