Communist rebels have claimed responsibility for a daring
raid on a logging company in Sultan Kudarat province in Mindanao in southern Philippines
Efren Aksasato, a spokesman for the New People’s Army, the
armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines ,
said the raiders destroyed a backhoe, a grader, two dump trucks and a logging
truck, among other equipment and assets of M&S Co. Inc., an affiliate of
David M. Consunji Inc. (DMCI), in the village of Hinalaan
He added that the “punitive action” was carried out recently
by the NPA’s Mount Daguma Front Operations Command.
“The Lumad [indigenous people] and peasant masses in the
area have persistently demanded to hold accountable and punish the company for
numerous atrocities to the civilian populace affected by [its] operation,”
Aksasato said.
He also accused the company of landgrabbing and human-rights
violations, among other serious crimes against the Dulangan-Manobo tribes.
“It has been four decades, or since DMCI acquired M&S
from the Magsaysay family, that [DMCI] has unceasingly encroached on the
Dulangan people in Sultan Kudarat. A string of atrocities and human rights
violations perpetrated by fascist government troops, company-hired paramilitary
groups and company guards were directly connected to the company’s aggressive
operation,” Aksasato said.
He added that the depressing plight of the Dulangans
worsened at the course of the company’s implementation of the Integrated Forest
Management Agreement or IFMA that began in early 1990.
Aksasato said the tribesmen had been prevented from tilling
their own farms and those who attempted to do so were harassed by company
guards.
“Fearing for their lives, they were forced to leave their
communities. Their farms planted with native coffee, corn and various food
crops were bulldozed and cleared. And before long, the company started planting
Arabica coffee, eucalyptus deglupta [bagras], gmelina arborea, acacia mangium,
pinus carribea, falcata and mahogany among others,” he added
Aksasato said the tribesmen have been opposing the
encroachment on their ancestral domain, but can only do so little to protect
their rights.
In August last year, according to him, some 300 residents
gathered at and barricaded a logging area in Sitio Elem in the village of
Salangsang in Lebak town to protest the clearing up of their farms and
demolition of their houses for construction of logging roads.
Aksasato said the Mines and Geosciences Bureau in 2000
approved the Mineral Production Sharing Agreement for Kalinan Timber Corp., now
South Davao Development Co. Inc.—another DMCI affiliat—covering 1,274 hectares
of mineral-rich area within the IFMA concession of M&S.
He noted that while M&S and DMCI insist that they are
pursuing an environmentally sustainable and financially viable approach that
directly addresses poverty alleviation, jobs creation and the decentralization
of progress, as well as the imperative of preserving and developing the forest
resources, the Dulangan and settlers incessantly decry their poverty,
landlessness and beleaguered state, injustices and government neglect.
“More and more of the masses are dispossessed of their lands
and means of living while Consunji revels in super profits from exporting raw
forest products and manufacturing high-quality construction materials. They are
relentlessly hounded by the company guards and mercenary agents and are obliged
to pay for the company’s safe conduct pass,” Aksasato said.
“Being one of the few elite families in the country who are
well-entrenched politically and economically, the Consunjis are enjoying
government backing and unrestrained from getting full control of the resources
in the Dulangan-Manobo ancestral lands. They rely on military power, hire
private goons disguised as Special Civilian Armed Auxiliary elements under the
38th Infantry Battalion and organize their workers into a private army to
augment the company’s forces. It is a company policy to pay their guards and
armed workers who are able to eliminate anybody who stands in their way,” he
claimed.
Aksasato said DMCI also employs “mercenary” troops under the
6th Infantry Division, the Regional Public Safety Battalion and Special Action
Force, including the 7th and 8th Marine Battalion Landing Teams to protect
their economic interests in the province.
There was no immediate statement or reactions from M&S
or DMCI, and even the military and police authorities over the allegations and
accusations of Aksasato against them.
The NPA has been fighting for a separate state for more than
five decades.
http://www.manilatimes.net/npa-attacks-consunji-firm/172071/
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