Nine Tumandok indigenous peoples have been massacred by combined police and military operations in Panay Island earlier today, Wednesday, according to reports.
Two days before the year ends, 12th Infantry Battalion-Philippine Army (12IBPA) troopers and the Philippine National Police in Western Visayas swooped down on Tumandok communities in Calinog in Iloilo and Tapaz in Capiz and killed the victims in a Synchronized Enhanced Management of Police Operation (SEMPO).
Among those killed in Lahug, Tapaz were Tumandok nga Mangunguma nga Nagapangapin sa Duta kag Kabuhi/Tumandok Farmers in Defense of Land and Life (TUMANDUK) chairperson and Barangay Lahug Councilor Roy Giganto.
Roy Giganto (Panay Today photo)
Giganto, also a former Barangay Lahug chairperson, was killed along with co-councilors Reynaldo Katipunan and Mario Aguirre.
An Eliseo Gayas in Barangay Aglinab, a Mauro Diaz in Barangay Tacayan, and an Artilito Katipunan in Barangay Acuna were also reportedly killed in the same operation.
UPDATE (8:50 PM): The number of massacre victims, previously reported as eight, have risen to nine.
The two other previously unnamed victims of the massacre have been identified as Barangay Daan Sur, Tapaz, Capiz chairperson Dalson Catamin, kapitan and Jomer Vidal of Barangay Nayawan of the same town.
The ninth victim, also a resident from Barangay Daan Sur, has yet to be identified.
Panay Island farmers’ alliance Pamanggas reported that the other victims’ families were ordered outside their homes before the victims were shot.
They were unarmed when killed by the military and the police, Pamanggas said.
Two Barangay Aglinab youths were also taken and remain missing, the reports said.
In Barangay Garangan, Calinog town, Tumandoks Luisito Bautista Jr., Marilyn Chiva, Welsie Chiva, at Glen Legario were arrested by the military.
Alternative news outfit Panay Today said a total of 15 Tumandok have been arrested.
Marevic Aguirre, former TUMANDUK chairperson, also remains missing, it added.
Missing Marevic Aguirre, former TUMANDUK chairperson. (Manila Today photo)
Victims all red-tagged
Some of the victims, such as Giganto and Gayas, were known Tumandok tribal leaders who stood against the Jalaur Mega Dam project in their ancestral domain.
They also refused to sign the consent resolution asked of indigenous peoples before projects are implemented in their ancestral land.
Giganto was earlier reported to have been arrested by the military and the police but later turned up dead.
Blood-spattered house after combined AFP and PNP men massacred 8 Tumandok IPs in Panay Island last December 30, 22020. (Photo from Jeffry Giganto’s FB account)
Gayas was also earlier reported arrested by the SEMPO and tortured until he vomited blood.
Bautista is also a barangay councilor who had been red-tagged and summoned by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) at the 12IBPA camp just last month.
Last December 11, NTF-ELCAC asset Jeffrey Celis accused TUMANDUK as a front organization of the Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army in the indeginous people’s area in Panay island. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
The loan agreement for the New Centennial Water Source-Kaliwa Low Dam Project (NCWS-Kaliwa Low Dam) is onerous and should be cancelled. President Duterte has reportedly ordered a review of loan agreements to determine if any are onerous and disadvantageous to the Filipino people. Yet the Kaliwa Dam project which has come under fire for its unfavorable Chinese loan agreement has already started.
The Php10.2 billion (US$211.2 million) loan agreement financing most of the Php12.2 billion NCWS-Kaliwa Low Dam has the following questionable provisions:
1. Costly to pay. The commercial loan agreement has a 2% annual interest rate, commitment fee of 0.3% annually, management fee of US$633,600, and a 20-year maturity with a 7-year grace period. The nominal interest rate is higher than other recent loan agreements with Japan or Korea which range from 0.08-0.26 percent. The loan is also not necessarily the cheapest loan even if US dollar equivalent interest rates are used.
