In 2015, ongoing and increasingly severe human rights violations marked the country, driven by structural violence involving state, economic, military, and paramilitary forces. These abuses affected many sectors, but Indigenous Peoples (IPs)—particularly the Lumad communities in Mindanao—remained among the most vulnerable. Over a five-year period, perpetrators killed 377 Indigenous individuals in extrajudicial executions nationwide, with 244 of these cases occurring in Mindanao. Of the fourteen massacres recorded across the Philippines in 2015, five happened in Mindanao, two of which shocked the nation because of their brutality.

During the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, human rights conditions in Mindanao deteriorated further, especially after he declared martial law on the island in May 2017. Military and security forces intensified counterinsurgency operations, resulting in widespread abuses. Karapatan documented more than 800,000 cases of civil and political rights violations in Mindanao between May 2017 and the end of 2019. These violations included 93 extrajudicial killings, 136 frustrated extrajudicial killings, approximately 1,450 illegal arrests, six enforced disappearances, 35 cases of torture, the forced evacuation of around 423,000 individuals, and tens of thousands of incidents of threats and harassment.

As military operations escalated in ancestral domains, authorities forcibly displaced thousands of Lumad families, particularly in Bukidnon, Surigao del Sur, and the Davao region. At the height of martial law, mass evacuations disrupted Lumad livelihoods, cultural practices, and access to education. Government agencies ordered the systematic closure of Lumad community schools—many operated by non-government organizations—after accusing them of links to communist rebels. These actions led to the closure of more than 160 Lumad schools and denied thousands of Indigenous children their right to education.

Security forces and state agents also harassed, illegally arrested, and red-tagged Lumad leaders, teachers, and advocates. Authorities killed or imprisoned several Lumad activists after accusing them of supporting the insurgency. Human rights organizations stressed that officials often used these accusations as politically motivated tools to silence Indigenous resistance to large-scale mining, logging, and land grabbing in ancestral territories.

In response, the Mindanao churches launched the Mindanao Lumad Ministry of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente–Mindanao Bishops Conference on April 20, 2016. Through this ministry, the churches continue to walk in solidarity with Lumad communities as they assert their right to self-determination and defend their ancestral domains.