"Justice for the Tumandoks: Complaints filed in South Korea over Jalaur megadam funding, builder", 28 Aug 2025

Panay’s Tumandok people… filed complaints… in South Korea… against the Korean financier and contractor of the Jalaur River Multipurpose Project Stage II (JRMP II)… alleging human rights violations and environmental harm. The Tumandok Indigenous People of Panay, the Jalaur River for the People’s Movement (JRPM)… filed… before the Human Rights Management Committee of the Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM) and its Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF)… accusing KEXIM of breaching EDCF safeguards and OECD guidelines… by funding JRMP II. [A] second complaint [was filed]… to South Korea’s National Contact Point (NCP) against Daewoo Engineering and Construction Co. Ltd. …for alleged breaches of OECD corporate responsibility standards, including due diligence failures and contributing to displacement, desecration of burial grounds, environmental damage, militarization, and the Dec. 30, 2020 killings of nine Tumandok leaders… plus arrests and alleged coercion undermining free, prior, and informed consent, …citing UN Special Rapporteur Ian Fry (2024) on coercion, red-tagging, intimidation, and violence. Complainants seek withdrawal, apologies, investigations, and reparations; they urge ending cooperation with the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) and National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP)… while dam works near completion.