2. Project is exclusive to Chinese contractors. While a Philippine project,only Chinese contractors are qualified to bid and Philippine corporations were excluded from the process. The China Energy Engineering Company, Inc. (CEEC) bagged the project. The contract is between the Metropolitan Waterworks Sewerage System (MWSS) and Chinese corporations.
3. Loan agreement is biased for Chinese laws. Article 8.4 of the loan agreement stipulates that Chinese Law will govern disputes pertaining to the agreement. Meanwhile, Article 8.5 says that disputes will be dealt with under the auspices of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Court.
4. Philippine patrimonial assets and property may be compromised in case of default on the loan. In the Article 8.1 Waiver of Immunity, the country “waives any immunity on the grounds of sovereignty or otherwise for itself or its property in connection with any arbitration proceeding”.
The loan agreement is financially disadvantageous, tied to Chinese contractors, and an affront to Philippine sovereignty. These issues are also on top of other issues raised by the Dumagats and Remontados, farmers and community folk, environmentalists, engineers, hydrologists, scientists, public servants, consumers, and many more. The dams projects will displace communities, inundate ancestral lands, and destroy the environment.
The Philippine government should not enter into loan agreements having such terms whether with China or any other sources of official development assistance (ODA). The Filipino people bear the burden of paying these onerous loans. This is even getting worse under the Duterte administration which is imposing new and higher consumption taxes while lowering taxes on the rich and on corporations. #
https://i1.wp.com/kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/1-2.png?fit=768%2C434&ssl=1434768Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2020-10-13 07:47:182020-10-13 07:47:20Four reasons why the Kaliwa Dam Project loan is onerous
Government soldiers forced an indigenous person to eat human feces during a military operation in San Marcelino, Zambales Province last August 21, groups reported.
The Umahon Para sa Tunay na Repormang Agraryo (Umahon) and the Sandugo-Movement of Moro and Indigenous Peoples for Self-Determination (Sandugo) said soldiers of the 7th Infantry Division of the Philippine Army (76th IDPA) forced a certain Nalin Ramos to eat a soldier’s feces.
Ramos was among three Aeta residents, including relatives Witi Ramos and Jepoy Ramos, who were “physically assaulted, tortured and detained by the soldiers,” the groups said.
The three were also detained and hospitalized, Sandugo said. Upon their release, the three were too afraid to go home due to trauma and chose to stay at the evacuation center in Barangay Aglao in the said town.
“A total of 659 families evacuated due to repeated bombings of Aeta communities in Sitio Lumibao, San Marcelino,” Sandugo added.
Umahon said the soldiers wanted the Aeta community to evacuate their ancestral domain while they are pursuing suspected New People’s Army (NPA) guerillas in the area.
Four Philippine Army helicopters reportedly dropped bombs in the community.
Sandugo said the government troopers are liable under the anti-torture law for their “evil” and “inhumane” treatment of the Aetas.
“The acts of the 7th Infantry Battalion of the Armed Forces of the Philippines reeks of evilness. Their recent actions against our Aeta brothers and sisters are inhuman. It is pure evil, only demons would have the conscience to do this,” Sandugo said.
The group added the 7th ID’s bombardment of the IP community was meant to drive away the Aetas and pave the way for mining explorations by the Dizon Copper-Silver Mines, Inc.
The Aeta residents oppose the project to proted the environment and their ancestral lands, Sandugo said. Sandugo called on the Commission on Human Rights to investigate the incidents and demanded the soldiers’ pull out from the Aeta community. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
https://i0.wp.com/kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/IMG_9980-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=117072560Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2020-08-31 17:27:062020-08-31 17:27:08Gov’t troops feed Aeta with human feces, groups report
A paramilitary group destroyed an indigenous people’s school in Bukidnon Province last Wednesday, August 26, the Save Our Schools (SOS) Network reported.
The Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation Inc. (MISFI) Academy in Sitio Laburon, Brgy. Matupe, San Fernando was attacked and destroyed by around 50 members of paramilitary group ‘Bagani’, the network said in an alert Saturday.
The group said two teachers tending to the school farm were alerted by students at around 7:15 in the morning that armed men have trespassed the school campus.
The school—repeatedly accused by government forces as a New People’s Army training facility—is 15-minutes away from the farm.
The teachers saw the paramilitary group destroying the school buildings and tearing up textbooks.
The destroyed teachers’ quarters. (SOS photo)
“The teachers were about to take photos of the incident but were threatened by the ‘Bagani’ leader Lito Gambay, who told them to leave as President (Rodrigo) Duterte will know about this,” the SOS said.
Students and community members cried out of frustration as their school was being destroyed before their eyes, the SOS added.
The two school buildings and teachers’ cottage was built in 2007 from donations by the European Union Aid for uprooted people.
The main school building after the attack. (SOS photo)
The SOS said the ‘Bagani’ paramilitary is under the command of the 89th Infantry Battalion Bravo Company of the Philippine Army which has set up camp in Brgy. Kalagangan, San Fernando, 30-minutes away from the school.
“The Save Our Schools condemns in strongest terms the unabated destruction and closure of Lumad schools in Mindanao. As of August 2020, around 178 lumad schools are now forcibly closed,” the group said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
Another view of the destroyed school building after the attack. (SOS photo)
Indigenous peoples groups from different regions marched to Mendiola, Manila on December 6 for a protest action against attacks on their communities.
The activity was part of a day-long observance of the Global Mobilization to Stop the Criminalization of Land Rights Defenders. They dubbed this year’s Philippine observance “Laban ng Pambansang Minorya para sa Karapatan, Lupang Ninuno at Sariling Pagpapasya.” (Video by Jek Alcaraz/Kodao)
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The Salugpongan Schools started as a literacy-numeracy school
for the Talaingod Manobo children. Volunteer teachers were facilitated by the
Rural Missionaries of the Philippines (RMP).
2007
Salugpongan Schools were established as a formal learning
institution aiming to provide basic education to the Manobo and was accredited
by the Department of Education.
Its full name, Salugpongan Ta Tanu Igkanogon Community Learning
Center, Inc. (STTICLCI), was derived from its founders, the Salugpongan Ta Tanu
Igkanogon (Unity in Defense of Ancestral Land), an organization formed by
Talaingod Manobo leaders.
They envisioned to provide the Talaingod Manobo and other IP
communities free, quality and culturally relevant education. They said this is
the “concrete expression of their collective effort” to defend the Pantaron
Mountain Range in their ancestral territory.
2009
Salugpongan school administrators joined in the consultation
held by the Department of Education (DepEd) for the creation of the Indigenous
Peoples Education (IPED) framework.
The framework has become what is now the DepEd Order No. 62 series of 2011, or
“Adopting the National Indigenous People’s Education (IPED) Policy Framework
intended to be “an instrument for promoting shared accountability, continuous
dialogue, engagement, and partnership among government, IP communities, civil
society, and other education stakeholders.”
Salugpungan schools encountered the first red-tagging incident
from the 60th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army, as the DepEd presents
evidence that Salugpungan was granted a permit.
2012
The STTICLCI received accreditation status as a learning center
from the Sangguniang Bayan of Talaingod.
2014
Its very first campus in Sitio Dulyan, Barangay Palma Gil,
Talaingod, serving Kinder to Grade 6 learners, was granted Certificate of
Recognition by the DepEd.
April — Due to the increasing military deployment and operations
in Talaingod that has harassed its residents, the Salugpongan embarked on an
evacuation, seeking sanctuary at the United Church of Christ of the Philippines’
(UCCP) Haran compound.
November — The Davao del Norte DepEd division officer urges the
68th Infantry Battalion to spare the Salugpongan schools from military operations
after complaints were raised by school administrators of soldiers “residing near the school and establishing patrol bases”.
