Sagada Archives - Kodao Productions

The Philippine Army dropped counter-insurgency leaflets on Sagada and Besao towns in Mountain Province on Easter Sunday, April 12, in what appears to be another violation of the government’s own ceasefire declaration.

Photographs posted by an indigenous people’s rights advocate show leaflets being dropped on the popular mountain resort town of Sagada by two UH1J Huey helicopters placed inside cellophane wrappers that also contained candies as ballasts.

Beverly Longid, a staff member of the International Indigenous People’s Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation, posted several photos of the leaflets accusing the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), the New People’s Army (NPA) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) of using country’s lockdown as an opportunity to recruit more members through corona virus disease (Covid-19) health interventions.

The leaflets, dropped between 8:30 and 11:30 in the morning also urged NPA fighters, particularly those who suspect themselves to be Covid-19 positive, to surrender.

“The military unit deployed in Sagada is the 54th [Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army] which has been responsible for red-tagging, political vilification of legitimate organizations and human rights violations including the frustrated extrajudicial killing of Chinese-American Brandon Lee in Ifugao,” Longid tweeted.

Longid said the two helicopters may have spent more than Php200 thousand in aviation fuel, excluding the production costs of the leaflets in its Easter Sunday operation.

She said that a Huey helicopter uses up Php110 thousand of fuel per hour while airborne.

One of Beverly Longid’s tweets on the incident.

The government’s unilateral ceasefire declaration is effective from March 19 to April 14 that suspends military and police operations against the CPP, NPA and NDFP.

The Cordillera People’s Alliance (CPA) denounced the incident, saying the military only succeeded in terrorizing the communities and wasting public funds in spreading “recycled black propaganda materials.”

The CPA also revealed that the 54^th IB operates overly-strict checkpoints in the entire province that intimidate residents.

The group also said that the 15 alleged surrenderees the military presented last March 29 in Bauko town were “fake” and “recycled”.

“According to residents of Barangay Bangnen, Bauko, the so-called surrenderees were local residents were forced by the military to say they were NPA supporters,” the group said.

The CPA said the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) uses the Luzon-wide lockdown as an opportunity to implement its counter-insurgency campaign through red-tagging and fake surrenders.

The group accused the AFP of profiting from producing their propaganda materials and “fake surrenderrees” activities while many families are starving because of the lockdown.

CPA urged the government to spend its counter-insurgency budget on buying personal protective equipment for the front line workers, mass testing and other medical services.

It added that the government should give its promised P5,500 to affected families using the military’s counter-insurgency budget as well as President Rodrigo Duterte’s Php 4.5B intelligence fund.

The 54^th IB and Philippine Army websites are silent on the Easter Sunday incident. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)

By Jeoffrey Mhar Larua

SAGADA, Mountain Province – Peasants in the northern villages of Aguid, Pide, and Fidelisan here worry as elements of the 54^th Infantry Battalion Philippine Army started listing individuals they allege to be members or supporters of the revolutionary New Peoples Army (NPA).

A Barangay Pide councilor who asked not to be identified told a fact-finding mission team August 9 that soldiers are making rounds in the villages with a list of names and ordering those in it to “clear their names” to their commanding officer.

The village official said that the list has nine names from the three northern villages.

“We are not sure who else is in that list,” the councilor said. “It bothers us that there’s a list that might risk our lives,” he said, adding that one elder from Pide is among those listed.

According to earlier reports, six soldiers went to Fidelisan village last August 1 and told barangay officials that three of their constituents are in the said list and must prove themselves innocent in nearby Aguid Elementary School where they set up camp.

The soldiers were led by 2Lt Keith Gabriel Paquibot of the 54^th IBPA.

Fidelisan officials and elders called for an emergency meeting with their constituents August 3 to caution them about the said list.

“They warned the umili (community) not to open their doors to outsiders at nighttime and not to come alone when invited by the military,” said one Fidelisan resident.

Fidelisan officials recalled that the military often come uninvited to community meetings, taking notes and pictures of proceedings. The last incident, they said, was on June 25.

54th IBPA soldiers present in a community meeting in Sagada. (Photo by Jeoffrey Mhar Larua)

‘Disrespect of culture’

Meanwhile, officials from the three barangays decried the “peace rally” organized by the 54^th IBPA troops in Aguid Elementary School while burial and a wedding ceremonies, deemed sacred event by the community, were being held.

“What they did was an insult to the sacred culture of Igorots,” said one Aguid official adding that the troops even took advantage of the food served during the wedding.

The soldiers, they said, refused to postpone the rally because their “boss” will be coming from Manila to observe.

Since early June, 54^th IBPA troops have been observed by the community as using the Aguid school’s old buildings as their quarters. #

Posts

PhilArmy drops counter-insurgency leaflets on towns on Easter Sunday, earns condemnations

Sagada peasants fear red-tagging by military