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Joanna K. Cariño Joanna Patricia Kintanar Cariño is a Filipina human rights activist, educator, researcher, and co-founder of the Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA), SELDA Northern Luzon (Association of Ex Political Detainees against Detention and Arrest) and SANDUGO (Alliance and Movement of Bangsamoro and Indigenous Peoples and for Self-Determination). Most of Cariño’s work has been in the defense and advancement of indigenous people’s rights and human rights and contributing to the Filipino peoples’ struggle for national freedom and genuine democracy.

2016 Cordillera Day

Early Life Cariño was born May 2, 1951, in Baguio City. She is the second eldest of the eight children of Josefina Kintanar Cariño and Atty. Jose Cortes Cariño Jr. She is also among the direct descendants of Mateo and Bayosa Cariño of Kafagway, the traditional owners of large parts of Baguio City. Her eldest sister, Jennifer ‘Jingjing’ Cariño, was killed during the anti-Marcos movements in 1976. As a young student, she excelled academically while attending Baguio Central School and Baguio City High School. In 1970, she left the University of the Philippines-Baguio (UPB) and became an activist. Together with her younger sister Joji, she was illegally arrested, tortured and detained in Camp Olivas from 1974 to 1976. In 1978, she resumed her schooling at UPB, where she graduated with a degree in Anthropology and Economics. She later took up graduate studies at the same university but subsequently left to become a full-fledged human rights activist. With this background, she helped set up Cordillera SELDA chapter Afong (Home) and later the Northern Luzon chapter of SELDA (Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainee Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto), the organization of former political prisoners in the Philippines of which she currently serves as chairperson.

Human Rights Work Cariño was among the founders of the Cordillera Peoples Alliance for the Defense of Ancestral Domain and Self Determination (also known as Cordillera People’s Alliance) in 1984 and has worked with this organization ever since. In 1986, she helped organize a delegation of indigenous peoples led by CPA that held a dialogue with then-new President Cory Aquino for the recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights and lobbied the Constitutional Commission for the inclusion of provisions on ancestral land and regional autonomy in the new constitution. She helped in the establishment and was part of the leadership of DINTEG Indigenous Peoples Legal Center and Cordillera Human Rights Alliance. She also helped establish various indigenous people’s organizations among the youth, professionals, women, elders, and cultural workers in the Cordillera. At the national level, Cariño was a key figure in the establishment of the SANDUGO, the national alliance of indigenous peoples and Moro people for Self-Determination, in 2016. She currently serves as co-chairperson of SANDUGO. At the international level, she took part in the Dialogue Asia in 1984, which led to the establishment of the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact, and was among the founders of the International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self Determination and Liberation in 2010, among other international networks. On top of the many organizations that she is part of and helped establish, she is also actively taking part in the national Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses in Malacañang (CARMMA) since 2016. She helped organize the Cordillera Movement against Tyranny, which was launched during the annual Cordillera Day celebration in April 2018. Cariño is a long-time educator, writer and researcher. She was a faculty member in Anthropology and Economics at the University of the Philippines Baguio from 1980-85. She left the academy to become a fulltime activist at the height of the struggle against the Marcos dictatorship. She was the founding Executive Director of the Cordillera Consultation and Research, which transformed into the Cordillera Resource Center for Indigenous People’s Rights. Throughout her life as an activist, she has conducted numerous education and training programs for indigenous people’s organizations, not only among the Igorots of the Cordillera region but also among the Lumad indigenous peoples in Mindanao, Southern Philippines. She has also written numerous articles on the issues of the indigenous peoples, human rights, and national democracy, and has spoken before various audiences in the country and at the international level. Many of these articles and speeches have been published locally, nationally and internationally. She was co-editor of two collections on Cordillera issues – Dakami Ya Nan Dagami (We Indigenous and Our Ancestral Land), 1983 and Ti Daga Ket Biag (Land is Life), 2010. Gawad Bangan Award

Threats Because of the repressive political climate in the Philippines, there have been threats to Cariño’s security and other leaders of CPA through the years. In 1992, Cariño was among a group of 14 people who were arrested without a warrant and brought to the Police headquarters in Camp Crame. They were released after two days detention with no charges filed against them. Numerous times Cariño noticed increased surveillance of her movements. There is continuous political vilification and red-tagging of the CPA and its leaders, including Cariño. She has been included in the so-called Order of Battle of the Philippine military, as reported in the Philippines mission report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial Killings, Philip Alston, in 2008. In February 2018, the Philippine government, through the Department of Justice, filed a petition to proscribe the Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army as terrorist organizations. The petition included Joanna Cariño along with past and present leaders of CPA in a list of 657 names that the Philippine government aims to declare as “terrorists”. In July 2018, Cariño’s lawyer filed a motion with the court to dismiss the unwarranted charges against her. On October 30, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the Department of Justice to pursue the proscription case. On January 3, 2019, the Department of Justice amended their petition. Cariño and the 600 plus others were dropped from the list. This does not mean however that the threats to her security have been solved as the very inclusion of her name in the terrorist list is already a continuing threat.

Awards and Recognitions

In recognition of her work in upholding human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples and national minorities, Cariño has received a number of awards, the latest of which was given by Philippine civil society organizations and the National Movement against Tyranny in April 2018, in recognition of her outstanding advocacy of indigenous peoples’ rights. She was also bestowed the Gawad Bangan 2018 (indigenous woman leader) Award by the Pi Sigma Delta Sorority and University of the Philippines Kasarian (Gender) in March 2018 and was awarded as one of the Outstanding Women Leaders of Baguio City for indigenous women’s empowerment in 2011. In September 2018, she attended the Human Rights Defenders World Summit held in Paris, France where she and the other human rights defenders were awarded medals as human rights advocates and made honorary members of the Paris Bar Association. On May 18, 2019, the May 18 Memorial Foundation bestowed the Gwangju Prize for Human rights to Cariño for her activism and work against state violence. The Gwangju Prize for Human Rights is given to “individuals, groups or institutions in Korea and abroad that have contributed to promoting and advancing human rights, democracy and peace through their work."