2015
March — A fact finding mission in Talaingod in
March confirms that military personnel were encamped in 257 households, two
schools, a health center and a barangay hall.
July — The DepEd delayed the release of operating permits of the
Salugpongan schools, which was released a month later after the Salugpongan
community held a camp-in protest in the DepEd Regional
office. Salugpongan decided to hold bakwit schools in UCCP Haran because of the
attacks of the military and paramilitary.
davaotoday file photo
2016
January — A Salugpongan student, 16 year old Alibando Tingkas, was shot dead by the
paramilitary Alamara in Barangay Palma Gil.
Amelia Pond, the Curriculum Development Officer of the
Salugpongan Schools, and coordinator of RMP Southern Mindanao, was arrested
during an RMP assembly in Cebu. She was arrested on a warrant bearing a
different name allegedly of a New People’s Army member and was charged for
murder. Pond was detained for 16 months, including a few months in hospital
arrest following a spine surgery, before the case was dismissed for “mistaken identity”.
The Talaingod Manobos returned to their communities after
President Duterte’s promise to act on their call to pullout troops in their
villages. But later they found the military continues to encamp in their
communities and schools.
2017
June — A Salugpongan teacher survives a strafing incident from a
paramilitary member. The strafing traumatized the Lumad students.
July — Lumad schools camped out in “Panacañang” and at the
DepEd regional office to raise public awareness on their continuing
displacement, and urged the government to stop the attacks and red-tagging of
their schools.
After his 2nd State of the Nation Address (SONA), President
Rodrigo Duterte said in a press conference that he would “bomb Lumad schools”
over allegations that they are built by the New People’s Army. The
pronouncement forced students and communities to stay in sanctuaries while
institutions such as UCCP Haran and UP Diliman hosted “bakwit” (evacuation)
schools.
September 5 — 19-year old Salugpungan student Obello Bay-ao was murdered by CAFGU and Alamara members in
the community of Sitio Dulyan. The suspects remained to be at large.
November 2018
18 Salugpongan teachers, and delegates of a National Solidarity
Mission headed by former Bayan Muna Party-list Representative Satur Ocampo and
ACT Teachers Party-List Representative France Castro was detained and charged with kidnapping and
trafficking. The group was headed to help rescue the students and teachers the
Salugpongan campus in Sitio Dulyan who fled after the paramilitary Alamara
forcibly closed their schools.
The group, called “Talaingod 18” was granted bail as their case
continues.
2019
July 8 — The DepEd Division released a memorandum calling for
the suspension of 54 Salugpongan schools. The issuance was based on the
recommendation of National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. that accused
the school of not following the DepEd curriculum and teaching “ideologies that
advocate against the government”.
July 22 — The Salugpongan schools submitted a reply to the DepEd
order, firmly denying all the allegations. They also questioned the agency’s
issuance of such order “without following due process”.
September 2019
In defiance to DepEd’s order of suspension, the school continue
their operations for its students, re-opening “Bakwit schools” in UCCP Haran, and in
University of the Philippines-Diliman in Quezon City for this school year.
October 7
DepEd Region 11 issued its final resolution calling for the
closure of all Salugpungan schools. It claimed the basis on their fact-finding
mission that verified Esperon’s claims and cited other instances that the
schools did not comply with DepEd standards and curriculum. # (davaotoday.com)
https://i1.wp.com/kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/dt2.jpg?fit=850%2C567&ssl=1567850Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2019-10-11 10:14:062019-10-11 10:14:07A timeline of the birth and attacks on Salugpongan schools
Tampok ngayon ang isang 16 taong gulang na climate activist na si Greta Thunberg mula sa Sweden. Ito ay dahil sa kanyang matatapang na mga pahayag hinggil sa lumalalang problema dulot ng pagbabago ng klima o climate change. Giit ng dalaga na dapat ay agarang kumilos ang iba’t ibang lider sa buong mundo upang solusyunan ang nagbabadyang tuluyang pagkasira ng ating kalikasan.
