Monday, March 23, 2015

180 lumads in Agusan evacuate

From the Manila Standard Today (Mar 23): 180 lumads in Agusan evacuate
 
One hundred eighty (180) Lumads have left their homes anew for fear of being caught in the crossfire between the military and NPA rebels in the area where three brothers – Phillip, Philims and Philjohn Poloyapoy—were abducted, of which one (Philjohn) was later found dead.

Capt. Joselito Borces, spokesman of the 75th IB Philippine Army said Sunday that the evacuees were from  two sitios of Barangay Bunawan Brooks, Bunawan, Agusan del Sur and that New People’s Army and allied groups told them to evacuate to prevent them from talking to the Community Organizing for Peace and Development of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

“The evacuees are now staying at Barangay Bunawan Brook Multi-Purpose Hall. There is some government food supply ration but lacking because LGU of Bunawan town can’t justify to release funds because of problem of determination if the evacuation was caused by natural or man-made calamities since they are NPA rebels induced” Borces added.

 Borces claimed that every time the military’s COPD workers visited their homes to assess the insurgency situation, residents told them that the rebels were also organizing the communities.

 COPD soldiers are supposed to help build peace confidence measures, assess socio-economic situation in the communities like how government can help improve delivery of basic social services on health, education, livelihood, improve agriculture productivity.

“It is the insurgency problem that make communities poorer,” he said.

But Human Rights group Karapatan-Caraga Secretary General Elaisa Pangilinan said that military occupation of private and public areas in the community, including vacant houses, community cooperatives, chapels and multipurpose halls were also the reasons why the IPs are  leaving their homes.

 She added that the evacuees started leaving their homes on February 3, 2015.

Meanwhile, KARAPATAN Agusan del Sur said evacuees told them that soldiers remained in theior communities and living in the houses they vacated.

Only this week, some 1,000 Lumad evacuees from 14 tribal communities in San Luis, Agusan del Sur returned to their homes after a dialogue organized by  Agusan del Sur Governor Eddie Bong Plaza and San Luis mayor Ronald Corvera March 19.

The evacuees decried their situation in the evacuation center given the slow pace of government help.

“We felt as if there is no Philippine government existing due no DWSD, DOH, Dep Ed and other government agencies like TESDA helping as in our day to day lives to overcome poverty at least. Personnel of these government agencies should not just stay in their air-conditioned offices,”  said Datu Jumong, one of the tribal leaders.

http://manilastandardtoday.com/2015/03/23/180-lumads-in-agusan-evacuate/

1 comment:

  1. In all likelihood the "forced" evacuation was engineered by the Maoist New People's Army with assistance from KARAPATAN, a Communist Party of the Philippines human rights front organization. Forced evacuations of lumad tribal groups now appears to be a standard tactic of the CPP/NPA. It prevents the military from organizing these groups for the conduct of peace and development activities, puts the military on the propaganda defensive by having to react to allegations of HR abuses and "militarization" of lumad areas, and it forces the military to have deal with IDPs rather than pursue its own peace and development agenda.

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