PANAMIN, also Panamin or Panamin Foundation, was the nonstock, nonprofit organization created to protect the interests of Philippine cultural minorities. Headed and mainly funded by Manuel Elizalde, Jr., eldest son of a Filipino millionaire, but sometimes funded by the Philippine government under President Ferdinand Marcos, PANAMIN means Presidential Assistant on National Minorities.[1] Established in 1968, the organization dissolved in 1983 when Elizalde fled the Philippines. Elizalde is considered a crony of Marcos.[2][3]
PANAMIN has been accused of representing the interest of economic enterprises that aimed to exploit natural resources on ancestral lands.[4] The organization forced thousands of indigenous peoples into "strategic hamlets," supposedly to protect them from armed conflict. A report by Human Rights Watch, however, said that the displacement was intended to allow Elizalde to conduct logging and mining operations.[3] PANAMIN also recruited indigenous peoples to join paramilitary groups to divide and harass indigenous communities.[5]
Notably, Charles Lindbergh served on PANAMIN's board of directors and visited many of the Philippines' indigenous peoples with Elizalde.[citation needed]
References edit
- ^ Marcos, Ferdinand E (June 8, 1978). "PRESIDENTIAL DECREE No. 1414". Chan Robles Library. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
- ^ Manapat, Ricardo. (1991). Some are smarter than others : the history of Marcos' crony capitalism. New York: Aletheia Publications. ISBN 971-91287-0-4. OCLC 28428684.
- ^ a b "The Philippines: Human Rights and Forest Management in the 1990s". HRW. April 1996. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
- ^ Leary, Virginia; Ellis, A. A.; Madlener, Kurt (1984). "The Philippines: Human Rights after Martial Law" (PDF). International Commission of Jurists.
- ^ Malayao, Macliing (December 28, 2016). "IPs remember Marcos atrocities". Inquirer. Retrieved 2020-06-04.