Dito sa Pilipinas, nananawagan din ang mga kabataang Lumad na protektahan ang lupang ninuno at ang kalikasan.
Isa si Chricelyn Empong sa marami pang estudyanteng lumad na napilitang mag-bakwit dito sa Maynila dahil pagpapasara ng gobyerno sa kanilang mga paaralan. Tulad ni Greta, naninindigan din si Chricelyn na dapat lamang na kumilos at lumaban hinggil sa pangangalaga sa ating kalikasan.
“Buhay ng buong mundo ang nakasalalay sa aming pagkilos ngayon. Hindi namin kailanman tatalikuran ang susunod na henerasyon gaya ng pagtalikod ng gobyernong Duterte,” pahayag ni Chricelyn.
Sa ngayon, nagaganap ang isang Global Climate Strike kung saan kabilang si Greta at ang mga kabataan lumad. Nagsimula ito noong Setyembre 20 at magpapatuloy hanggang Setyembre 27. Hinihikayat nito ang lahat na sumama sa mga kilos protesta upang igiit ang hustisya para sa ating kalikasan. Ito rin ay para itulak ang iba’t ibang pulitiko na magsagawa ng mga solusyon upang mapangalagaan ang kalikasan. (Video ni Jo Maline Mamangun/Kodao)
https://i1.wp.com/kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/3-14.jpg?fit=960%2C540&ssl=1540960Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2019-09-26 13:38:262019-09-26 13:39:29Chricelyn Empong, ang Lumad na Greta Thunberg
The member of the 18th Congress who probably has the
least formal education took to the floor of the House of Representatives last
Monday, July 29, visibly nervous but delivered the most powerful speech of the
night nonetheless.
Neophyte representative Eufemia Cullamat of Bayan Muna
delivered her first privileged speech, vowed to defend the Lumad schools that
are under attack by government forces, and called for the respect of the
indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination over their ancestral domains.
Cullamat apologized for what she feared may be
mispronounced words, but she soon hit her stride and passionately delivered her
seven-page speech.
“I admit I am one of the very few members in this
hall who may have only finished elementary education and finds it difficult to
understand English words or read them. I am living proof of the government’s
failure to provide education for everyone because the nearest school from where
I live is 20 kilometers away,” Cullamat said in Filipino.
A member of the Manobo tribe from the mountains of
Barangay Diatogon in Lianga, Surigao del Sur, Ka Femia railed against the
attacks on Lumad schools she helped build. She recalled how she witnessed the
murder of her cousin Dionel Campos, her uncle Datu Jovillo Sinzo, and
Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development’s
(Alcadev’s) executive director Emerito Samarca on September 1, 2015.
“I was shaking, prone on the ground, while the
soldiers and the paramilitary peppered us non-stop with bullets. I clearly saw
how Dionel was ordered to lie on the ground by a paramilitary. I clearly saw
how his brain splattered when he was shot,” Cullamat said.
“I embraced Dionel’s children as they wailed over
their father’s lifeless and violated body.
I saw one of our elders, Datu Bello, bludgeoned several times that
caused fractures on his legs and arms,” Cullamat added.
She also narrated how she saw Alcadev’s principal Samarca lying in one of the classrooms, his lifeless body bearing signs of torture. “His body was riddled with bullets, full of cigarette burns and his throat slashed,” she narrated.
Cullamat said the massacre was one incident that shows
how the government regards the Lumad’s struggle to establish indigenous
peoples’ schools.
“What pains me, Mr. Speaker, is that these
horrible attacks are still being perpetrated in our schools, against our
teachers, against our children. Not only do they destroy our schools, they file
trumped-up charges against our teachers and supporters; they also imprison
them,” she said.
“They disrespect, they burn the schools we
sacrifice so much to put up,” she added, her voice breaking in pent-up
rage.
