Manila: The Philippines’ Commission on Human Rights (CHR) plans to investigate the killing of the family of a tribal leader in southern Philippines after various groups condemned the incident.

Loretta Anne Rosales, of CHR, said she will personally visit the site of the incident in Sitio, in Kimlawis, Davao del Sur province, where three members of the Capion family were killed after soldiers shot at their house.

According to reports, the soldiers, from the 27th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army, were looking for Daquil Capion, who is a leader of the local tribe of the B’laan, who oppose the activities of foreign-owned Sagittarius Mines Inc and Xstrata in the area of Tampakan, South Cotabato, which is adjacent to Davao del Sur.

Capion’s wife Juvy, who was thought to have been pregnant, and their children Pop, 13, and John, 8, were killed in the attack, while their daughter Vicky was wounded.

The soldiers allegedly laid the bodies out in the open in an attempt to draw Capion, who is under investigation in a murder case, into handing himself into authorities.

The project in Tampakan is one of the largest mines of its kind in the country, straddling the boundaries of four provinces and the activities are expected to displace more than 30,000 B’laan peoples.

According to Karapatan, the human rights group, Capion’s tribe, the Bong Mal, have long opposed the incursion of mining into their lands. His uncle, Gorelmin Malid, was murdered in 2002 and there have been repeated abuses. In June 2012, Capion and other leaders invoked a pangayaw, or tribal war, to protect themselves.

Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of the Kalikasan Peoples Network, an environmental group, claimed the killing of the family was “a clear attempt at violently subduing opponents of the Tampakan Mining Project. Instead of addressing the ecological, economic and social impacts of foreign large-scale mining companies, the government of President Benigno Aquino III chose to simply silence the critics that have exposed and opposed these crimes to the environment. Justice must be immediately dispensed for all victims of human rights violations, especially for our environmental defenders.

“We call for the permanent and final cancellation of the Tampakan project that has indirectly claimed so many lives over the years and has been the source of increasing social strife and bloodshed even way before it starts operating. Let us not abet the killing of more people and the rich natural wealth of the country’s lands.”