Timuay Lucenio Manda is a

Thimuay ''Thimuay'' (also spelled ''thimuway'', ''timuay'', and ''thimuway'', among other variations) is the name of the most senior ancestral leader among the Subanon people of the Zamboanga Peninsula in the Philippines. Less senior ancestral leaders are ...

or ancestral leader of the indigenous

Subanon people The Subanon (also spelled Subanen or Subanun) is an indigenous group to the Zamboanga peninsula area, particularly living in the mountainous areas of Zamboanga del Sur and Misamis Occidental, Mindanao Island, Philippines. The Subanon people spea ...

of the

Zamboanga peninsula Zamboanga Peninsula ( tl, Tangway ng Zamboanga; cbk, Peninsula de Zamboanga; ceb, Lawis sa Zamboanga) is an administrative region in the Philippines, designated as Region IX. It consists of three provinces (Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga Sibu ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. He also serves as a government official, being the

Barangay A barangay (; abbreviated as Brgy. or Bgy.), historically referred to as barrio (abbreviated as Bo.), is the smallest administrative division in the Philippines and is the native Filipino term for a village, district, or ward. In metropolitan ...

(village) captain of Barangay Conacon in the municipality of Bayog,

Zamboanga del Sur Zamboanga del Sur ( Cebuano: ''Habagatang Zamboanga;'' Subanen: ''S'helatan Sembwangan/Sembwangan dapit Shelatan''; Chavacano: ''Zamboanga del Sur''; tl, Timog Zamboanga; mdh, Pagabatan Sambuanga), officially the Province of Zamboanga del Sur, ...

. He is known as an opponent of

illegal mining Illegal mining is mining activity that is undertaken without state permission, in particular in absence of land rights, mining licenses, and exploration or mineral transportation permits. Illegal mining can be a subsistence activity, as is the cas ...

and

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...

operations in the

. Timuay Manda is well known for his attempts to protect his tribe’s ancestral domain and has been outspoken in his call for a moratorium on mining concessions in Bayog, a heavily forested region of the southwestern Philippines islands. Manda filed a court petition to revoke mining permits at the Pinukis Range Forest, which is among the last untouched forests in the Zamboanga peninsula of the islands where various multi-national mining companies are mining for

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

and

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

. His opposition to illegal mining operations in his area has led to the endangerment of his own life and also that of his immediate family. Manda has clarified that he is not altogether anti-mining, but rather anti-illegal mining, as there is a problem in the region of mining activities taking place without valid or legal documents. On 4 September 2012, Manda was driving his 11-year-old son to elementary school in Barangay Datagan in Bayog on his motorcycle when they were ambushed by armed assailants. Seeing the gunman aiming at them both, he accelerated in an attempt to speed away, but they were fired upon and the vehicle crashed, with his son dying instantly. Manda, though wounded, survived the crash and the assailants, thinking him dead, fled the scene of the crime.

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...

is supporting Manda in his fight against those who targeted him and the head of Amnesty International in the Philippines, Aurora Parong, has called upon

Philippine president The president of the Philippines ( fil, Pangulo ng Pilipinas, sometimes referred to as ''Presidente ng Pilipinas'') is the head of state, head of government and chief executive of the Philippines. The president leads the executive branch of t ...

Benigno Aquino III Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III (; February 8, 1960 – June 24, 2021), also known as Noynoy Aquino and colloquially as PNoy, was a Filipino politician who served as the 15th president of the Philippines from 2010 to 2016. The son of ...

to bring perpetrators to justice and stop what the group says is a culture of impunity that has left 36 tribal activists dead over the last several years. Amnesty International have also noted that Manda’s family has been targeted before in the past, with his cousin fatally shot a decade ago.

References

{{Reflist Filipino activists People from Zamboanga del Sur Subanon people