Cullamat raises fist in tribute to those who sacrificed their lives for the national minority groups. (Screengrab from HOR live feed)
Cullamat said that for many decades, the national
minority had been deprived of basic social services, including education. She
said they have been victimized by their lack of education, as well as the
difficulty in obtaining them on the flatlands.
But the massacre goes beyond the government’s false
accusations that the Lumad schools are disguised New People’s Army (NPA)
training and recruitment grounds, Ka Femia said.
“That massacre was clearly meant to intimidate us
into allowing coal mining in our ancestral lands. As a paramilitary trooper
once said, ‘it would not have happened if we allowed mining,'” she said.
But the Lumad of Diatogon have long decided to defend their land from
environmental plunder, a decision that has cost them many lives and the existence
of their beloved schools.
Cullamat said 15 coal mining, as well as palm oil
plantation companies, are salivating over 200,000 hectares inside Lumad-Manobo
communities in the Andap Valley Complex in Surigao del Sur.
Still, Cullamat said, they will fight for their
schools. She said they persevered in establishing them and succeeded through
blood, sweat, and tears and with the help of the church and non-government
organizations. The schools taught them to read, write, and count.
“Because of these schools, our children are being
educated in ways that are respectful of our traditions, culture, and our need
to improve our lives, especially through agriculture so that we may prosper
while we protect our ancestral domains for future generations,” she
explained.
Cullamat also cited that many graduates of their Lumad
schools have gone on to earn college degrees and have gone back to their
communities as teachers, agriculturists, health workers and organizers. They
have also become trusted advisers to their tribal leaders.
She added that her children studied in the Lumad
schools and taught her and other adults in their communities to read and
understand Filipino. “My dear colleagues, I now stand before you, speaking
in Filipino, because of these Lumad schools,” she said.
The success of the schools in educating the Lumad have
made them targets of harassments and attacks, the neophyte legislator said. She
cited the recent decision of the Department of Education to suspend the permits
of 55 Salugpongan Ta’tanu Igkanugon Learning Center schools in Davao upon the
prodding of national security adviser Hermogenes Esperon.
“Esperon accuses the Salugpungan schools of training Lumad children to become New People’s Army guerrillas and how to shoot or dismantle guns, as he accuses other schools run by the Clans (Center for Lumad Advocacy Networking and Services), Misfi (Mindanao Interfaith Services Foundation, Inc.), Trifpss (Tribal Filipino Program of Surigao del Sur), and Alcadev. All these are lies that are only meant to close down our schools and shut down our national minority organizations,” she cried, her voice rising in anger.
As an indigenous person member of Congress, Cullamat
said she must report to Congress that the attacks against the national minority
do not only happen in Mindanao. She said the Dumagats who oppose the mega-dam
projects in Quezon and the Igorots who with the Chico River Irrigation Pump
Project in the Cordilleras are also under attack.
“In spite of all these, the national minority would persevere in defense of our ancestral lands, the source of our life and livelihood,” she vowed.
“We will persevere in defending our schools for
the education of our children. We will persevere in our quest for justice for
the victims of human rights violations,” she added. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
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DAVAO CITY, Philippines — A Lumad leader and a farmer-activist were gunned down in separate incidents in the province of Bukidnon.
On July 8, Datu Mario Agsab was shot dead in his home at Sitio Mainaga, Brgy. Iba, Cabanglasan, Bukidnon at around 7am by suspected members of paramilitary group Alamara and CAFGU members under the 8th Infantry Batallion.
According to Karapatan-Bukidnon, Agsab was an active leader of PIGYAYUNGA-AN, a local chapter of Kalumbay Regional Lumad Organization in Cabanglasan, Bukidnon.
Two days earlier, the group also reported a similar shooting incident which targeted a member of KASAMA-Bukidnon, an affiliate of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP).
Karapatan said that farmer Joel Anino was shot in his home in San Fernando town, Bukidnon by unidentified gunmen around 6:30am last July 6. He later died at the Malaybalay General Hospital.
Anino is the second member of KASAMA-Bukidnon killed this year.
Last June 16, 57-year-old farmer Liovigildo “Nonoy” Palma, also a member of KASAMA-Bukidnon, was killed by three suspects riding a single motorcycle just right outside his house at Barangay Halapitan, Sitio Malambago, San Fernando.
Datu Wilson Anglao Jr., secretary general of Karapatan-Bukidnon, condemned the growing number of killings in the province.
The group has already documented nine incidents of extrajudicial killings in Bukidnon in the middle of 2019.
Anglao attributed these killings to the implementation of Martial Law in Mindanao, which is expected to last until the end of this year.
“The [State] wants to silence anyone – especially the farmers here in Bukidnon – who is strongly calling for genuine agrarian reform in the country,” Anglao said.
Anglao said that they will bring these cases to the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Region 10 to urge them to look into the human rights situation in the province. #
https://i1.wp.com/kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/C.jpg?fit=850%2C443&ssl=1443850Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2019-07-10 15:28:362019-07-10 15:28:38Lumad leader, farmer-activist killed in their homes
Eight Aetas died
in the 6.1 magnitude earthquake that shook parts of Luzon last April 22 but
have not been included in the government list of casualties, an indigenous
people’s group said.
The Central Luzon Aeta Association (CLAA) said at least eight Aetas, including minors, died in landslides in Porac and Floridablanca towns in Pampanga province due to the earthquake.
The group did not name the reported victims.
An April 26 report by CNN Philippines, however, said one child was killed in Barangay Nabuclod in Floridablanca town while three others (8-year old Landok Serrano, his father Berto Serrano and grandfather Bidong Laya) went missing during the quake.
In a press
conference in Angeles City this morning, the CLAA complained that the National
Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council did not look into the plight of
the Aetas—the indigenous peoples group in Central Luzon.
“[T]he NDRRMC just recorded a total of 18 deaths. Of the reported 18 deaths, five missing person cases, 243 wounded, from the 3,632 affected families or about 7,410 individuals…few or even none of it includes the indigenous people and their communities,” the CLAA in its press statement said.
The CLAA added that the Aetas are the most vulnerable sector in the region and the last to recover from disasters.
The group also bewailed that the Aetas have limited access to state resources, such as quick response and rescue teams when disasters strike.
‘Apathetic president’
In the press conference held at the Angeles City Youth Center, the CLAA expressed fears that more deaths may have occurred but remain unreported, especially in farflung indigenous communities.
The group also blamed
president Rodrigo Duterte government for his apparent apathy for dismissing the
number of deaths as “the barest minimum.”
“I’m not
trying to belittle the problem. To me, it’s just maybe a few towns hard hit.
Thank God that we have the barest minimum of deaths,” the President said at a situation
briefing in San Fernando City, Pampanga two days after the quake.
CLAA chairperson Sonny Serrano said that the severity of the disaster effect of the earthquake may be linked directly to anti-environment projects “along every inch of the entire length of the Zambales mountain range.”
“In the uplands of
Floridablanca for example, exploration and earthmoving activities along the
ridges of Mount Cuadrado may have caused the weakened soil of the residents of
Brgy. Nabuclod and other hard hit barangays of Floridablanca,” Serrano said.
In Porac, the
introduction of alien tree species by the government’s National Greening
Program and the existence of many quarry operations as well land conversion to
roads and subdivision may have worsened the effects of the Earthquake, he
added.
The CLAA also denounced
Duterte’s “criminal negligence” in perpetuating more intensive environmental
plunder of the entire Zambales mountain range under his government’s Build
Build Build program, that may have worsened the effects of the earthquake. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
https://i0.wp.com/kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/aeta.jpg?fit=640%2C480&ssl=1480640Kodao Productionshttps://kodao.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/kodao.pngKodao Productions2019-04-30 15:38:392019-04-30 15:57:068 Aetas killed during quake, IP group reports